How many of you purchase it or confirm that you have sufficient coverage through your regular insurer or credit card company, prior to travelling?
I’ve paid for insurance coverage a few times (when I went on more “exotic” trips where I thought there was greater risk of injury. Other times, I didn’t bother. The more I think about it, you can’t predict an accident, so it’s best to confirm you have coverage no matter where you go.
Thoughts?
Re: Travel Medical Insurance
My thoughts are you should have opened this in Travel & Tourism 
(waiting for llxxll to beat be down with a club)
Re: Travel Medical Insurance
I knew you were going to say that!
Re: Travel Medical Insurance
ah.. i will have an answer for this in a few days. currently, my leaning is towards
very important to have an emergency travel insurance if it is offered in the area of your travel. which includes emergency repatriation, or reunion with a person of your choice from your country and back.
medical insurance is tricky and not often what you think it is because.. of a couple of reasons.
a. many travel insurance providers will insist you pay the bills first and then get them reimbursed. for a traveler, this is not a very viable approach.
b. even if they agree to be billed directly from a hospital, the insurance company will insist you pay until your deductible has reached. and they can keep insisting their records don’t reflect this yet. by the time it all “shows up” for them, you are back in your home country.
c. the date your trip was supposed to end, your med. insurance ends. so if you are unlucky to get sick towards the latter part of your trip, nothing may be covered.
Re: Travel Medical Insurance
Depends on the trip. We don’t get travel insurance when visiting Pakistan but I recently went backpacking with some friends and I definitely got it for that trip. I’m definitely the adventurous type so I think it’s a good idea. If you’re just lounging in one place then maybe you can skip it.