When you plan to travel inside your country of residence, the prior arrangements tend to be quite simple. Of course, you may have to prepare an itinerary, pack your bags, buy air tickets, etc. Not having to cross the national borders to get to your destination is easier than travelling abroad, especially if the latter requires a visa, travel insurance and travel assistance. While travelling in the country, you may be well attended without cost in case of a sudden illness or an accident, as your health insurance would probably cover the expenses of treatment and/or transportation to your place of residence. In that case, local medical facilities and authorities would provide the needed travel assistance. Even if your health insurance does not cover the costs of treatment incurred during your travel within the national borders, such costs probably wouldn’t be excessive.
Travelling abroad is another case entirely. Firstly, in most cases, the health insurance of one country doesn’t cover the costs of treatment in another. In case you need a visa to visit another country, in the visa approval process you will probably be strongly advised or even required to take out travel insurance. Why is that so? Because the costs of medical treatment in case of a sudden illness or an accident, the travel assistance and maybe even repatriation are extremely high.
Compared to the costs of treatment abroad, the price of a travel insurance policy is almost negligible.
If you are visiting another country or just passing through, and you need travel assistance for any reason at all, we would suggest taking travel insurance or concluding a travel assistance contract beforehand. Travel assistance means that your insurer will take care of you and commit to solve any problems you may encounter while travelling outside your country of residence. We all know that unexpected situations may always occur. Contrary to the conviction that bad things happen only to other people, the reality is that we are all prone to all kinds of problems. So don’t leave this aspect of planning your trip to chance and make sure you have travel assistance before you set out.