Hi, I'm going to be between jobs when I am going to be travelling in Europe thereby I won't have health insurance. Anyone have suggestions for good companies that would provide medical coverage for the trip? Thanks

Check out this recent post: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34483839

- Sharon

If your most recent job is (was) in the US, you are eligible to hang onto your current insurance for 18 months after job termination, under COBRA (the Continuation of Benefits Act). You?ll have to pay the full premium that your employer had paid, but it?s usually cheaper and with better coverage/benefits than individual policies. Very expensive, but not as expensive as getting sick without insurance.

One caveat is that some corporate plans in the USA don't necessarily cover overseas medical costs.
- Sharon

One great source for evacuation insurance is the Diver's Alert Network. I have my scuba diving accident policy with them, but I encouraged my parents to become members when they went to Australian,Fiji, N.Z., etc. for 2 months. You don't have to be a diver to join.

Basic membership gives you 100k worth of evacuation insurance (not medical coverage- but just to get you home) for diving or non-diving accidents or injuries from anywhere 50 miles from your home or farther. The family membership is $44.

Here's a link:http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/me...p/benefits.asp

It's the kind of thing you probably won't ever use, but if you do need it, it could save your finances and really lessen your stress.

You also get a nifty little magazine all about scuba related health issues

Hi Blue,

That's a good price.

You can check out various policies for travel coverage at www.insuremytrip.com.

Ira-

Budget Travel frequently recommends D.A.N. because it is such a good price for a couple or family. I think the individual price is around 30 bucks.

..just be sure to have both medical coverage for clinic/hospitalization while travelling as well as evacuation insurance. Evacs (unless pt in 3rd world countries) are usually done when pt has been stabilized which may take several days or even a week or so (even flying air ambulance)..so be sure to have coverage until evac can occur..so read the small print in whichever type of policy you are considering.

I think a lot of travel insurance policies would be adequate, which you can search in the above links. I do consulting in the health insurance field and am always very concerned when someone in the US chooses not to have health insurance.

It is much more important to have it in the US than in Europe, most likely, because costs are so much higher here, as well as more insurance discrimination based on history. I would also suggest you look into COBRA coverage during your job gap, where you pay a group premium which is often much lower than you'd get on your own. There are limitations on who falls under COBRA, however, there are many people who do not.

(BTW COBRA doesn't stand for Continuation of Benefits Act, it stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which is an acronym for the major federal budget act of 1985 in which these provisions were included). YOu can read about COBRA here
http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm

There are other reasons for continuing your health coverage under COBRA in addition to the obvious of having insurance -- it can greatly affect provisions and subsequent insurance coverage related to pre-existing conditions. That is another reason it is really a bad idea to have lapses in insurance coverage.

It is true that some US policies might not cover you abroad, anyway, though, so you'd need to check that. It's possible that is what you meant already by your question, but it was hard to tell.

I just added a travel medical and evacuation insurance benefit through our American Express card. It's underwritten by Amex Assurance Co. For the $100,000 benefit for a family it's $209 a year, for anytime you travel more than 100 miles from home. They have cheaper options as well.

Ooops, thanks for the clarification on the COBRA acronym -- I'll pass that along to my source!

Whether you have health insurance or not while in the US (working or not), rarely will policies cover you for overseas travel. That's why if planning a trip one should consider insurance to cover trip cancellation and interruption (especially if hotel, tours, car have been prepaid) or just medical care and medical evacuation if not prepaid.

As Underhill mentioned, a good site is www.insuremytrip.com
with options provided by well known companies from which to choose. Read all carefully for what isn't covered, as well as all the rest. A good company for medical and evacuation is MedJet with fully equiped surgical planes who will actually get you to a hospital in your hometown (unlike other policies that only get you to the nearest best hospital and from which you then have to get home). Regardless read all info available on the site and select which suits your situation.

As to COBRA, ideally it would be nice for a person recently without a job to be able to pick up the costs, but often the cost is prohibitive, that many simply can't. Most people have no choice but to pay rent or mortage, car note, utilities, and food. Sadly, the US is somewhere near the bottom of the list when it comes to medical care for its citizens.