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It is known to us that Medicare Supplements plans or Medigap polices are sold to the consumers by the private organizations or companies. These types of insurance polices are totally part of private companies. But tall the schemes are created only to pay off the exceeding expenditure that your Original policy fails to cover so it cab said that these plans have close proximity with the Original Medicare plans. And it can also be said that these policies are not independent policies. So the bottom line is a person has to enroll his name at first for an Original Medicare Plans and after then only he can be under the Medicare Supplement Plans or Medigap Plans. However, the point to be mentioned is that the Medicare Supplement Plans are specially meant for bridging the gap between the policy coverage of the original Medicare plan and the actual medical cost payable by the beneficiary. This is a good reason why these plans are also known as the Medigap policies.

However, the Medicare Supplement Plans are totally administered and sold by the private health insurance companies and there are twelve standard Medigap plans available. There are a lot of medical costs that are covered by the Original Medicare plans. Rather to say almost all of the medical costs are covered by the original Medicare plans but still there remain some costs that the Original Medicare does not cover therefore in such situations there is the need for the Medicare Supplement Plans. It helps the beneficiary to pay for those costs are not been included under the policy coverage of the original Medicare plans. These plans range under the letter covers A through L and each of them have their own policy coverage. But all of these provide the basic benefits of plan A and B. The plans A and B are known as the basic plans as these plans provide benefits similar to the Original Medicare.

Now the Medigap policies are mostly under the administration of the private insurance companies the government have not much of hold on them. But the insurance companies are also allowed to sell only 12 standardized Medigap plans ranging from A through L. And according to the law, whatever company may sell the Medigap insurance the policies under the same letter cover should provide the same benefits. This means that if you buy a Medigap insurance plan under plan C, the company you are purchasing it is bound to provide the same benefits and coverage as provided by the other companies. But the amount of policy premium may differ from company to company. Each policy under the different letter covers has a different set of benefits. As for example starting from 2006, the Medigap Plans H, I, J, cannot be sold with prescription-drug benefit, although people who already had those policies prior to the date can keep them. All the twelve Medigap policies cover the basic benefits, but each one has some additional benefits along with them. In brief it can be said that the Plan A is the most basic plan.

Attractive Medicare Supplemental Insurance, Medicare supplemental plans and Supplemental Medicare California find out here.

As President Barack Obama prepares to address the nation tonight, a new survey provides a boost to his claim that the health care system is at a perilous place and in need of reform. Since September of last year, nearly five million adults have lost their insurance.

A survey of more than 29,000 individuals in June by Gallup shows that 16 percent of Americans over the age of 18 are currently without health insurance. That number reflects what the survey’s authors describe as a “small but measurable uptick in the percentage of uninsured adults.”

Indeed, the average number of uninsured adults recorded by Gallup in 2008 was 14.8 percent. In September 2008, the monthly total recorded was at a yearly low of 13.9 percent.

While the difference in percentage may seem small, the aggregate number of additional uninsured is vast.

According to 2007 U.S. Census data, the population of those 18 years or older stood at 228,196,823. By using that figure, in September of 2008, the number of uninsured adults would have totaled approximately 31.7 million. Today, the figure stands at 36.5 million — meaning that 4.8 million adults have, in less than a year, lost their insurance coverage.

That said, the percentage of uninsured adults stood at 16.6 percent in May 2009, meaning that the situation has improved slightly but still remains dire.

Digging deeper into the numbers, one gets the sense of just how tricky a political situation the health care debate poses for both parties. The demographic that stands to gain the most from an increase in insurance coverage happens to represent the fastest-expanding voting bloc. More than 41 percent of Hispanic Americans are uninsured, Gallup reports, which is by far the largest segment of the U.S. population. The next highest groups are those who make less than $36,000 a year (28.6 percent uninsured) and those aged 18 to 29 (27.6 percent).

It is hard not to see the benefits for the political party that steps up to help resolve the health care problems of millions of Hispanic and young Americans. Just as, conversely, it is conceivable that the party that is blamed for obstructing comprehensive reform could suffer serious consequences at the polls.

It should be noted just how comprehensive the Gallup is in recording this data. Officially titled the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the study involved conducting at least 1,000 tracking interviews each day and 178,000 since the beginning of the year. The maximum margin of sampling error is plus-or-minus one percentage point.

