Health Insurance
The United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs urges on its website to contact your insurance companies on any trip to verify whether or not it will cover emergency expenses when you are outside the country. This website also says that Medicare does not cover medical expenses abroad.
There are companies that specialize in international insurance policies that cover you at home and abroad.
Skyrocketing costs of healthcare in some countries and managed care in others have, by necessity, spawned an international industry to provide quality affordable healthcare. World class hospitals are springing up all over the world with highly trained physicians. Forward thinking health insurance companies are beginning to notice this trend that will save them money on claims even with travel expenses allowing them to offer insurance policies that are lower in cost without sacrificing quality.
In 1997, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality under the United States Department of Health & Human Services wrote a paper titled "Hospitalization in the United States, 1997" in which it says "About 40 percent of personal health care expenditures in the United States go towards hospital care." That says a lot about the costs associated with healthcare. |
