Travel insurance: detailed instructions

People go on vacation, anticipating warm beaches, clear sea and great memories. The vacation is short, and you want to spend it perfectly, so that nothing will cloud it. That is why a reasonable option would be to insure against unforeseen problems, so as not to get a bill of several thousand dollars from the local hospital, which will cure you of a fever after being bitten by a local mosquito. The cost of an insurance policy will be ten times lower than even the simplest doctor's appointment for a cold.

I want to try to summarize everything that a tourist should know about health insurance before traveling abroad, and make up something like a detailed memo:
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• How much insurance is required and how you can save.
• What types of insurance generally exist.
• What to do if you drank from the heart and decided to parachute in Cambodia.
• How not to buy the repatriation of the remains instead of normal insurance.

Obligation of insurance

Those who traveled to Europe for leisure or business know that one of the conditions for issuing a visa to the Schengen zone is the availability of medical insurance. In addition, now all travel companies will insure you in a more or less voluntary-compulsory manner when you purchase a package tour from them. You can often hear that without insurance they will not even let you out of the country.

In fact, it is not. According to the latest amendments to the Law on the Organization of Insurance in the Russian Federation , you are not required to have medical insurance. Moreover, some of the amendments directly describe their voluntariness:

The tour operator (travel agent) is obliged to explain to the tourist under his personal signature that in case of refusal to enter into a voluntary insurance contract, the cost of providing medical assistance in emergency and urgent forms in the country of temporary residence is borne by the tourist, and the costs of returning the body (remains) are borne by persons interested. in the return of the body (remains).

Another thing is that not all countries will allow you to enter without insurance, as, for example, in the already mentioned Schengen zone. But in the same Turkey or Georgia, you have enough of the usual passport. You can refuse insurance of a tour operator, but most likely no one will discount you for it. Here I would like to make a reservation that “necessarily” and “necessary” are very different things. I sincerely believe that the strategy “I’m feeling lucky, I’m not going to get sick” is extremely unsuccessful and often ends very sadly.



I was told a story about how a married couple traveled around Southeast Asia, saving on insurance. They just took more pills for diarrhea, a handful of antibiotics, and calmed down. One day, her husband comes on a sea urchin. If someone does not know, then this is a rather malicious type of echinoderms, often poisonous. As a result, several dozen thin and fragile lime needles went deep into the delicate tissues of the foot. Friends tried to pull themselves, but they, naturally, did not work. Leg swollen. Having suffered, they decided to call local doctors.

A brigade of strong men arrived with a hefty stick and tweezers, and began inspiringly pounding him on the heel. After fifteen minutes of this execution, the ends of the needles appeared from the foot, which they quickly removed with tweezers. As a result, instead of a normal rest, they were beaten with a wooden stick for a thousand dollars.

Anything happens. It is enough for insurance to save you once for dozens of trips so that you understand how you were right to have taken it.

Not to be confused with LCA

Many of us have a voluntary medical insurance policy. Own or from the employer - it does not matter. With him, we can calmly come to a commercial clinic, complain about abdominal pain and after an hour later observe the rich inner world of our small intestines on the endoscope monitor. All this will cover insurance.

TCD insurance is different. It is designed to cover the risks of the financial costs of the tourist, arising from the provision of emergency and emergency assistance. For example, you broke your leg by falling off a cliff while snowboarding. Your insurance will cover the search and rescue team with St. Bernards, and a medical helicopter with delivery to the nearest hospital. Or the delivery of what remains after the fall, to the homeland, which is also very expensive.

But at the same time, unlike DMS, it will not cover exacerbations of chronic diseases that do not carry an immediate threat to life. For example, problems with the thyroid gland or arthritis of the knee joint. That is, if you have an exacerbation of gastritis, you will have to pay for it at your own expense. But if you slip into the soul of the hotel and break the shell with your head, then you will be sewn up with insurance.

However, some insurance companies may offer more expensive insurance with a wide coverage. There, the line with VHI is already becoming very thin. For example, a policy for a trip to Germany for a week will cost about 2,300 rubles. This amount will include medical expenses up to € 100,000, search and rescue activities for € 100,000, and even expenses for premature birth at a German clinic and costs for caring for a newborn. So, if you are at risk, pregnant, or, in principle, want to be sure of full coverage, consider more expensive options.