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Aetna
Aetna health insurance

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The number of people officially recognized as having no healthcare insurance coverage in the United States has jumped from 46 million in 2007 to 52 million in 2009. The Center for American Progress reported in May that the rate of uninsurance was up substantially in all 50 states. The rate of increase, based on research from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, means the rate at which uninsurance is increasing in the US is without precedent.

Acceleration in the rate of total uninsurance (having zero coverage, either private or public) may be attributable to the recession, which began in December of 2007. Having entered recession, according to official determinations, in December 2007, the US economy may have started seeing fallout from underlying flaws in the economic landscape earlier that year, possibly by summer. The escalating costs of health insurance, at rates of growth which economists now believe are unsustainable, likely pushed people off employer-paid care.

California and Nevada now have 23% of their populations with zero health insurance coverage. Florida has 25%, and Texas 28%. There are 6.24 million people in Texas with no health insurance coverage, 7.7 million in California. There are 129 nations in the world whose entire population is smaller than the number of Californians with no access to healthcare. Even the much smaller New Jersey, with 17% of its population uninsured, has more people without health insurance 1.33 million than 71 nations have total inhabitants.

As reported by the Center for American Progress [PDF]:

Its important to point out that the national average increase obscures the unprecedented increase that some states have seen over the last two years, including a 22-percent increase in North Carolina, and Indiana, and a 21-percent increase in Nevada. Approximately 890,000 more people are uninsured in California, 551,000 more people are uninsured in Texas, and 506,000 more people are uninsured in Florida than in 2007.

The figures mean the existing health insurance system is failing at rates that are crisis-level and accelerating. Some blame insurance company executive policies that have shifted the way of deriving insurance profits from the insurance business itself to parallel investments and even financial derivatives. Others say insurers have too long sold policies they were not able to fulfill with established premium intake, a strategy that pushed up sales, but eventually also drove up premiums to untenable highs.

The jump in uninsured Americans now means added budgetary pressure on states, which report a significant increase in the number of people seeking Medicaid reimbursement, due to their inability to qualify for or to pay for private insurance coverage. Massachusetts, specifically, was not included in the overall study, because its version of universalized healthcare coverage exempts the state from some of the particular trends seen in the other 49 states.

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Golden Rule
Golden Rule Insurance

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As President Barack Obama prepared to take to the airwaves to defend his health care overhaul last week, Hernando school officials got a little insurance sticker shock of their own.

The district’s insurance carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, is seeking a 21.5 percent rate increase.

“We expected increases in health insurance, but you don’t really expect 21 percent increases,” said Heather Martin, the district’s executive director of business services. “It’s very disappointing in these economic times.”

The actual increase will likely come in at least a few percentage points below that, Martin said. Last year, for example, Blue Cross started with an 18 percent increase. By tweaking plans and raising deductibles and co-pays, the two sides brought that down to 12 percent.

Martin said she’s hopeful this year’s increase will be closer to 15 percent and that the district’s insurance committee composed of staffers and members of both unions had made progress toward that number during talks with Blue Cross on Wednesday.

Blue Cross declined to comment beyond a written statement issued through spokesman Mark Wright.

“The specifics of our negotiations with any client are confidential. However, I can say that for groups such as this, projected claims experience for the upcoming plan year is the determining factor for premium rate calculations.”

In other words, the company uses the district’s claims history and estimates for what next year’s claims will be to justify the rate increase.

The district’s history isn’t exactly pretty, Martin acknowledged.

Claims have been “relatively high” in recent years, she said. Last year, Blue Cross paid more than $14 million in claims.

“We are not an extremely healthy district,” Martin said. “We have not improved it.”

Martin noted, though, that the district is “punished” for the lack of urgent care facilities in the county. That forces employees to go to hospital emergency rooms, an expensive way to get urgent care that drives up the district’s clams, she said.

The School Board has agreed in past years to have the district absorb most or all of insurance premium increases and should try to do the same again this year, said board member Sandra Nicholson.

“If there’s any possibility of us being able to eat the increase, I think we probably will,” Nicholson said.

That could be a tall order, considering this year’s proposed budget has only $1 million in reserves that aren’t set aside for some purpose.

But it would help employees who have seen out-of-pocket costs rise, said Colin Davies, president of the Hernando United School Workers.

Davies said some employees have decided to go without insurance because they can no longer afford it, and he predicted that number could rise.

