Most people know that your standard health insurance may only cover operations performed in another country that are deemed to be medically necessary. In some cases, your health insurance may not cover anything at all. So where does that leave the patient who chooses to travel to a different country to receive medical care – especially in the form of an elective procedure?
Travel Insurance Considerations
Your first thought might be that travel insurance will cover any medical procedure you choose to have while abroad. However, this is not true! Travel insurance does not cover elective procedures, which are some of the most common reasons people choose to travel abroad for medical care. These procedures include things like cosmetic surgery, breast enhancement or reduction, cosmetic dental work, and more. It is great to have travel insurance, just make sure you realize that it will not cover the cost of elective surgeries performed overseas or in another country.
Medical Tourism Benefits
Traveling to another country to receive medical procedures of all kinds is a practice that has been gaining in popularity for several years. It’s easy to see why, when you consider just how much cheaper it is to receive medical care overseas than it is to get it in the US, even when you do have insurance coverage. This is why you don’t need to worry about whether your travel insurance will provide coverage for overseas elective procedures – it will be less expensive to get the work done in another country anyway!
International Medical Complications
What you do need to worry about is the possibility of having complications arise when you have your medical work performed away from your home country. This is not meant to scare you. You simply must realize that there is a possibility of complications, and being miles and miles away from home with no way to pay for the costs incurred by these complications is a situation you do not want to find yourself in. This is why purchasing medical tourism insurance is a wonderful way to give yourself (and your loved ones who are accompanying you or staying behind) peace of mind as you go through the process of receiving medical work in another country.
