Domestic Travel Insurance For Vacations
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Whether you’re traveling abroad or within the U.S., you deserve solid protection for the investment you’ve made in your trip. No matter if you’re traveling from California to a New York island, or from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land is your land, and you can find a travel insurance plan made for you.
The best travel insurance plans can help soothe the sting of disappointment if you need to cancel or curtail your trip due to an emergency, or experience setbacks like trip delays or lost luggage. It can also prevent you from paying big bills if you require emergency medical evacuation.
Purchasing travel insurance can be relatively inexpensive. The average travel insurance cost for trips in the U.S. is $237, according to Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider.
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Travel Insurance for Trip Cancellation
There’s always a chance that unfortunate circumstances will pop up before a trip—that’s where trip cancellation insurance comes in. You can be compensated when unexpected events cause you to cancel your plans.
For instance, let’s say three days before your cross-country trip you have an accident on your all-terrain vehicle. You hit a tree and break several ribs and fracture your skull. You’d have to put off your trip
Trip cancellation coverage can reimburse you for any pre-paid and non-refundable expenses. For example, if your airfare and accommodation costs are non-refundable, or if you paid in advance for private salsa lessons, you can file a claim with your travel insurance company.
Not all reasons for calling off a trip are covered under a standard travel insurance policy.
If you look on your weather app and it shows five days of rain in Miami, and you want to cancel your trip, you won’t be covered.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights granted under the Declaration of Independence. But you don’t have the freedom to cancel a trip for any reason you want and still be compensated by a travel insurance plan. For that you need “cancel for any reason” coverage. It’s sometimes offered as an optional upgrade to a standard travel insurance plan.
This will add an average of 50% more to your travel insurance plan cost, but will allow you to cancel for any reason—the weather, because you can’t miss your fantasy sports team draft, or just because you change your mind. You must cancel at least 48 hours before your scheduled departure, and you can recoup 50% or 75% of your trip’s cost, depending on the “cancel for any reason” rules of your plan.
Travel Insurance for Trip Delays: As American as Apple Pie
If your flight isn’t leaving on time, and all you can see by the dawn’s early light are flashing delays on the airport departure board, you’ll be happy to know that travel delay insurance can help. Travel delay insurance is typically part of a comprehensive travel insurance plan.
If your layover in Atlanta lasts 18 hours due thunderstorms and hurricane warnings, your policy can reimburse you for a hotel stay, food and transportation. It’s important to know that a policy usually has a waiting period before travel delay benefits kick in—which can span three to 12 hours.
Trip Interruption Insurance: Return to Sender
No one anticipates having to cut a trip short to return home, but setbacks can happen. If you’re on a bicycle trip in Northern California and break your ankle and can’t continue the tour, your travel insurance plan can cover the cost of a one-way, last minute flight home.
Trip interruption insurance also can pay for non-refundable experiences you will miss due to your early departure.
Medical Expense Coverage: Call for Backup
Your health insurance plan will most likely cover medical expenses if you’re injured or become ill during a U.S. vacation. Still, your travel insurance plan can help. If you select a plan with “primary” travel medical insurance, the travel insurance plan will pay out first, up to its medical limits. This can be handy if your regular health insurance plan has a huge deductible.
Travel insurance can still offer a level of protection beyond your health plan for travel medical expenses, says Jeremy Murchland, president of Seven Corners, a travel insurance company. If you’re concerned about Covid affecting your plans, consider a travel insurance policy that covers Covid-related trip cancellations and medical expenses.
For example, the Seven Corners’ RoundTrip plan for U.S. residents covers Covid the same way as any other illness.
Here are the best Covid-19 travel insurance plans.
If you have a medical emergency, your travel insurance company’s emergency assistance hotline can make referrals to a clinic, doctor or hospital for care. This is helpful if you’re far away from home.
Medical Evacuation Insurance Saves the Day
If prevention is the best medicine, emergency evacuation travel insurance is an elixir for those who may be exploring remote areas of the country.
You’re from the land of the free and the home of the brave, so let’s say you are snowboarding at Deseret Peak in the Stansbury Mountain Range in Utah. You wipe out doing a frontside 180 and need to be airlifted to a trauma unit. The medical evacuation insurance within a comprehensive travel insurance plan will cover medevac costs, up to the policy limits. This saves you from paying significant charges.
The median bill for helicopter evacuation was $36,400, and for airplane evacuation it was $46,600, according to a 2019 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The report also says 69% of patient cases analyzed were out-of-network, meaning their costs wouldn’t be fully covered by their health insurance plan.
You can find travel insurance plans that provide $1 million in medical evacuation coverage, but you can buy less if you feel you don’t need that much.
When Your Luggage Is Missing in Action
What’s sadder than watching a baggage carousel loop around endlessly without your suitcases on it? Not getting any money back for what you lost. There’s always a risk of loss, damage or theft of your belongings when you travel domestically, especially if you have connecting flights.
Baggage loss insurance can reimburse you, up to the limits in your policy, for the depreciated value of your suitcase and what you packed if your luggage never arrives at your destination. If your baggage is delayed, you can be compensated up to your policy limits for the cost of necessities to tide you over. Baggage delay insurance usually has a waiting period—for instance, six or 12 hours—before coverage goes into effect.
This coverage also extends to your belongings. If your personal items are stolen, be sure to alert your hotel manager and file a police report. You will need this documentation if you file a claim.
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Erica Lamberg – Contributor
Erica Lamberg is a personal finance and travel writer based in suburban Philadelphia. She is a regular contributor to USA Today and her writing credits include NBC News, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, Oprah Magazine and Creditcards.com. Erica is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park.
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