Travel Medical Insurance Checklist: What to Verify Before You Buy

ETHOS SECURE is not an insurer, a broker or an insurance adviser, and nothing here is insurance advice or a recommendation about your circumstances. Terms, eligibility and cover are defined solely by the provider's own policy documents, which is where every answer below has to be confirmed.

Three different products, often confused

• Travel medical / travel health cover is about treatment for illness or injury that happens while you are away — consultations, hospital care, prescriptions.
• Trip cancellation and interruption cover is financial: it concerns money you lose when a trip is cancelled, cut short or disrupted. It is not medical treatment.
• Medical evacuation and repatriation concerns transport — moving you to adequate care, or home — which is usually described separately from treatment costs and may have its own conditions and limits.

A single plan may include some combination of these, or none beyond the first. Establish which of the three you are actually buying before comparing anything else.

Eligibility: can you even be covered?

Confirm these against the policy wording rather than the marketing page:

• Residency or nationality requirements, and whether they apply at purchase or at claim.
• Age limits, and whether cover or limits change with age bands.
• Whether you can buy the plan while already abroad, or only before departure, and whether a waiting period applies after purchase.
• Who can be added — partner, children, travelling companions — and on what terms.
• Whether employment status or a work visa affects eligibility.

Destination validity and time limits

• Which countries are in scope, and whether any are excluded or priced separately. Some regions are commonly treated differently.
• Whether your home country is covered at all, and if so for how long per visit.
• Maximum trip length, and what happens if you stay longer than planned.
• How renewal or extension works for open-ended travel, and whether a break in cover restarts any waiting period.
• Whether official travel advisories affect validity for a destination.

What is excluded, and what is only conditionally included

Treat exclusions as questions to ask, not assumptions to make — wording varies substantially between providers.

• Pre-existing conditions. How the policy defines them, whether any cover exists for them, and whether declaration or a look-back period applies.
• Activities and sports. Whether diving, climbing, motorcycling, skiing or organised competition are excluded, limited, or available as an add-on — and whether certification or supervision is required.
• Routine, preventive and dental care, pregnancy and maternity, and mental-health treatment, which are often handled under separate rules.
• Alcohol, medication and behaviour clauses, which commonly affect whether an incident is payable.
• Work-related activity, particularly manual or hazardous work.
• Electronics, baggage and theft — frequently not part of a medical plan at all.

Limits, deductibles and how money actually moves

This is where expectations most often break. Ask specifically how a real claim is paid.

1. Overall and per-incident limits, and whether any sub-limits apply to specific categories.
2. Deductible or excess, when it applies, and per what — trip, claim or period.
3. Direct billing versus reimbursement. Does the provider settle with the hospital, or do you pay first and claim back?
4. Out-of-pocket reality. If reimbursement is the model, you may need available credit at the moment of treatment. Plan for that.
5. Preauthorisation. Which treatments require approval in advance, how you request it, and what happens to a claim if you could not obtain it first.
6. Claim documentation and deadlines — receipts, medical reports, translations, police reports where relevant, and the window for submitting them.
7. Currency and payment method for reimbursement, and who absorbs conversion costs.

Support access when it matters

• Is assistance available around the clock, and in which languages?
• Which contact channels work from abroad without a local number, and is there a method that works without mobile data?
• Is there a network of recommended providers, or do you choose any clinic?
• What is the documented procedure for a genuine emergency, step by step?
• Save the emergency number, policy number and claims address offline, on paper as well as on your phone.

Before you pay: a short verification pass

1. Read the policy wording or certificate, not only the summary page.
2. Search that document for your destination, your activities and your conditions.
3. Confirm the start date, end date and any waiting period in writing.
4. Check what you may already hold — an employer plan, a card benefit, a national scheme or a reciprocal health agreement — so you are not paying twice for the same thing.
5. Confirm entry requirements for your destination, since some countries require proof of medical cover.
6. Ask the provider directly about anything ambiguous, and keep the answer.

An honest caveat

No policy covers every situation, and general guidance cannot tell you what your policy says. Use this list as a set of questions for the provider and for the documents you are given; the answers, not this page, determine what you are covered for.

Insurance is one item on a longer list. Our practical travel security checklist covers documents, payments and accounts, and child travel safety covers travelling with family.