Travel Insurance Can Come In Handy

For Alan Abbey, a trek through Nepal turned into an adventure in Third World medical care when he fell off a steep, remote mountainside and broke both arms in 1987.

It took two days of walking and then driving to reach a Katmandu hospital, where Abbey paid a teenager to fetch curry for nourishment and painkillers from neighborhood kiosks because the hospital didn’t supply them.

“The doctor wanted to operate, but I said, ‘No way.’ I didn’t trust the anesthesia or sterile procedures,” said Abbey, an editor for the Albany Times Union. “Some English-speaking volunteers had warned me, ‘Don’t let them do anything to you.”’

Arms set in casts, Abbey paid less than $100 cash for the hospital care and negotiated his return flight to the United States, where his private insurance covered four operations and six months of physical therapy.

Footloose and adventurous, Abbey gave little thought to purchasing travel insurance prior to his trip to Nepal. Many travelers - especially young ones - don’t bother with it, but the more exotic your destination, the more you may need it.

Travel insurance is available through some health insurers and travel agents, and it may combine medical care with trip cancellation coverage. Rates often are based on a set fee per every $100 of coverage, but policies vary widely.

Most people who buy travel insurance are elderly and worry about canceling a trip because of illness or requiring care abroad for an existing health problem.

Some insurers may cover care abroad, but Medicare does not, and that’s the chief health care coverage for the elderly, said Mark Davis of Access America, the insurance broker for American Express Travel Services. Hospitals often demand cash, traveler’s checks or credit card payment from tourists, and that may be fine if you need a few stitches.

But in an emergency requiring good medical care, travel insurance can be handy.

Here is how travel insurance works: The insurer reimburses you for trip cancellations due to illness or death, either your own or that of a relative, or if the airline or tour group goes bankrupt.

Access American provides medical coverage in its deluxe plan, including $10,000 toward emergency medical and dental care and $25,000 for an emergency medical evacuation. Insurance for the cost of a $10,000 trip would cost an individual $564, but someone interested in mostly medical coverage would pay the minimum of $42, which would provide little reimbursement for a canceled trip.

The basic plan covers only the cost of a canceled trip, and Access America charges $6 per $100 of coverage, with a minimum of $300. Travelers tend to use the basic plan for insuring a plane ticket or less expensive trips.

In addition to travel insurance, consider the following health care issues before traveling abroad:

Visit a travel clinic at a local hospital to obtain the necessary shots and vaccinations if you’re visiting an exotic country.

Call your health plan and get information in writing on how to handle medical care overseas.

Carry a first-aid kit with bandages, antibacterial cream and thermometer, suggests the Mayo Clinic Web site (http:/ /www.mayo.ivi.com).

Pack more medicine than you think you’ll need. Get signed prescription slips in Latin and with generic names.