Health Care Overseas

When flying over to London or Tokyo for business or pleasure, the last thing on a lot of people’s mind is their domestic health care provider. But what happens to you when you get sick or injured in another country? Will your coverage pay the bill, or are your travel expenses about to triple?

The majority of health care providers, such as Aetna, Cigna and Humana, will cover you if your overseas care is classified as an emergency. This is good because unless you are overseas for quite a while, that’s all you really need. But what exactly is an emergency? While chest pains count as an emergency, non-life-threatening illness and diseases, such as Pinkeye or Poison Ivy, rarely do.

If you do have an emergency, however, most countries will expect you to pay the bill yourself, and get reimburst later. As far as gettiing reimburst goes, be prepared to be persistent and resubmit your request two or three times.

Overall, it’s a good idea to contact your provider before your next trip and find out exactly what their policy is. It could save you a few thousand dollars.

That is of course, unless are on Medicare or Medicaid; then you’re not covered overseas. Period.