Travel Insurance for Visiting Parents

With many of Indians settled abroad, many Indian parents are travelling internationally to meet their kids. Nonetheless, it may be risky for parents to travel, because some do not have the physical ability to endure the physical demands of travel. Also, some may not be able to adapt to the weather conditions and food in a foreign country, and they may become ill during their vacation in spite of being in good health.

It is a good idea to buy a travel insurance policy before their trips, because they may need financial protection against unexpected losses, such as medical costs and personal accident. If parents are under 61 years old, both can be covered in single family floater policy.

How to select the best Plan?

Sum Assured
This will depend upon the health of your parents and your budget. If your parents are in good health, 50K per person is good coverage. We always advise higher sum assurance (100K and Above) for USA as medical cost is very high.

Pre-existing conditions
If your parents are suffering from any pre-existing conditions like Diabetes, High BP, Heart disease etc, select the plan which provides pre-existing coverage. Most of the travel insurance plans exclude pre-existing conditions but some plans do provide limited coverage in case of life-threatening situations.

Medical Tests
Many Travel insurance plans are available with no medical tests. Plans with medical tests always offer better coverage and less claim disputes. If you are travelling for long duration, its always advisable to undergo medical tests. Most of Indian parents don't go for regular medical checkups and this provide good opportunity for medical check up and assurance before the trip.

Trip Delay, Cancellation and Curtailment
Select the plans which covers Trip Delay, Cancellation and Curtailment. This can help for some financial loss which can happen in case of delay, Cancellation or Curtailment of trip for reasons beyond your control.

Avoid plans with Per Illness/Accident Restriction
Many plans for over 60 years old persons, have per illness/accident limit. Avoid the plans with these restrictions. Suppose you have purchased the plan with sum assured of 50K with 10K per illness restriction. In this case you will be able to claim only 10K per illness even though you will be under the impression you have insurance cover for 50K.

Home Insurance
If your parents are visiting for long time and there is no one back home to take care of home building and content. It's better to buy plan that offers coverage for Burglary and protection of building.

Renewal
Most of Insurance company will not renew the policy if there is any claim in the Policy period. It's good idea to buy the policy with maximum expected trip duration and if you expect the stay to be extended buy the policy which is renewalable.

Premium
Plan Premium is based upon your destination, Coverage Amount, Age of insured and benefits it offers. Though all of us love to save money, but low insurance premium shouldn't be your only factor in making decision. At the same time high insurance premium also doesn't mean higher benefits. If you don't have time to read the whole policy wording, spare some time in reading the exclusions and benefits which are most interest to you.

Exclusions
General Physical Checkup, pre-existing conditions, Vision (Eye Test, Eye Glasses, and Contact Lens), Pregnancy and Prenatal Care is not covered by any of the Plan. Besides these, there could be other exclusions which are mentioned in the policy wordings.

Claim
In order to make a claim, you need to contact the Insurer or Third Party Administrator (TPA) of the Insurance Company, which has tie-ups with network hospitals worldwide. TPA information is provided in the Insurance policy.