Comments on: Health Insurance for American Travelers

By: How One Text Message, Changed my Life Forever

How One Text Message, Changed my Life Forever — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:39:00 +0000

[...] Briefcase to Backpack: Health Insurance for American Travelers If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! [...]

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:39:11 +0000

Wow, reading this (6 months later), I’m kinda glad I gave up on health insurance when we got back from our RTW! We choose to be “self-insured” – putting the $1K+ per month it would cost to insure our family of 4 into savings instead made more mathematical sense to me. Plus we have access to some pretty deep lines of credit (and a willingness to seek treatment overseas) if necessary.

There are some really good points and ideas here – important stuff a lot of people don’t think about. I’d like to see more more articles about “insurance hacking”!

One thing I learned in my travels is that outside the USA & a few other western countries, the vast majority of the world’s population gets by just fine without health insurance. I also noticed that countries with no health insurance industry have the lowest healthcare costs.

I think maybe as Americans we have a somewhat distorted view of healthcare (and definitely an exaggerated perception of risk). I know it’s a real hot-button issue for a lot of people, so I usually stay out of it.

But as you pointed out, it’s important to keep in mind that there are many ways to deal with this. Like other aspects of long-term travel, a little persistence and ingenuity can overcome what to many seems like an insurmountable obstacle.

Thanks again for the great article!

By: Akila

Akila — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:43:04 +0000

Keith and Amy, great post. I didn’t see this earlier for some reason but this is such helpful information for travelers returning.

By: 51 Blogs Explaining the Many Types of Insurance Available | OnlineInsuranceQuotes.org

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:50:54 +0000

[...] Briefcase to Backpack: This site is a resource for Americans who are interested in travel insurance for domestic trips as well as vacations abroad. [...]

By: Asa

Asa — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:11:01 +0000

This is a good, rational discussion of the issues involved. It’s a shame that insurance is so blasted expensive though. $6,612 is roughly 20% of what we budgeted for our entire year-long trip (add in the travel insurance and you’re approaching 25% of the cost of the trip). There’s no reason it should be that expensive, and I refuse to pay that out of principle. We looked into various options and in the end, legally changed our address to Idaho (my girlfriend’s mother lives there) where we could get a catastrophic policy ($5,000 deductible) for $150 a month for the two of us. There needs to be cheaper options for health insurance – paying $500 a month (or more) is just ridiculous. And, I don’t mean to inject politics into this comment, but if you think Obama’s health plan will improve the cost situation, I think you’re in for a surprise. Elimination of catastrophic plans (as I understand it, you won’t be able to get ones like what we have in Idaho) is one of the real downsides of his plan. There will not be any cheaper options for people who are just looking for peace-of-mind like you say. Paying $500 or $600 is not peace-of-mind, it’s more like pre-paying for your care.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:00:19 +0000

Ben – bankruptcy as health insurance is one approach, but not one that will work for everyone. It is true that while in the U.S. you will not be denied life saving care in the event of an emergency. However you will not be granted access to the best care, doctors or treatment either. Also to your point of insurance companies not paying on claims, I can personally attest that Aetna, one of the largest plans in America, covered 100% of the costs for my wrist reconstruction surgery after I shattered it in a snowboarding accident 2 years ago, with no hassle at all.

Also, unlike you, Amy and I do not intend to travel forever. We are taking a 1 year sabbatical to recharge and shift the directions of our careers. As such we have assets (house, bank accounts, etc) that we need to protect. We shared this information to help that vast majority of people out there that will travel for a set amount of time and are looking to transition back to a more traditional life with as little pain as possible.

Also not sure if you are aware of the huge problems that declaring bankruptcy comes with. For example you will have difficultly getting credit cards, making purchasing plane tickets rather difficult. Bankruptcy is not something that most people should not take likely. Thanks for your comment and hope that you stay in great health while traveling.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:10:32 +0000

Health insurance is a scam. They take your money – enough to buy 2 around-the-world tickets every year – and give you nothing. When things hit the fan you’ll find the coverage you thought you had doesn’t cover this or that or has some strange exclusions, or they run you through the “we never got your paperwork” treadmill till some deadline has passed. Your payments go to pay lobbyists to prevent healthcare reform.

Going without health insurance is nothing like blind-folded motorcycling. No one will refuse you service because you don’t have insurance. Worst case scenario you get hit with a big medical situation and have to declare bankruptcy and move on.

Let bankruptcy law be your health insurance. Spend all your money traveling the world so that it’s that much easier to declare bankruptcy should you need to

By: Vietnamese Coffee = Jet Fuel | Green Around the Globe

Vietnamese Coffee = Jet Fuel | Green Around the Globe — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:08:56 +0000

[...] ceiling unable to sleep. On the upside, I was incredibly productive all day. I helped Amy write a guest blog post for Briefcase to Backpacker, edited and uploaded pictures from Indonesia and finished reading my latest book, When Broken Glass [...]

By: Dave and Deb

Dave and Deb — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:04:27 +0000

Wow, that seems like a real headache. We are in Canada and have different coverage, but it is good information for everyone in any country to be sure to know if you will be covered when you get home.
In Ontario, Canada, we can leave the country for 7 months before our OHIP coverage expires, then we have to wait 3 months for it to become renewed.
I don’t know if World Nomads covers that 3 months, so it is a good heads up for us to look into that when we buy our policy. We are planning on going home before our 7 months, just so we don’t have to deal with it (and do our taxes:)It is worth it for us to keep going home and then traveling again because we have free health coverage in Canada and with our travel policy that we have from our film union, we have free health coverage abroad as long as our OHIP is in good standing.
Seeing the amount of money that you have to pay, it is worth the price of the flight for us to go home for a bit.
Excellent info, thanks.

By: Tweets that mention Health Insurance for American Travelers | Briefcase to Backpack - Travel Advice for Career Breaks or Sabbaticals -- Topsy.com

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:46:26 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sherry Ott, BriefcasetoBackpack and Travel Industry, wtalbot. wtalbot said: Great info RT @CareerBreakHQs: Health Insurance for American Travelers – Thx @keithsutter http://su.pr/1mOZTu #travel #safety [...]

By: Sherry Ott

Sherry Ott — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:07:24 +0000

Excellent information. Thanks for sharing Keith. It’s sad that so little information for long-term traveling Americans exists our there.
As I transitioned to ‘backpack’ this was the one task that brought me to tears. I had been employed my whole career and had taken insurance for granted for the last 14 years. It’s terribly confusing and for Americans it’s frustrating to try to figure out. I’ve been lucky that I’ve never had to actually file a claim with any of my insurance companies in the last 3 1/2 years of travel and living abroad. I did recently join HTH Global Citizens though and I like what they offer- coverage in the US and abroad.