“You choose whether to eat or have insurance,” Davies said.

The unions accepted smaller pay raises last year in exchange for the district covering more insurance premium costs. Insurance will likely dominate negotiations again this year, said Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association.

Vitalo expressed the kind of sentiment voiced by many Americans and that Obama says is motivating him to get health care reform done sooner rather than later.

“It’s probably the most legalized form of extortion there is,” Vitalo said.

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Florida Health Insurance
Texas Health Insurance

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State regulators say Pennsylvania has one of the least competitive health insurance markets in the nation and they want to find out why.

The state Insurance Department has launched a formal examination of the four nonprofit Blue Cross insurers in Pennsylvania - Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Capital Blue Cross, Highmark Inc. and Independence Blue Cross - to determine if they engage in anti-competitive or unfair trade practices that violate state law.

The examination will focus on whether Pennsylvania consumers could reap the benefits of lower costs and greater choices from having a market that is more competitive, department officials said.

Pennsylvania’s market is less competitive than in nine other populous states because of a key indicator, state Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario said in an interview Monday.

That indicator is the market share of the Blues compared to major national commercial carriers.

The combined Blue market share is almost 60 percent in Pennsylvania, compared to Blue market shares ranging from 18 percent to 48 percent in other states. Texas has a Blue market share of 18 percent, New York 33 percent and California 24 percent, according to a department document.

That means national commercial carriers such as Aetna, UnitedHealth and Health America have a smaller market foothold in Pennsylvania than in those other nine states, Ario said.

The examination will explore whether the Blues’ territorial licensing agreements in Pennsylvania, under which each Blue does business only in its own region, are anti-competitive in nature.

If the Blues compete with each other instead of dividing up territory, then the national insurers and state-based insurers such as Geisinger Health Plan will have more of an opportunity to compete for customers, too, added Ario.

Other issues are whether the Blues use their market power to unfair advantage to force prices on providers and whether they have agreements among themselves that hinder competition.

Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh-based Highmark Inc. have a business relationship dating back to April 2005, when Highmark invested $34 million to buy a 40 percent stake and several board seats of two of the local Blue Cross’ subsidiaries. Highmark-appointed directors were given control over any major corporate changes.

They strengthened their business ties in 2007, as the Wilkes-Barre-based Blue Cross moved several popular insurance plans into one of the subsidiaries co-owned by Highmark. The shift meant more than half of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s 585,000 customers at the time were subscribed to health plans partly owned and fundamentally influenced by Highmark.

“We welcome state regulators’ periodic reviews of market conditions,” said Anthony Matrisciano, spokesman for Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in a statement.

He said Blue Cross of NEPA has special obligations that affect its market share.

“As a Blue plan, we do have a unique position in the market in that we are the only insurers required to serve those considered uninsurable or high risk by other carriers,” added Matrisciano. “We are also the only carriers in the state statutorily mandated to serve as the ‘insurers of last resort.’”

The examination will start months after the collapse of a proposed merger between Highmark and Independence Blue Cross in January. The two companies withdrew their application several days before Ario had planned to deny the merger.

The commissioner said the merger didn’t satisfy the competition test, and a consolidated company would have had a 51 percent market share - an unprecedented level in a single state.

An examination is similar to a fact-finding process where the results will be made public. The department can enter into agreements with the Blues as a result or offer proposals for lawmakers to consider.

The department hired the law firm of Hangley Aronchick & Segal to serve as examiner.

The four Blues pay the cost for their own examination, Ario said. Therefore, he doesn’t think the undertaking will have a great impact on the department’s budget.

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Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
Independence Blue Cross

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Hamilton Health Care System and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia have reached an agreement to provide health care services for the University System of Georgia.

The agreement will allow any of the 50,000 employees and retirees of the university system, including those at Dalton State College, to receive care at either Hamilton Medical Center or Murray Medical Center as part of Blue Cross preferred provider organization (PPO) network. The agreement will also mean university employees and retirees will have access to more than 200 physicians in the area, according to Blue Cross.

In a statement, Blue Cross said Hamilton placed talks to cover all of Blue Cross PPO customers on hold on July 14. But Hamilton and Physicians Health Services, which represents almost all of the areas doctors, say they will begin negotiations next month with Blue Cross and other major health insurance companies that may bring the hospitals and local doctors into those companies PPO networks.

