Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada Debunks Article Claiming Travel Insurance is a Waist of Money

The Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (THIA) has responded to recent articles in various newscasts represented travel insurance as a waste of money. THIA argues that this assertion provides a disservice to Canadian travelers. Canadian travelers without supplemental out-of-country health insurance often risk a tremendous financial burden.
THIA noted that the advice was especially egregious because the conclusions reported in the newspapers were based on a survey targeted to Americans, not Canadian consumers. The survey suggests many Americans traveling abroad are already covered to some extent by their existing private health insurance. However, Canadians are not in the same situation.
Actually, in my experience, many US insurers do not cover their policy holders outside of the USA, especially for evacuation. For example, seniors on Medicare are not covered outside of the
USA for medical expenses. Also, many people traveling abroad are not covered at all for health insurance. Thus there is a vital need for most Americans to get travel insurance. They can check their health insurance plan to see if it does cover them abroad.
THIA noted that Canadian provincial health insurance plans do not adequately cover out-of-country medical services. Nominal claim benefits range from $75 a day to approximately $500 depending on the province. Payouts compared to a typical US hospital charge of $5,000 to $10,000 a day help underline the importance of travel insurance.
All Canadian provincial governments urge Canadians traveling out of the country to purchase supplemental travel health insurance that fill the gap between government coverage and foreign hospitals charges.
Those newscasts should have clearly stated that the survey was reporting about American consumers, not Canadians with vastly different health insurance circumstances. In this author’s opinion, people who write such articles should be very careful telling people not to purchase insurance products as people may not check their personal situation and may go abroad without proper protection. TFG Global Travel Insurance.com offers travel insurance for Canadians, Americans and people around the world with a variety of travel insurance plans to meet almost any budget.


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