Standard insurance limits are due to the requirement of foreign countries for the minimum provision of tourists. This is usually € 30,000, or 2,000,000 rubles. The maximum coverage of ordinary insurance is € 100,000. Higher only in rare cases of non-public VIP-rates.

If it seems to you that € 30,000 is a lot, take your time. In the same Germany, after an accident, several fire trucks with hydraulic shears may well arrive, with which they will cheerfully disassemble the injured vehicles. In a few minutes, the ADAC medical helicopter of the Yellow Angel company will land there and take the victim to the hospital. All this rescue operation can easily result in the same 30 thousand. Without insurance will be sad.

TCD insurance is only for emergency cases when you need to be rescued. If you need a wider coverage including pregnancy - take expensive packages.

Coverage area

The TCD policy has a very important parameter - the territory in which it operates. The insurance company not only covers you in a difficult situation, but also wants to earn reasonable money. The financial risks in different countries can vary greatly, and therefore the price of the policy will also vary.

Insurance can only apply to the Schengen zone. Then it will be cheaper than world coverage. But if you decide to go to France from France, then you will bear all the financial risks yourself. Insurance with the coverage of the whole world are more expensive and still have exceptions. As a rule, these are countries with very expensive local medicine. Most often it is the USA, Canada, Australia and, suddenly, Thailand. He was included in these lists due to the fact that recently there have been frequent cases of inadequate overpricing in the treatment of tourists. The hospital can see that there is an insured foreigner in front of it, and decide to just draw a zero in the bill.

Few people know, but insurance companies also often sell insurance for tourists traveling in Russia. They cost a penny, but much nicer from the point of view of service, dispatcher and other trifles compared with OMS. Just keep them in mind.

How to choose an insurance company

The main supervisory authority for insurance companies is the Central Bank. On its website is published in open form all statements. We are primarily interested in one very important parameter - the ratio of money collected for insurance to the total amount of payments for insured events. As you understand, if the company collected 500 million, and paid 4, then this is not at all because its customers are so lucky. It is better to look at the more expensive insurance companies, but with greater loyalty to the client.

Good insurance not only collects money, but also pays it.

Who to call, if that

The insurance company itself solves only financial issues. Its task is to properly balance the risks of potential losses and the cost of an insurance policy. The tasks of finding the right hospital, approvals, the provision of letters of guarantee are handled by an assist company. They work together with insurance. It is on their call center you will dial if you need help.

Much depends on a good assistance company. In a situation where the local language is a little more exotic than English, and you have a temperature of 39 ° C, you really need someone who can help get medical help. Ideally, the company has local telephones that can be used for cheap calls, for example, from a local SIM card. Assist companies that save on employees may not have translators into the native language of your country of residence. But also the call center can be overloaded, and you risk spending the last money on expensive international calls with joyful music and "your call is very important for us."

Good assistance companies, as a rule, have been working in the market for several decades. As a rule, companies of European origin with branches all over the world have recommended themselves best of all. Consider that our local companies also like to be called in the style of the World Health Assistance Group, but they have a registered capital of 10,000 to 4,000,000 rubles, which is less than the amount of coverage even for one policy.

Be sure to check the reviews on the tourist forums. The most unpleasant thing is the lack of contracts with the assistant company with hospitals in the place where you are going. This means that there will be no guarantee letter, and you will have to pay for everything yourself. Money can be returned only by return.

In a very emergency situation, if you tried, but could not contact the insurance, surrender to the local doctors. Health and life is more important. Just save all documents:

1. A medical statement indicating the diagnosis, the results of diagnostic examinations and prescribed treatment.
2. Account and documents confirming payment.
3. Checks for acquired drugs.

If the case of insurance, the company must reimburse you all expenses. Another thing is that in this situation you will have to pay from your own pocket, since the hospital will not receive a guarantee letter from your insurance company.

Choose not only insurance but also an assist company with a good reputation. With the threat of life being treated, and do not wait. Be prepared for the fact that the money will be returned on arrival.

