I'm curious. I've read several queries about people needing health insurance coverage while traveling. We're from the USA, and our policy covers us anywhere; we've submitted claims for an emergency room visit and prescription drugs. Under what circumstances do people need other insurance for travel?

It depends on what type of coverage you have - but is rarely an issue if you have fee for service coverage. Some HMO plans limit coverage to the US (where their members are) - as do lots of Medicare plans. Same with Rx plans - a foreign pharmacy has no way of knowing your co-pays so you need to be preared to pay in advance and recoup later.

We're from the USA and our coverage is with an HMO, and they claim to have travel coverage if we need treatment out of our service area, but buried in the small print this year was that the travel coverage is limited to $1200, which makes it virtually worthless. I started looking around to change, and the fee for service plans do seem to pay for foreign treatment, but the big gorilla, Medicare, doesn't from what I have read.

I don't know if it will be a problem, but when I was reading about the various fee for service programs, they all seemed to want some provider number from the treater, which I think a foreign treater would not have, and they wanted your supporting evidence translated into English. And of course the domestic treater, in accepting payment, usually agrees that he will collect only the approved amount, so you shouldn't be billed for anything above that; I think with overseas treatment, you pay the entire amount, but are only reimbursed for the approved amount, a pittance when compared to domestic prices, but foreign prices may be more reasonable; I hope to never have to find out.

There's also cancellation insurance. We recently had a thread from a lady who had to cancel her London trip because her brother went into a coma and passed on just days before she was to leave. Thankfully she had bought insurance and will be re-imbursed for some expenses.

To me, the most valuable feature of travel insurance is the evacuation coverage. If you become incapacitated overseas, it can be very expensive to return you to your home, but travel insurance seems to cover that expense.

...and I know of a young woman in my company who was viciously attacked in Belize and had to be air-lifted back to the States. No evac insurance so her parents had to 2nd-mortgage the house ($20,000+). These unexpected events can happen - insurance premiums are a small % of all your travel costs, imo.

I live in the UK and so I have to have travel insurance because no one in their right mind would travel to the US without it. It's pretty inexpensive for year-long coverage, and I'm covered anywhere in the world. Never thought to buy it when I lived in the US because I really only ever traveled to the UK.

Even if your health insurance covers you in other countries you will have to pay up front and try to get reimbursed when you get back home. Sometimes this can be very expensive but won't be a problem if you have access to lots of cash.

Not always, KY.

I have BC/BS. They have given me a number to call should I have an emergency and will arrange payment with the provider.

I do consulting to health insurers and many insurers pay the bill as is when submited for treatment abroad (up to the coverage limits). The concept of "approved amount" is different for those types of claims, they don't base it on the prevailing charge limits they calculate from data within the US. BCBS is in the forefront and actually has some preferred providers and networks abroad. No insurer that I know of that covers beneficiaries abroad is going to have a problem with asking questions about provider numbers. There are standard identifiers in the US for US physicians and facilities when billing Medicare (called UPINs), which must be used, but they don't expect foreign providers to have the same IDs. Insurers often accept other types of IDs or information on claim submittals like that, as long as the provider is fully identified in some way. Now maybe clevelandbrown found info on some irrational FFS insurer, I wouldn't doubt anything from my experience with various insurers over the years, but that is not usually a problem.

I don't think $1200 of coverage is worthless at all. YOu can buy limited supplemental policies solely for evacation insurance, for example, and with conditions better than most travel insurers provide, at a cheaper rate than a full policy.

IN any case, I think most people gave examples of the type of insurance you might want for travel -- trip cancellation, theft, necessity for change of plans which requires outlays for expensive plane tickets, as well as medical coverage.