Travel Health Insurance
 

Now that this trip is a reality, I am kinda screwed on one front: INSURANCE.

I am out of job right now and I just graduated from my doctorate program, hence, my school insurance is no longer in effect.

Any suggestions on buying travel health insurance to cover me in the sake of an emergency?

Take a look at www.insuremytrip.com.

Check with your credit card company. Surprisingly, sometimes they include travel insurance.

Have you checked to see if you're covered under the COBRA provisions of your school insurance?

There are different types of travel insurance. Some just cover the costs of tickets and deposits (I believe credit cards that offer coverage limit it to this); some cover a nominal amount of medical care; some cover a large amount of medical care and evacuation.

The best includes medical care and evacuation (if you are incapacitated, you can't just get onto an airliner, you need a private plane with attendants).

Prices vary with the length and cost of your trip, and the level of insurance you want.

I make no recommendations as to a specific company, but these sites will give you an idea of what is offered:

http://www.insuremytrip.com/

http://travelguard.com/

http://www.travelsecure.com/csa/jsp/index.jsp

Unless you were insured as an employee, I think COBRA would probably not reach you, and COBRA coverage, which you have to pay for, is usually expensive and may not offer much coverage during travel.

Some people travel without travel insurance, but unless you have worldwide comprehensive medical coverage and enough money to pay for an evacuation flight, I think that is a big risk, particularly as so many of us travel on non-refundable airline tickets.