We are planning to start having language discussions, contract language discussions next month, said David McCreery, president of Physicians Health Services. That is the first step. Depending on how quickly they are willing to move on that, we are ready to proceed with at least the four major players in the marketplace.

McCreery says those companies are Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Aetna and Cigna, the four largest health insurance companies nationwide.

We plan to actively contact them, not just sit back and wait on them to call us, he said.

Hamilton, and many local doctors, do not currently accept those major plans.

We want the community to know we have heard the communitys request to access our services through a wider variety of insurance plans, and we are working hard to extend our relationship with Blue Cross and other national insurers, said Hamilton CEO John Bowling.

Will having reached an agreement on university employees make it easier for Hamilton and Blue Cross to reach an overall agreement?

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia has approached the two discussions independently of one another and does not feel that one discussion will impact the other, Blue Cross said in the statement.

Bowling says that the university agreement might make it a bit easier since each side is now more familiar with each others concerns.

The caveat would be that this is a Board of Regents matter. Therefore, they control it, not Blue Cross. Blue Cross just serves as a third party administrator. Blue Cross is not the payer there, and where Blue Cross is the payer, theres likely to be some different contractual language, he said.

Hamilton and Physicians Health Services say clinical integration developing a common set of clinical protocols for all physicians will be key to contract negotiations. They had set a deadline of July 31 to complete that process.

The plan was to try to do that. It was really a deadline requested by the Chamber of Commerce. We are running a little behind that schedule. There have been some unanticipated difficulties with the information systems of the physicians, said McCreery. But we have made a lot of progress. We are getting real close to saying that we are clinically integrated. Were trying to make sure the difficulties we have encountered dont slow down our ability to engage in the contracting process.

In April, several local business leaders sent a letter to Bowling asking for local health care providers to take part in a larger number of health insurance networks.

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Georgia Health Insurance
Coventry Health Care

EasyToInsureME offers clients the easiest way to buy individual health insurance. Free services include instant online health insurance quotes, custom proposals for each client, free phone consultations, and 10-minute application by phone. Nobody does what we do for our clients!

Our loved ones are precious, and so is their health. That’s why when it comes to family medical insurance, we want to be sure we get a good family health insurance quote so that we can choose the plan that’s right for our situation. That’s where a free family health insurance quote from R. Curtis Insurance can be a great help. By knowing your family’s personal situation, R. Curtis Insurance can give you a family health insurance quote and sort out which plan is right for you.

In preparing to review your family health insurance quote from R. Curtis Insurance, it helps to understand the three basic plans of most family medical insurance: Health Maintenance Organization, Preferred Provider Organization, or Point of Service.

Health Maintenance Organization- This form of family health insurance plan came into widespread use about 20 years ago as a way to hold down medical costs while providing a range of preventive health care services. A health maintenance organization, or HMO, works well for families that want to keep their out-of-pocket medical costs low and are willing to give up the option to select their own physicians to save money.

HMO participants must select a primary care physician, or PCP. This doctor is the physician that families see most of the time for regular check-ups, vaccinations, minor illnesses and injuries. The PCP also serves as the “gatekeeper” for more specialized medical care, since an HMO requires a patient to get a referral from their primary physician in order to see a specialist in the network.

The big advantage to families of an HMO is that it keeps your out-of-pocket costs down while offering a wider range of preventive medical care, such as well child check-ups, vaccinations, dental check-ups, vision screening and so on. There’s usually no deductible to fulfill in an HMO plan and the co-payments for office visits and medications are often much lower than in other plans.

There is a drawback to an HMO for families, however. With this type of family medical insurance, there’s little or no coverage for medical services obtained outside the HMO network. Should your child suffer an injury while you’re out of town, there will be some coverage for immediate emergency care, but any extensive medical therapy will have to wait until you’re able to see your primary care physician and get a referral.

Preferred Provider Organization- This kind of family medical insurance plan, known as a PPO, offers more flexibility in the choice of health care services. With a PPO, the insurance company has made agreements with a network of doctors and hospitals to provide medical services at discounted rates. Participants in a PPO pay a co-payment for each office visit and must fulfill a deductible before the insurance company starts paying for other medical services. As long as the doctor or clinic is within the PPO network, there’s usually no need for additional referrals. However, any out-of-PPO medical care will cost more out of pocket and the insurance company will probably pay less of the total cost.

