Guide for American visitor insurance.

How medical insurance works

When you purchase visitor or travel health insurance, the premium that you pay is collected along with the premiums of other customers to form a pool of money. This collected premium money is used to pay the medical bills of individual customers who need health care. Your insurance coverage remains valid only as long as you continue to pay your premiums. Premiums are based on the age of the insured and so are not going to be the same for every applicant.

You should know that purchasing insurance through a broker service like ours does NOT increase the price. Rather, you get a greater selection of products (some companies will not allow you to buy them directly from them) AND you get additional customer service from us as well as the company.

When you purchase insurance, the insurance provider will give you an unique insurance plan number and an identification card which you refer to when you visit a hospital or medical practitioner.

The insurance plan will also have details about filing claims. This involves filing a claims form along with providing all relevant documents about the medical expenses. The insurance provider will evaluate all claims that are filed and make the appropriate payment under your plan. Usually for hospitalization (In patient services), there will be direct billing to the insurance provider, while for outpatient services, the company will reimburse you after you have paid the bills.

Categories of Visitor Health Insurance

There are three general categories of visitor health and travel insurance available. Read the definition of each one to decide which is best for your situation.

Visitor Medical Insurance: This type of insurance is for a longer visit out of your country of citizenship. You may be travelling to a single country or several countries. Coverage will primarily be for accident and sudden illness. This type of insurance may be appropriate for recent immigrants to the US and Canada. This type of insurance can fulfill Schengen visa requirements, F2 visa requirements, etc.

Global Health Insurance: This type of insurance is for a longer stay out of your country of citizenship. You may be traveling to a single country or several countries. Coverage will be for routine doctor visits as well as accident and sudden illness. These policies are much more costly than the category above (Visitor Health Insurance), but they are good options if you are residing outside your home country and want regular medical coverage. These types of policies often cover pre-existing conditions after you have them for 12 or 24 months (including maternity coverage).

Furthermore, you may be eligible for coverage of pre-existing conditions sooner if you have prior credible coverage (just as when you switch health insurance companies)

Trip / Travel Insurance: This type of insurance insures the investment you make in a short-term trip, cruise, vacation, or honeymoon. It is designed to reimburse you for lost luggage, trip interruption, and trip cancellation. It also covers medical costs incurred during your trip or tour with no deductible and pays for your return to your home country as well as the loss or interruption of your trip.

Factors to consider while purchasing insurance

There are several factors to be considered while purchasing insurance, The following are some of the important ones -

Deductible - Most insurance plans require the customer to pay the initial portion of the medical bill before the company pays anything. The main reason for this is to prevent frivolous insurance claims. In some plans there is an annual deductible, where the customer pays only during the year, in other plans the customer pay the deductible every time you have an illness or injury. The lower the deductible, the higher will be the monthly premium. In some instances, you can also get zero deducible plans, however the premiums can be expensive. While choosing the plan, you should think carefully about how much you could afford to pay out of your own pocket each time you are sick or injured and weigh the cost of the deductible against the cost of the premium before you decide.
Copayment / Co-insurance - Usually, even after you have paid the deductible, an insurance policy pays only a percentage of your medical expenses. The policy might pay 80 percent, for example; the remaining 20 percent, for which you are responsible, is called the coinsurance or copayment. Thus, if you were injured and incurred $3,000 in medical expenses, a policy with a $400 deductible and 20 percent copayment would cover $2,080 (80 percent of $2,600).
Fixed benefits or specific limits - Some policies state specific dollar limits on what they will pay for particular services.
Lifetime /per-occurrence plan limits - Many insurance plans limit the amount paid for any single medical bill or for one specific illness or injury. J visa exchange visitors must have insurance with a maximum of no lower than $50,000 for each specific illness or injury, which may be enough for most conditions. A surgery or a serious illnesses can cost several times that amount.
Benefit period - Some insurance plans limit the time period for which they will go on paying for an illness or injury. In that case, after the benefit period for a condition has expired, you must pay the full cost of continuing treatment of the illness, even if you are still insured by the company. A policy with a long benefit period provides the best coverage.
Exclusions - Most insurance policies exclude coverage for certain conditions. The J visa regulations require that if a particular activity is a part of your exchange visitor program, your insurance must cover injuries resulting from that activity. Read the list of exclusions carefully so that you are aware of what is not covered by the plan. Some usual exclusions include participation in hazardous sports such as parachuting and rock climbing; however, riders can be purchased for an additional cost to cover these activities with some insurance policies.
Pre-existing Conditions - Most plans do not cover pre-existing conditions. If you travel with a pre-existing medical ailment, look closely at the pre-existing aspect of the plan and the look back period for it. Different plans have different lookback periods as well as different definitions for pre-existing conditions.
The reputation of the insurance provider - What is the company record for settling claims? Are prior customers happy with claims settlement? Does it pay claims promptly? Does it have staff to answer your questions and resolve problems? AM Best is an impartial judge of insurance companies. They assess the company's solvency and how they take care of their customers. You want to be sure AM Best rates the company at least with an A-. All companies that AmericanVisitorInsurance deals with has at least an A- rating.

Choosing an insurance policy

Overseas Insurance while very important can be difficult to understand and choose for your specific needs. There are many plans, various coverages, options and restrictions. Deciding on a plan that best suits your needs is not always easy.

One can compare all the major insurance policies, select, and purchase a policy that best suits your preferences using our Visitors Medical Compare Engine.

Feel free to call us if you have further questions, toll free at 877-340-7910.

Visitor Medical Insurance Guide disclaimer:

AmericanVisitorInsurance has tried to provide relevant information to the best of our knowledge. However we make no guarantee regarding the accuracy of our answers. The exact answers for some of the questions can change periodically as insurance companies change their policies. AmericanVisitorInsurance is not liable for any problem resulting from the content on this Guide.