Smart Travel: Travelers should consider insurance

It's not something travelers like to think about, but serious illness or injury does sometimes happen on a trip.

Travels to developed countries is not usually a great problem. In Western Europe, for example, there are fine hospitals and well-trained physicians in most major cities, and the cities are not at great distances from each other.

In developing countries, however, medical centers are far apart and often the quality is questionable.

Transportation may also be primitive and difficult to arrange. Consider a traveler developing a heart attack or sustaining a serious injury while on a safari in Africa or a trek in Nepal, the forests of Thailand or the Amazon Basin.

Transportation would be slow because of poor or nonexistent roads, and the nearest major medical facility could be hundreds of miles away.

There is a special form of travel insurance that is designed to take care of travelers in such situations and it is called evacuation and repatriation insurance. Many travelers will purchase travel cancellation insurance or depend on credit card benefits to take care of them if such a disaster befalls them. These policies have a "medical necessity" clause for evacuation and repatriation services. This means that it must be medically necessary (that the facility where the patient is receiving medical care cannot provide adequate treatment) for a patient to be moved to a different facility.

The traveler should also be aware of where they would be moved should they require medical transport.

The explanation of a policy that uses the term "nearest appropriate facility" means that they will move the patient to the nearest facility that can provide treatment this may leave the traveler in a facility far from home.

This all sounds rather complicated and confusing but there are companies that sell evacuation and repatriation insurance that avoids these pitfalls.

We would particularly recommend this type of insurance to travelers who have chronic medical problems, heart disease, asthma or diabetes, for example and for more elderly travelers who may be more prone to injuries and sudden illness.

Corporate travelers who are constantly on the go internationally or domestically, represent another group of travelers that should consider this type of insurance and finally, those who just like to travel with "peace of mind" should appreciate the potential benefits of such a membership.

Your travel agent has information on evacuation and repatriation insurance as well as standard travel insurance and can guide you to a satisfactory company to provide it. It's another way to "cover all the bases" when you travel far from home.

(Linda and Dr. Don Overend are principals in The Travel Group. The Travel Group was formed from a merger of Ozark World Travel, Consulting Travel and Thomas Travel and is a full-service agency located in the Plaza Towers.)