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Louis Ibah
Imagine arriving Paris, France on a three-week vacation carefully planned to allow you watch the FIFA Women World Cup tournament slated for the country next month only to fall terribly sick a day after and be asked to pay $1,500 (about N540,000) as medical bills to fix your health. Unfortunately you did not budget for that in the course of planning the trip? Faced with this dilemma, very many air travellers from Africa, especially low income tourists who experience medical emergencies abroad, have had to cut short their visit to those countries to return home where cost of medical treatment is relatively cheaper.
The speedy home return is often a product of a decision fuelled more by the exorbitant cost of medical treatment in many European, American and Asian countries, and for which most first time air travellers abroad, including Nigerians arrive uninformed that these countries run their health care sector on insurance policies.
But of note is also the fact that the changes in weather and food, which comes with travelling to a foreign land, make travellers more vulnerable to illnesses and accidents, and there is no sure way to prevent these unfortunate incidents from taking place.
It is for this reason that it becomes very unwise for travellers to spend a lot of time and effort planning a ‘perfect vacation’ and then overlooking the importance of getting a good travel insurance policy for the trip.
Why travel insurance
We know that taking a travel insurance can seem like just one more expenses added to a budget that includes an expensive air ticket, hotel, feeding, accommodation and in-country travel or tour bills. And for this many travellers often ask the question: why should I spend that extra sum to buy a travel insurance?
Interestingly, for a visitor to a foreign country, the merits of a travel insurance outweighs it’s demerits, and nothing justifies this than the recent decision to include travel insurance as a compulsory requirement for Schengen countries visa such as Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Poland, France, Belgium. The Schengen states comprise 26 European countries that have officially abolished all types of border control to allow visitors with a visa to one country travel to other countries within the Schengen area unrestricted .
Medical emergencies
Travel insurance provides a wide range of medical emergency benefits for travellers. In Nigeria, travellers can purchase medical travel insurance policies for as low as N6,000 for a one week stay abroad. But cost can go up to N30,000 or more depending on the duration of the visit.
A medical travel insurance, firstly, offers financial recovery for medical expenses that are incurred because of accidents and illnesses abroad. Medical treatment is very costly in some countries, and those who sustain serious injuries or become ill may have to pay medical bills that amount to tens of thousands of dollars. But with travel medical insurance, travelers can get reimbursement for the total amount of money that they spend on medical treatment in a foreign hospital. The travel insurance also covers medical evacuation, which means that travelers do not have to pay medical emergency transportation expenses with their own money.
Repatriation of the dead
No one prays to die while on a foreign trip, but then death can come knocking anywhere as an uninvited guest, including during a visit to a foreign country. And this is where a travel insurance policy becomes a necessary help in the repatriation of the dead.
The simple fact is that repatriating a person’s body is a complicated and expensive process in a foreign country. Local laws and regulations control how the body is to be handled and transported and there are often fees, expenses for embalming, costs for containers or coffin, and air freight costs not to mention the bureaucracy involved in contacting embassy officials.
Regardless of the situation, the family of the traveler can be rest assured that with a travel insurance policy, they will get the necessary help to manage, negotiate, and pay for the repatriation of the dead relative abroad.
Trip cancellation
This is the number one concern with most travellers, especially tourists to foreign countries. You invest a lot of money when planning a trip: plane tickets, cruise fare, tour packages, hotel rooms, charter fishing boats, among others.
If these expenses are pre-paid and non-refundable, you risk losing it if something goes wrong and you fail to make the trip. It is for this reason that a trip cancellation coverage is often recommended for tourists as it reimburses you for pre-paid, non-refundable expenses if you need to cancel your trip before you depart.
Insurance companies provide a list of covered reasons for trip cancellation indemnity which often include, sudden sicknesses, injury, or death of traveller, a family member, or a travelling companion, terrorist incident in your destination city or hurricane damages your destination of visit. But the most common reason is the first one: someone getting sick or a family member passing away.
With trip cancellation coverage, you’ll be able to recover your out-of-pocket expenses for these covered reasons and more.
Lost bags, delayed bags insurance
Because of the rise in complaints by passengers of lost and delayed baggages, insurance firms have designed policies that indemnify passengers who suffer these loses.
Baggage coverage can reimburse you for your personal belongings if your luggage is lost, stolen or damaged in the course of a trip.
On the other hand, you can fall back on a baggage delay coverage for money to buy essential items until your delayed bags arrive, such as change of clothes, a toiletry kit, a swimsuit or a night gown, etc. And some insurance firms have also recently launched a travel delay coverage that provides reimbursement for additional expenses if your flight is delayed, such as an extra night in a hotel or a meal at a restaurant.
Book within 15 days of trip purchase
To qualify for full insurance coverage, most insurance firms insist you buy travel insurance within 15 days of booking your trip. Waiting until the last minute to add a policy gives the impression to the insurance provider that you’re trying to defraud the system. It is also advisable that you do not buy a travel insurance after a jeopardizing headline is publicly released because your claim might be declined too. For example, you won’t be covered or get an indemnity if you buy a travel insurance policy in Nigeria from a broker who is in a hurry to sell a policy after an hurricane incident in the US has already becomes common knowledge.