Limitations in small print

In fact, there is no small font there, you just have to read everything very carefully when you choose insurance. This is in principle a very good practice for any document you sign.

Insurance from tour operators - usually the cheapest. A characteristic symptom is the presence of a franchise: the amount of several tens of dollars that must be spent to activate insurance. In more or less normal policies, there is usually no franchise. Travel agency saves to meet the requirements of the regulator, and includes the cheapest option. Between themselves, insurers call such proposals "insurance for the repatriation of the remains." They have maximum restrictions and do not cover the most expensive cases.

I know an example when the family went on vacation to Italy. The man had appendicitis right in the middle of the bus tour. He was urgently hospitalized, but then it turned out that the operation was not covered by the insurance. As a result, he was in the ward, he was regularly anesthetized, but the operation was not done for several days while his relatives convulsively collected and transferred several thousand euros to him.

The classic exception to insurance is alcohol. And not a trauma due to the fact that you used a couple of bottles of moonshine from sweet potatoes, and then fell into the river. No, in principle, the presence of alcohol in the blood most often immediately cancels the insurance if it pops up. Even if you drank a glass of champagne in the morning, and in the evening got into an accident on public transport. Nevertheless, there are insurance companies with policies that even cover alcohol use and pregnancy. Only they cost three times as much, and the payment there will be 5,000 € instead of 100,000 € if the insured event occurred due to intoxication, and not just like that.

Other frequent exceptions are driving and extreme sports. In fact, often the insurance company can define in the contract as extreme entertainment everything, except for lying in a chaise lounge. Be careful! Most companies offer three grades:

1. Relaxing holiday - here you can ride the rides, swim in the pool and just quietly and culturally relax.
2. Sport - there will already be equestrian sport, figure skating, snowboarding on equipped tracks and the like.
3. Extreme sport is the most expensive insurance with maximum coefficients. But it includes such things as mountaineering, descent into the caves, ice diving and lion safaris.

The third category is usually issued with an individual calculation of the cost, depending on the degree of madness, which you decided to do.

Speaking of motorcycles. They, like motor scooters, are very popular in tourist rentals among tourists in Southeast Asia. Everything goes fine until you suddenly crash into a cow or are knocked down by another such motorcyclist. After hospitalization, it may suddenly become clear that the tourist does not have a driver's license of category A, which automatically cancels insurance when driving. Generally, if you plan to cross Europe on your Harley-Davidson Electa Glide, take care of motorcycle insurance.

A moment of concern for our travelers

We decided to save our customers from headaches and immediately offer insurance when buying a ticket. By the way, note, no "dark patterns." By default, we do not impose anything. But, if suddenly you decide to insure your risks additionally, then it will be enough for you to make one click. For a very modest amount, the insured will be able to get a refund if something happens between the departure and return dates. Moreover, insurance is valid not only in Russia and the CIS, but even in Mongolia, if you suddenly go there in search of the right koumiss.

Exploitation of vulnerabilities in the policy

Any document has potential holes and inaccuracies. It can be used in both directions. Recently, insurance companies are very wary of our specialists, who are leaving to freelance on the warm beaches of Thailand. In order not to spend money on more expensive local insurance, they buy the usual tourist policy , but actually live in another country. Formally, this is not prohibited, but the real risks of insurance while others are obtained. Many companies began to impose restrictions such as the term of the policy in one year, but not more than 90 days in a row. That is just to live continuously on it will not work. But this also began to bypass exit-entry into the country every 80–85 days.

Also among such permanently residing "tourists" there is a popular option with the purchase of an insurance policy online after everything happened. The insured calls the insurance company and immediately requests that he arrange for medical assistance. As a result, insurance began to introduce a temporary franchise: the policy is activated only five days after the purchase, if it is purchased during the trip, and not in Russia.

Such schemes, with their formal legality, do not arouse enthusiasm in insurance, and it will be the most carp for every little detail in payments. So think carefully whether you need it.

Acknowledgments

I would like to separately thank you for the valuable advice on insurance for the head of the Green Card company Denis Kotov.

Have a nice holiday! Take care of yourself!

Other posts about tours: unusual tourism , about yachts , about vaccinations , about going on tours .