Point of Service- This kind of family medical insurance plan, referred to as POS, combines some of the best features of HMOs and PPOs. Participants still must select a primary care physician from the insurer’s network, but this means that families establish a relationship with one physician who gets to know their particular health care circumstances well. POS plans also provide for more preventive care services, a big advantage for growing families. There’s often no deductible for primary medical care with a POS plan.

However, like a PPO, a POS plan pays a larger portion of medical costs only when families use physicians within the network. There’s a deductible required for out-of-network services, and the insurance company pays a smaller portion of out-of-network costs. For more families, this can result in a major financial outlay while waiting for the insurer to process a claim for reimbursement.

R. Curtis Insurance understands that family medical insurance represents a complicated, major purchase. That’s why the agency gladly offers a free family health insurance quote to help find the medical insurance that works best for your family.

We all want to give our families the best we can afford, especially when it comes to health care. While family medical insurance plans can be confusing at first, a little study will help you understand the ways that different family medical insurance plans work and how to get the best family health insurance quote.

Most family medical insurance offered today comes in three basic plans: Health Maintenance Organization, Preferred Provider Organization, or Point of Service. Here’s how they works.

Health Maintenance Organization- A health maintenance organization, or HMO, operates kind of like a community clinic. People who elect this option are choosing to get lower out-of-pocket medical costs by giving up the option of going to a specialist without a referral from their primary care physician.

In an HMO, participants are required to choose a primary care physician, who serves as the “gatekeeper” of all your medical care. You’ll see this doctor most of the time for your health care. If you need a specialist for some injury or ailment, you will need to get a referral from your primary care physician to one of the specialists within the network.

An HMO’s advantage is that it usually offers more preventative health care services than other plans. This means that an HMO could be the family medical insurance that works best for you, especially if you have young children who need vaccinations, dental and eye check-ups and so on. HMOs will usually give you a much lower family health insurance quote and often no deductible, which make them appealing for cash-strapped young families. The drawback to an HMO is that there’s usually no coverage for any medical services outside the network except for emergencies. If your son or daughter breaks an arm while you are on vacation, you will have some coverage for an emergency room visit, but you will probably need to delay any extensive treatment until you get home to your network physician.

Preferred Provider Organization- This type of plan, known as a PPO, offers a network of doctors and hospitals with which the insurance company has agreements regarding the cost of medical services. The providers have contracted with the insurance company to offer a discounted family health insurance quote. Participants in a PPO pay a co-payment for each office visit and must fulfill a deductible before the insurance company starts paying for other medical services. Covered medical services are available from out-of-network doctors but it will cost you more out-of-pocket, because the insurance company probably will pay a smaller percentage of the cost of those medical services.

Point of Service- This kind of plan, referred to as POS, combines features of HMOs and PPOs. Participants must select a primary care physician from the insurer’s network, but there’s usually no deductible to fulfill for primary medical care. POS plans also typically offer coverage for a wider range of preventive care services than a preferred provider organization. However, like an HMO, a POS plan pays the greater percentage of medical care costs only for those physicians within the network. When getting a family health insurance quote for this plan you will find that there is a deductible required for out-of-network services, plus the insurer most likely will pay a much smaller percentage of out-of-network medical costs.
Armed with this information as well as a family health insurance quote, you should be able to choose the family medical insurance that works best for your family’s needs.

Are you looking for a good family medical insurance plan? When you go to RCurtisins, you are sure to get a family health insurance quote thats just right for you.

How to find the insurance policy that’s right for you.

Whether they like it or not, a growing number of Americans will be taking into their own hands the task of insuring their health. That’s the gist of a survey showing that nearly one in five employers plan to stop offering health benefits over the next three to five years, according Hewitt Associates ( HEW - news - people ), a global human resources consulting firm. Among employers who continue to offer benefits, doing so will mean grappling with a 9% increase in medical costs next year alone, as forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Whether it’s now or some time in the future, there’s a good chance that at some point you will face the need to insure yourself. Yet one-fourth of adults between the ages of 25 and 34 go without health insurance, because of costs or the sense that they don’t need it.

No matter how young and healthy you are, consider health insurance a must. A single visit to a hospital can cost thousands of dollars and have dire consequences for your financial health. “You could potentially run up a huge debt that could take years to pay off,” says Devon Herrick, a health care economist and senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas.

