sirhawkeye64

What would be a good company for travel insurance while in Europe (Portugal specifically)?
Mainly concerned with medical emergencies and lost/stolen personal belongings (luggage, camera, laptop, etc). Not as worried about flight insurance, etc, since my flights are all direct and if it is cancelled, the airline refunds (the ticket itself is also refundable up until 48 hours before the trip so I'm not so worried about those things -- also all of my hotels are cancellable/refundable).

mjs

Insuremytrip and Squaremouth are two brokers that offer many insurances. Calling them is quite helpful but their on online program offers a lot of information

SusanP

I have also used Squaremouth, numerous times. You can put in your criteria for what you want covered and it will give you a list of options. I generally take the cheapest one that covers what I want covered.

J62

For medical, you should first check with your own health insurance to be sure what they do and do not cover in Europe. My own plan covers health insurance, including medical emergency worldwide, so I pay less attention to that coverage for travel insurance. The other line item people often get confused about is medical evacuation. Travel policies I've looked at cover evacuation to the nearest suitable facility, which would be a local clinic or hospital in Portugal. Med Evac does NOT mean sending you home to the hospical/facility near your home.... And the term repatriation usually means sending your remains home, not your still living & breathing self....

I've shopped insuremytrip and squaremouth, and invariably end up buying a policy with Allianz. Since your non-reimbursible costs you'll be insuring exclude airfare you should be able to get coverage for much less than $100, as the cost is based on total trip cost you are insuring, as well as your age. Anything less than 70yr old is probably the same rate. Costs go up for older folks - probably because some statistician somewhere said the chances of an older person cancelling due to illness or getting ill on a trip are higher... go figure.

kja

Some policies provide hospital of one's choice coverage, which applies once you are stable enough for transport. You can look for that on insuremytrip.

mjs

Do hospital of choice

mjs

Meant to say I do hospital of choice but the plane just jumped

Travel_Nerd

J62 brings up a lot of good points regarding medical coverage for your home medical insurance. I work for a health insurance company in the legal department with experience on foreign claims. My biggest advice IF you have medical insurance overseas to call your plan for specifics on overseas coverage. Some plans are limited to the initial care overseas, not follow-up care overseas. The ambulance point is good. FYI: most plans will only cover to the nearest hospital to adequately treat your condition. Which may mean another hospital in Portugal, not to your home hospital.

If you do have coverage, and you do need to seek care. You MUST get an itemized bill (often called a "factura") that accurately shows the date of service, each billed service description, and the charge for each service. The facility name and address must also be on the billing. They may require it to be translated as well.

You might need to pay upfront. The insurance company more than likely will not pay for any foreign transaction fees and payments might be based on the exchange rate at the time services rendered.