What Is Worldwide Travel Insurance?
Worldwide travel insurance is a type of travel insurance sold on a time basis rather than a destination basis. This means the traveler is covered for travel to any country during a particular time period, usually one year.
Such policies may also be marketed as annual or multi-trip insurance.
Core Components
There are three main areas of coverage in worldwide travel insurance. The first is medical costs, including both the cost of treatment and associated costs such as being flown back home after an accident. Note that domestic medical insurance will usually offer limited coverage at best while the customer is overseas.
The second is cancellation of the holiday, which usually only covers specified and unavoidable reasons such as bereavement. The third is protection against the loss or theft of money or belongings while abroad.
Optional Extras
Travel policies offer a wide range of additional benefits in return for a higher premium. Common examples include costs such as accommodation incurred during a lengthy flight delay, indirect costs from hospitalization such as a co-traveller extending a visit to stay with the injured person, and cover against a holiday activity such as skiing or golf being cancelled during bad weather.
Exceptions
Most policies exclude injuries suffered while taking part in risky activity such as extreme sports, as well as any claim for an incident suffered while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
In almost all cases, policies offer no coverage for pre-existing conditions. That is, medical conditions that the customer was already suffering from when he took out the policy.
Terrorism
Worldwide travel insurance usually only covers terrorism cancellation in relation to specific events. Most policies allow for a cancellation for departures taking place within a certain period of time after an attack in the relevant country, though this time varies depending on the policy.
As a general rule, policies do not allow cancellation simply because the customer fears a terrorist attack in the relevant country. However, some policies offer an additional feature known as “Cancel For Any Reason” that would allow such a cancellation.
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