In Pictures: Eight Ways To Cut Your Health Care Costs

The lack of insurance will affect the quality of care you receive if you do have to go to the doctor. Emergency rooms are legally required to provide you with “stabilizing care,” but if you’re not in a life-threatening situation, the hospital doesn’t have to take you in as a patient. Even if it does, those without health insurance are often charged far more than insurance company patients pay for the same treatments.

“These are often double or triple what insurers would pay,” says Herrick.

What’s more, if you are uninsured and your ailment is not life-threatening, you may be told to take your chances at a free health clinic or be stuck waiting for treatment until you can pay for it yourself.

If your employer doesn’t offer health benefits, consider the insurance options available to individuals.

Premium vs. Deductible
Premium and deductible are two important words to understand when reviewing health insurance plans. Your premium is how much you pay the insurance company each month. Your deductible is the amount of money you have to pay on your own before your insurance company begins covering your costs.

Say you pay $60 a month for a policy with a $5,000 deductible. You break your leg skiing, resulting in $10,000 worth of bills. You will be on the hook for the first $5,000 and then your insurance will kick in and pay the balance.

There is a direct relationship between premium and how well you’re covered: you pay less money if the insurer accepts less monetary responsibility for your medical costs, and vice versa. When you’re young and healthy (and broke), consider paying less each month for a higher deductible.

When making a decision about what kind of insurance plan to buy, think about your lifestyle and medical history. If you have no serious health issues that you’re aware of, and do not partake in a lot of risky pursuits, consider paying something along the lines of $60 a month for a policy that only kicks in after you’ve paid several thousand dollars yourself out-of-pocket. If you are an avid rock climber, have a family history of medical problems or couldn’t shoulder the financial burden of big medical bills all at once, consider paying a higher premium for a lower deductible.

You’re Only Young Once
Health insurers consider several risk factors in determining how risky it is to cover you. That includes the state you live in, your gender, medical history, current health (for example, if you’re a smoker), and your age.

“The good thing about being a new graduate is you tend to be very healthy, so your costs tend to be pretty low,” says Herrick.

The time to buy insurance is before you get sick. If you’re uninsured and have a medical problem, insurance companies will most likely declare it a “preexisting condition” and refuse to pay for any treatment related to it. Once you have insurance, however, there are legal limits that prevent insurers from suddenly canceling your coverage.

Shopping Around
A great place to begin is online. Check out insurance-comparison sites like EasyToInsureME.com which offer quotes for competing plans.

EasyToInsureME.com offers clients the easiest way to buy individual health insurance. Free services include instant online health insurance quotes, custom proposals for each client, free phone consultation, and 10-minute application by phone. Nobody does what we do for our clients!

June 25th, 2009

Looking for Gap Year insurance? Here are some common pitfalls to be aware of when choosing your Gap Year travel insurance policy.

Firstly don’t buy the wrong policy! It’s easily done. For instance, a cheap tourist policy is unlikely to cover working abroad, and it would be unwise to rely on your parent’s annual family travel insurance to cover you as this may not cover you at all. So the advice here is to buy a good quality, specialist Gap Year Travel Insurance policy.

Secondly, beware of exemptions. All policies have them, and there are huge variations. So you really do need to read and understand the small print to ensure that the cover is sufficient for your circumstances. Check it covers the sports and activities you may want to do, and remember that many of the more risky activities that travellers undertake are ’spur of the moment’ decisions. Check that you are covered to work, whether paid or voluntary.

Thirdly, you may need to cancel your trip. You should buy your travel insurance as soon as you book your trip to ensure that you are covered to cancel should you or a close relative become ill or have an accident. Sadly, it is not uncommon for a traveller to suffer a family bereavement during their time away. Some specialist providers offer cover for the cost of travelling home and back in the event of an unexpected loss of a family member.

And then there is the situation, increasingly common these days, of the airline you are booked to travel on going bust or the FCO issues a warning against all but essential travel as they did when Swine Flu struck Mexico. Remember that it may not be you cancelling the trip. Do check that you are covered if an airline goes bust and what cover is provided should there be a travel warning for a country that you are due to visit.

Finally ‘it’s not the cost that matters but the cover that counts.’ So long as you plan your trip well and take measures to ensure your safety, you are certain to enjoy the wonderful adventure that Gap Year travel offers.

travel insurance
travel insurance
travel insurance