health insurance while traveling
 

Hello

My 24 yr old son is taking off the 4th year of medical school to go and work in different hospitals and clinics in few countries in South America. He will stay 1-3 months in each location.

Since he is not a student at that point, he does not know where to get the correct health
insurance.Until now he has been under my health insurance.

Please write me if you have any suggestions

Thanks

Mddi

I suggest you son takes out his own comprehensive travel insurance covering medical, repatriation personal money and belongings etc.. in fact I connot envisage travelling without such cover in place! How your son goes about this depends largely on which country you live in. I am based in the UK where such cover is readily available online through travel agents and specialist brokers. My own son is a med student in his final year and about to do something similar in the Soloman Island and I think he organised his cover through STA travel which does have offices in the US - try googling them.

www.mnui.com best for me...

I use a company called www.healthcareinternational.com
So far they have paid what they said they would. I Pay the Dr. visit and perscription bills here in Brazil and they reimburse my bank account for that amount less the deductable. For anything larger, like surgery, they pay the hospital directly.

If your son is working for a charitable organization, they usually provide this info. If he's not working for a charity, then he is not licensed to work internationally, is he? (and how does one do that - just walk up to a clinic and say, "Hi, I'm almost a doctor, I want to help". Admirable in theory, but I don't know if it is practical.) I know Partners in Health works in Peru. I'm sure there are many charitable organizations that would love to have him. USAID is also always looking for docs/nurses (and he'd get coverage through them) as is the Peace Corps (they subsidize coverage).

Any time one travels out of the country our insurance usually (check your policy carefully - it's not clear on most policies) does not cover you. Most people don't know this. So even if you could put him on your policy, he would still need an international coverage policy!!!! If you travel to a country with universal coverage (like Europe) they treat you, but you have to pay for it and your insurance (usually) won't pay the bill.

If you get travel insurance that doesn't include US treatment, it is much cheaper. I don't know if something really bad happened if he'd want to be treated outside of the US but it's something to consider. I've used insuremytrip.com on the past.