It’s that time of the year again. With holidays round the corner, most families will find themselves planning trips in India and abroad. Students, meanwhile, will be negotiating with foreign universities, with their session beginning early next year.
But before you pack your bags, ensure that you have adequate travel insurance to meet medical emergencies and flight inconvenience. You can buy it for leisure or business trips abroad, domestic travel, or studying abroad.
The Cover
Leisure or business travel: If you are planning a holiday or are travelling on business abroad, a standard travel insurance, which covers health and flight inconvenience, will do. It offers a health-cum-personal accident policy and pre-defined compensation against trip delays, cancellations, baggage loss and loss of passport. It also gives you third-party cover.
These covers are available for tenures of one month to a year and can be taken as single trip or annual multi trip covers. M. Ravinder, head (underwriting), Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd, says: “A single trip cover is valid for the time you are abroad. You can move from one country to another, internationally, and still avail the cover. If you buy a multi trip cover, which comes for one year, you could travel between India and abroad for a year, but for a maximum of 30 days per trip.”
Under the health cover, remember that inclusion of a pre-existing disease is negotiable. Ravinder says: “We don’t exclude all pre-existing diseases. For instance, a pre-existing disease on account of which there has been no hospitalization for the last five years is included.” ICICI Lombard’s overseas travel insurance plans cover pre-existing diseases. Says Sudhir Menon, head (travel insurance), ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, “We cover the medical cost of pre-existing diseases under ‘emergency and life-threatening conditions’. In such cases, we refer to the medical reports to determine the nature of the disease.”
Travel insurance provides strong assistance services such as delivery of medicines at the doorstep or a doorstep check-up, which are otherwise difficult
It will not cover you if you are going for treatment abroad, or are going without the consent of a physician. But if you have been treated for a disease for which you were covered in India, it will be seen as unexpected relapse and be covered.
Domestic insurance: This category offers pretty much the same covers. But these are for shorter durations, ranging from one day to three months. Domestically, travel insurance policies may make little sense if you already have health insurance and personal accident policies. However, there is merit in looking at them if you are travelling to unfamiliar places and have valuable baggage to carry.