Find out why travel insurance isn't health insurance and learn the difference.
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Travel insurance is there to help you when you've been involved in an accident or you've fallen ill and need medical care. Our travel insurance policies can help patch you up and get you back on the road.
Just keep in mind that our policies are travel insurance policies and not health insurance policies or private medical insurance (PMI) policies, and they don’t cover pre-existing medical conditions.
Make sure you read through your policy wording carefully to see exactly what’s covered and how we might be able to help if you find yourself in a health emergency overseas.
Nope, it's a travel insurance policy. There’s a key difference: travel insurance can include cover for health issues and medical emergencies while you’re traveling overseas, while health insurance is designed to support healthy living at home (and while we do encourage healthy living, we don’t offer health insurance, sorry).
Our travel insurance policies are there for overseas medical emergencies and are not designed to cover ongoing illness or treatment overseas, or any treatment when you get home.
If you’re injured in an accident or suddenly become ill while traveling, you may be covered for overseas emergency medical treatment, including:
We also have 24-hour, multi-lingual assistance teams who can guide you to the nearest hospital, arrange medical transport, set up direct payments to the medical facility, and keep you in contact with your family back home. Coverage may depend on your past medical history, what's happened to you and any other conditions, limits or exclusions of cover as described in your policy.
Some, but not all, of our policies offer cover for medical expenses and repatriation if you get ill with Coronavirus (COVID-19) while overseas when it is not a pre-existing medical condition. If you are diagnosed with COVID-19 while overseas your benefits may include:
To find out what cover applies to you, read our What’s Covered for Coronavirus, which has all of the details, including benefit limits, conditions and exclusions.
It’s important to note coverage depends on your Country of Residence and varies between plans.
Travel insurance isn’t designed to cover everything. Common claims for overseas medical expenses we see where there's no cover include:
This is not a full list of what's covered and what's not covered. There are limits and conditions and exclusions that apply, so for more information check out our articles on overseas emergency medical coverage and adventure sports coverage, and read your policy carefully before you buy. If you’re not sure if something is covered get in touch.
It’s essential that you get in contact with our Emergency Assistance teams as soon as possible, so that our teams can support you from the time you fall sick or get injured until the time you get home.
So that our Emergency Assistance teams can assist you quickly, please be ready with the following:
Travel Insurance Tip: Our policies may offer coverage for insured events resulting in cancellation, trip interruption and trip resumption. Please take the time to read your policy wording as there are limits on your coverage depending on which plan you buy and your Country of Residence.
I had been sick in India for about a month with ongoing symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, nausea, fever, loss of appetite etc. Once we had arrived in Turkey, I had an attack during the night at our hostel. I was vomiting, had diarrhea and intense stomach cramping, so my boyfriend and I thought it was best to head to a hospital. Due to my condition I could not walk, it was also 2 or 3am and we had no other method of getting to a hospital other than arranging for the hospital to send an ambulance to pick me up. Upon arriving at the hospital, the doctors undertook an examination of me and my conditions and due to severe dehydration they gave me a drip to restore my fluids. To find out what the cause of my symptoms were, they conducted tests on my blood and stool. The doctor also prescribed me medication to treat both my symptoms and illness. These included creams and also antibiotics.
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Whether you need medical assistance or emergency evacuation, our teams are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year before and during your trip.
Are you in need of emergency assistance right now?
Contact the teamHere are our most frequently asked questions about overseas medical insurance. You can also find the answers to other questions in our Help Center or you can ask our customer service team.
Before your trip, check the latest government advice for any travel alerts for your destination.