In this week’s guest post, our invited author discusses the importance of travel insurance and reading the small print of your policy.

Whether you’re planning long-term travel or you’re just going on a short holiday you need to make sure that you prepare correctly. Most of the time this means booking your accommodation/flights, changing over currency, checking you have your passport etc (take a look at Urban Travel Blog’s useful websites for some handy resources in this regard). However one thing that often gets a little over looked and should be looked at with more importance is health insurance. Generally speaking travel insurance is essential while travelling but many people tend to go for the cheapest package to save some money rather than considering all of the outcomes.

When you start to look around for health insurance while travelling you’ll see that there are a number of companies who claim to be able to help and they’ll offer a range of packages – so choosing one can be tough! What you need to do is look at what each package gives you, because the package that offers the best value for money isn’t always the cheapest one.

No one wants to think about falling ill or being injured while they are abroad, but this is something that you really have to consider as a possibility. Look at what different health insurance packages offer you and make sure that you are covered for any eventualities, however unlikely you think they might be.

On top of that you also have fact that some countries require you to have a level of accident and injury health insurance before they will grant you entry to the country. Once you have signed up to health insurance make sure that you carry the paperwork with you, so you can prove that you are covered should you need to.
If you are hospitalised while abroad you might also find that your treatment is delayed if you don’t have insurance – because they will want proof that you are going to be able to pay for your medical bills without the back-up of a health insurance policy.

There are different types of health insurance you can go for while travelling, so the best thing you can do is do a little research and work out which company and policy is going to be best for you. Also make sure that the insurance policy you go for covers you for the whole time you are away – some of them are only very short term policies, so make sure you check all of the details. Companies such as Freedom Health Insurance offer worldwide health insurance for travellers, so they are well worth checking out.