A question about insurance and hospitals

davidp80

Thanks so much for the input everyone. I will be carrying plenty of money with me....so, like everyone said, I should be well covered in the event of needing a lengthy hospital stay. Of course this would most likely alter my travel plans significantly, but it's a chance I'm willing to take. I guess we'll see what happens. Live and learn.

-Dave

abfab

I think what everyone is missing here, is that a BIG part of the point of travellers Insurance is not to cover local medical costs, but to cover the cost of repatriation to your own country.

If you fall ill or become badly injured/disabled in India, you might well end up needing weeks or months of treatment, and in this situation, travellers insurance will pay the costs of getting you back home to your home country to finish your treatment.

This can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and if you can't pay, then the alternative is possibly being marooned in India for many months on your own.

Repatriation is the single biggest cost in payouts on Travellers Insurance.

How much is insurance in America? In the UK you can get a whole years cover for as little as $90.

mercedes10

Travel insurance really isn't that expensive though! Is it worth the risk? I agree - medical care in India is relatively cheap, but depending where you are the medical care is also next to non-existant. If you're unfortunate enough to have something serious happen to you wouldn't you like to know that you'll be evacuated to proper care? I got ill in India and, although it didn't cost me much (and I wouldn't have been too worried if my insurance hadn't covered it), it did give me an indication of how awful it would be to be REALLY SICK or injured in India. I was in the middle of nowhere and the medical care left A LOT to be desired. Perhaps I'm missing something though - I don't really understand some of the posts as it's clearly referring to the USA. If I was evacuated by travel insurance back to the UK I would be treated for free on the NHS so I guess the scenario's different.

abfab

If you're unfortunate enough to have something serious happen to you wouldn't you like to know that you'll be evacuated to proper care?[/quote]


Yes, even if you didn't want to go back to America, if you are in some remote region of India with poor medical care, travel insurance should pay the costs of evacuating you to a proper major hospital where you could get decent levels of care.

Insurance often covers a lot of other eventualities such as paying for 'search and rescue' if you get lost, replacing passports, flying you home urgently if theres an emergency at home etc!

mercedes10

By the way, are you travelling alone?? I know it's worst-case scenario, but if you're on your own and something happens to you that leaves you unconscious or whatever, if a hospital don't find any money on you how will they know you can pay, and therefore will they decide to treat you? Carry your insurance card on you and this shouldn't be an issue.

Personally, I think the cost of insurance is so low that it's just pointless to scrimp on such a valuable thing.

federica

exactly.... before going to India I checked on a website the costs for repatriation to Germany (sorry, i don't know the URL anymore.) It was around 40 000 € (!!!). That made me to think...

Trivial medical problems... don't bother about them. But serious medical problems where you really need help are much easier to handle if you don't have to care about the money at the same time.

Usually there is a difference, some insurances will pay only for the nearest hospital, some will pay for one according to your choice (and I would really opt for that).

Being young and healthy doesn't prevent you from accidents, and serious tropical viral infections also occur among young ppl...

crvlvr

davidp80, most people in India do not have insurance. Hospitals will accept you but, expect to settle your bill regularly, even daily if you are an in patient. And, they will not think twice about sending you off to the local General Hospital (govt hospital) if you are not regular with payments.

Also, if you have insurance coverage in the US, there is a chance that your insurance company will reimburse you for any reasonable health expenses you had even while in India.

davidp80

Thanks so much everyone for the insight. These are all very valid and reasonable points. In the event of a real emergency, I would almost rather not be transported back to the United States - being that I won't have health insurance there at the same time, and I could easily get myself into a lifetimes worth of debt by being taken home to be treated. If insured, my emergency flight home would be covered, but the cost of the medical treatment in the United States once arrived would be astounding (if indeed my illness or injury was serious enough to require being flown home). Although I can't speak from experience, my intuition tells me that I could be treated for anything in Delhi that I could be treated for at home, and for much less money! Afterall, there are a large number of Indian doctors practising in the United States who were educated in trained in India.

In regards to traveling alone and falling unconscious....you're right, that is tricky situation. But, that risk kind of falls under the general category of serious injury or illness that was previously referred to and discussed earlier in this post, and therefore can be considered to fall within the samedomain of 'unlikeliness'- It is thus a risk that I am willing to take.

