For starters, exactly what is Travel Insurance?

Travel Insurance may provide coverage for:

• Baggage and personal effects
• Trip delay
• Trip interruption
• Trip cancellation
• Baggage and personal effects
• Emergency medical evacuation
• Accident / illness medical expenses

If a situation arose where you had to go home early or cancel your travel plans completely, losing the money you paid for your flights, accommodations, rental car or activities, travel insurance that specifically includes trip cancellation and trip interruption is probably a good idea with the costs for your reservations covered.

If you’re planning to travel to one of the many popular destinations south of the border and your travels are affected by weather-related issues, such as a late-summer hurricane, travel insurance may protect your noncancelable reservations as well as provide emergency evacuation to escape dangerous situations.

When should you get baggage delay and/or lost luggage coverage?

Imagine if you go on a one week trip and your checked baggage is lost or delayed. While you’re waiting to get your luggage, baggage delay insurance will reimburse you for any essentials (i.e. toiletries, medicine, socks, clothing, etc.) that you may need to purchase because you don’t have your own things.

If your bag is lost or stolen and not simply delayed, then lost luggage insurance will reimburse you for your misplaced bag(s), up to a specified dollar amount.

If you’re only traveling with a carry-on, you probably won’t need any baggage types of coverage.

Why get medical insurance for traveling?

Of all the different types of travel insurance available today, medical treatment coverage while abroad is probably the most important type of travel insurance to have.

Most health insurance plans generally offer coverage anywhere within the country where the policy was originally purchased. However, if you get sick or hurt when traveling internationally, many policies (including Medicare) probably won’t cover you.

Even if your home-based health insurance or perhaps a credit card you use claims to provide international coverage, doctors and Hospitals in Mexico may simply not accept it.

It’s a common practice in Mexico for hospitals to require complete and full payment from a tourist or a contractual agreement from an insurer with offices in Mexico who will guarantee to pay for the tourist’s hospital care, before a patient can be discharged.

Nobody can plan for a life-threatening health emergency due to illness or accident and when something happens while traveling abroad, treatment options often become much more complicated.

When a hospital in Mexico admits a patient facing expensive treatment and care options, they will usually require some payment up front in addition to ongoing payments for extended care scenarios.

And some clinics and hospitals here in Mexico have been known to demand large sums of money up front (20-30,000 dollars) before any advanced treatment care would be provided.

Depending on the severity of the patient’s condition and complications during recovery, further such demands for money are often made during their hospital stay with another large amount often due before the patient can be discharged.

Contacting your local consulate won’t provide much help either and so you’re left to figure out a way to quickly come up with all that money under the pressure of getting you or your loved one treated. This is where having medical travel insurance can not only save you money but could potentially prove to be a real life saver.

Having emergency medical evacuation coverage in some situations is a good option to avoid most of the hassle with foreign hospitals but it would depend on the condition and viability of a patient for air transfer to be possible and any medical care related expenses prior to air evacuation would still have to be paid, before the patient could be released from hospital care.

And then you still need to be close enough to a paved airstrip that is sufficiently long enough for one of the emergency evacuation jets to land.

If your health insurance back home or credit card promises to provide you with such coverage while traveling internationally, you will likely get stuck with paying out of pocket for what could potentially be some very expensive treatment and then wait for several weeks or possibly even months to get reimbursed when back home again.

When you fully understand the challenges of paying for and receiving emergency hospital care in Mexico, the cost of a medical travel insurance policy in such scenarios looks like a great bargain in comparison.

Where and how to buy travel insurance

As so many in our Talk Baja community have figured out over the years, it really does make a difference who you choose to purchase insurance coverage from, for traveling south of the border.

Let’s face it, nobody plans for something to go wrong on their trip when purchasing travel insurance.

But in the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a situation where you really do need your insurance, having a friendly and experienced Talk Baja member to reach out to at that moment who understands your coverage and can help direct your next steps, can really help provide you with peace of mind when facing major and minor emergencies that can happen while traveling!

Arno Chrispeels is a long-time member of our Talk Baja community and a veteran Baja traveler. Over the years, he has helped out hundreds of our members with their travel insurance needs through his company – International Health & Travel Insurance.

Today, he has a large client base covering travelers on cruise ships and airlines, as well as Baja road warriors driving their off-road trucks and VW van conversions.

Whatever you drive or transportation service you choose, I highly recommend you reach out to Arno via email, Facebook or through his business website with any questions or concerns you may have.

He will carefully go through and explain all of the options currently available and help provide you with peace of mind knowing that you will have the best coverage in place you, your loved ones and your coming travel plans.

Bon Voyage and Safe Travels!

Arno Chrispeels – International Health & Travel Insurance

“Choosing Insurance can be difficult and knowing which product is right for you is even more confusing. Let our team take the guesswork out of getting your insurance. We use a wide variety of companies to find an insurance plan that will fit your specific needs, whether you’re looking for general, temporary or international health insurance, trip insurance or life insurance… WE CAN HELP!“