3 times Canadians ran into insurance trouble traveling overseas
If you're planning your next vacation, you may be making travel arrangements and packing your bags, and dreaming of an amazing experience. Before you jet set off to an exotic location don't forget to buy travel insurance.
You may be thinking, "Oh I'm young and don't plan on doing anything crazy so I don't need travel insurance." Sorry to tell you, but that's a huge misconception. Canadians need to purchase travel insurance because in life, on vacation and when in a foreign country we just never know what trouble traveling overseas can cause.
According to CBC News, "travel agents, insurance brokers say half of Canadians travel without additional medical coverage. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your health and well-being.” A visit to the doctor's office, an emergency surgery, or prescription medications can be very costly in a foreign country. When we put it like that, how could you not purchase travel insurance before leaving on your next vacation?
Just in case we haven't yet convinced you that travel insurance is a must when going overseas, here are some costly stories about Canadians who saw costly insurance trouble while traveling overseas.
Mom pays almost $1 million to have a baby in Hawaii
Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel made headlines in 2014 when she gave birth nine weeks early to her baby daughter while on vacation in Hawaii. She was billed over $950,000 by the hospital. Who knew that it costs almost $1 million to have a baby? Probably not most Canadians since we have basic as well as extended health care options and paid maternity leave – things our friends south of the border don't have.
According to CBC the medical claim was denied by Huculak-Kimmel's insurance company because her travel policy had expired. Not only is buying travel insurance a good idea, but making sure your policy is active and up to date is also a lesson to be learned.
Business travellers need insurance too
Mike Outram crossed the border from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan for a gymnastics meet where he was the coach. He fell while in the gym and is now a paraplegic. His short time and unfortunate accident in the United States cost $168,000 in medical bills, and he had no insurance coverage. Not only is he now immobile and probably not able to earn a living, he has to figure out how to pay off $168,000 in foreign medical bills because of his insurance trouble.
It's situations like this that make paying a little bit of money upfront for medical insurance to save hundreds of thousands of dollars later in medical bills all worth it. I think we can all agree that having expensive medical bills brings on a lot of unwanted stress.
Even the pros buy travel insurance
Mae Youngman is a travel insurance agent who has had three accidents while travelling abroad including a surgery and aneurysm in Florida, as well as a broken bone in Mexico. To say she was relieved to have out of country travel medical insurance is an understatement. Take a page from her travel diary and never leave home without buying medical insurance. You'll be thankful if something bad happens.