From reading through these posts, it might be easy to assume that I have an inflated sense of my own safety or a false sense of my own chances of falling seriously ill. This truly is not the case. I do understand that there are a large array of potential dangers inherent to the risk that I am taking, and I do understand that my decision carries with it a certain degree of inherent risk. Statistically, however, I consider this degree of risk to be relatively small, and that is why I have chosen not to be insured. For some perspective, I'll be traveling to Mali in Western Africa after leaving India. I won't be taking Malaria medications while in India, but I wouldn't consider traveling in Mali without them even for a second, considering the fact that the large majority of malaria-related deaths worldwide are linked to transmission in Western Africa. It is of my belief that we must always access the REAL risk associated with foreign travel, and make decisions accordingly. But then again....as always, I could just be naive fool!

This has turned into a pretty live discussion. Thanks for that, and for all of your input!

-Dave

mercedes10

Have a great trip Dave, and stay safe and well! :-)

davidp80

Thank ya!

Nick-H

Have you considered finding a policy that would fly you to India for treatment should you fall ill in the USA?

What you say about the odds has to be true. Were it not so, the insurance companies would and could not offer cover at an affordable rate. Insurance companies will only offer cover against things that are unlikely to happen --- that is their gamble. Your gamble is that you won't be one of the few to whom it does happen.

(yes, I know that is an absurdly oversimplified view of the insurance industry ---- but it'll do for the present example)

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davidp80

Haha.... thats not a bad idea at all Nick. In fact, I'm pretty sure a fair number of people do it (maybe not in Delhi specifically, but to less developed parts of the world). I have vague memories of hearing about people traveling to the far reaches of the world in order to get a deal on various surgical procedures....although most of the time I think it's for things like cosmetic alterations, rather than life or death neccesities.

-Dave

georgt

I agree with davidp80 by wanting to take his chances, I travelled through india for 100 days covered by an useless health insurance which costed me 110 euros and did not serve me a bit when I needed medicals for gatsritis and restless sleep, I new for experience the cure I should do and I was lucky to find medical stores where to find such products, I have realized that indian pharmacology is pretty competitive with the western one and even cheaper, why not to take advantage of this opportunity, and I have made a little score of it to bring home.
However about needing specialized medical care is another matter, but you must be very self-confident to state that you dont need any travel insurance to carry with you on your trip around the world, for one thing I wouldnt claim openly all that sureness because you are making all of us witness of your own dare devil stunt, I understand that you rely on your personal health status to survive trough eventual adversities, but that it is not enough if you dont have the right spiritual background that protect you against them, for some that is an individual karma which you believe or not, I just say that you must include that on your life accounts.

davidp80

Interesting take Georgt. I am a believer in Karma *of some sort*, and I don't doubt the possibility that it will have a hand in my wellness. If only we had more insight into its operations, I could peer through the mysteriousness and see whether or not I needed to be insured or not!
I feel as if you may have been offedned by my 'sureness', although 'sure' I am not, for sure. The only thing I am sure of is change, and that my luck could turn sour at any moment while traveling through India. Some might consider what I'm doing to be 'daring', but I just feel that its the most reasonable way to approach the matter. Thanks for adding to the thread.

-Dave

Nick-H

I paid insurance for my house for 15 years in case it got burned down, fell down a hole in the ground, etc etc etc --- never did. No way I would ever have cancelled the insurance, though.

The guy is talking about a trip around India. The chances are that whatever medical attention, specialist or otherwise, he may need he will be able to afford. It's a simple financial risk. Got nothing to do with confidence, self or otherwise.

Oh, sorry --- I must have missed the bit about drinking sewage whilst walking on a high wire.

Err.... stunt? Have you read the thread?

Nope... he relies on his wallet to get him through any eventual adversities. Which, like I said, are actually statistically unlikely but probably affordable.

(its statistically unlikely that my house would have burnt down. However, the consequences of it doing so would have far, far outweighed the cost of the insurance premiums.)

Sheesh... didn't realise they asked you about your karma when they admit you to hospital. Maybe we should rethink this whole thing, Dave?