Maria Peres, 52, was waiting for the day when, for the first time in five years, she would see her son Peter. Peter had migrated to the United States after finishing college in India, and hadn’t returned home since. Maria, who had been planning her trip for days, had a proper itinerary chalked out.
As was her nature, Maria was prepared with everything, including buying the most viable visitor’s health insurance policy. She had picked a Visitor health insurance plan that would cover her for any medical emergency, saving herself and her son from paying exorbitant healthcare bills.
If you’re traveling to the US, you can purchase a visitor health insurance policy that will pay for any unforeseen illness or injury during your stay in the country. Typically, the plan reimburses expenses incurred for hospital stay, doctor consultation, medicines, and surgery. It also covers emergency medical evacuation expenses if the policy holder or traveling companion needs to be shifted to a hospital.
As is the case with many other policies, this policy does not expect that you seek treatment in a preferred network of doctors and hospitals, although such a list of healthcare providers can be made available to you. As a policy holder, you can receive treatment from any doctor or hospital that you like and the plan will still work for you.
Policy buyers–who may be visiting the US for business, tourism, study, or immigration–can select from several limited plans, which offer a fixed benefit for each medical service offered. It should be noted that each service covered by a limited-coverage plan has a benefit limit, which is typically less than the policy sum assured.
In case of limited coverage plans, the benefit limit is generally less than the policy sum assured. Moreover, as per this plan, the policy holder must necessarily pay the initial deductible amounts for each injury or illness, after which the benefits kick in. You can expand limited-coverage plans by buying additional optional riders. To illustrate, one plan offers a $5,000 benefit toward the treatment of heart attack or stroke on payment of a 26 percent surcharge on the premium.
Comprehensive-coverage plan benefits are not limited by service and may amount to the policy maximum. Also, the benefits can be claimed per life of the plan rather than per injury or sickness. Unlike limited-coverage plans, these plans require no initial deductibles to be paid by the person insured. The maximum sums assured for comprehensive-coverage plans range from $50,000 to $8,000,000. Insured persons are eligible for PPO discounts with comprehensive plans.
The other common features of comprehensive visitor health insurance plans are accidental death and dismemberment benefits, repatriation, pregnancy complications and sudden recurrence of pre-existing conditions. These plans also insure against trip interruption and missing checked-in baggage. As you now know, visitor health insurance plans take care of everything, including health.