In visiting another country, there are many things to accomplish and paperwork to do before you gain enough security in making your travel easy and successful. Just finishing the necessary preparations can be time-consuming and a hassle. Getting a visa involves a lot of process; same with getting a temporary health insurance for yourself as a visitor of a country like the United States. To help you, here are the things that you need to know about visitor health insurance so that it will not delay and complicate your travel plans.
To put it simply, a visitor health insurance is an insurance plan that you will need in case something suddenly happens to you while you are in the United States. If you are just a regular visiting foreigner in the country, you will find that health and medical services offered in US are not that affordable. Medical fees are incredibly high even for minor medical conditions. It will be very hard to deal with such a situation without an insurance plan to back you up. You will also find that domestic insurance plan will not aid you in paying for the medical expenses.
Who should buy it? Visiting family members of residing citizens in the country are often the ones who purchase this insurance plan. Immigrating communities from different countries from South America, Europe, and Asia are also required to have health insurance. Even international students are required to have a health insurance in the duration of their education years.
The coverage of the visitors health insurance often includes hospitalization, doctor’s visits, surgical procedures, and expenses on prescribed drugs. It is availed when something unpredicted happened to you and you require immediate medical attention. However, it does not offer its help in paying for medical fees when it involves a pre-existing condition you have even before you arrived in the country. Pre-existing condition means that you have received or are currently receiving medical treatment for a certain health condition such as the following: pregnancy, high blood pressure, or heart disease.
There are a lot of insurance companies that offer temporary health insurance plan, which is why potential buyers of such plans often finds themselves at a dilemma since choosing the most suitable insurance plan can be difficult. The advisable thing to do is to compare the benefits and the costs offered by the different insurance plans that you choose. Some insurance plans have more specified limitations and are more restrictive while others are more flexible and have agreeable terms.
For example, some insurance plans offer coverage for pre-existing conditions after a certain period. On the other hand, other insurance policies totally forbid covering such conditions.
Consider the amount of deductibles in choosing an insurance plan. A deductible is the amount that you are obliged to pay first before the insurance company begins paying the rest of the medical expenses. Some health insurance plans require only a small amount of deductible but larger premium cost. The others offer smaller premium cost but larger deductibles. You must consider well which of the conditions are more beneficial for you before buying a plan.