Insurance for International Tourists to The USA

Do you need an insurance plan when you are visiting the USA? What types of coverage can you expect? What are the right plans while visiting the USA? You may have many questions like these in your mind if you plan to visit the USA in the near future. Here, we have listed some important details that will help you regarding opting for USA travel insurance plans.

Is it mandatory to get USA tourist insurance?

The answer to this question depends on the duration of your stay in the country. For a short stay in the USA, (for less than 6 months), you will not need USA visitor insurance, especially if you are a healthy person. However, if you intend to stay for more than 6 months in the USA, you can benefit from opting for one of the many travel insurance plans in the country. You can choose your plan based on the coverage you want, and the premium you can afford.

Coverage offered

Most of the USA tourist insurance companies offer plans that give you coverage against various expenses like the following:

• Charges for the visit to the doctor
• Costs related to hospitalization
• All costs for the medicines prescribed
• All procedures related to surgeries and treatments
• Physical therapy charges
• Charges spent on lab tests, X- rays, and other tests
• Emergency medical charges (related to ambulance and ER)

While the above expenses are usually covered by most USA travel insurance companies, they don’t usually cover the following:

• Costs related to maternity treatments
• Costs incurred for treating pre-existing medical conditions
• Costs incurred for dental treatments
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment expenses

Some of the best companies to opt for while buying USA visitor insurance

With too many insurance players in the American market, it can get slightly confusing for you to choose one from the many options available at your disposal. In the following sections, we have tried to make your decision easy by listing down some of the top and popular travel insurance companies in the USA for international tourists.

• Safe Travels Elite – This is one of the best low-cost insurance companies for choosing USA tourist insurance.  It offers fixed coverage with a scheduled benefits plan. Plans are available for a duration of 5 days to 364 days.
• VisitorSecure Plan – Perfect for short-term tourists to the USA, this company offers fixed coverage for covering the various medical expenses you might incur in the country. You can choose from four coverage options – $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 and $130,000. The benefits will vary as per the coverage chosen.
• Visitor Care Plan – This is one of the best companies to choose for short-term USA visitor insurance. This company offers three types of insurance plans – Lite, Plus and Premium. For maximum benefits, you can opt for the premium plan.
• Safe Travels USA Comprehensive – If you are looking for an exhaustive medical insurance company in the USA for international tourists, look no further than this one. It offers generic, inpatient, outpatient, dental, travel, life, and other general insurance plans for you to choose from.
• Patriot America Plus – Considered as one of the best USA travel insurance companies for individual and group plans, this one offers a range of fixed and comprehensive coverage plans to ensure you get full value for your money.

Main types of USA Travel Insurance Plans

When you choose one of the companies mentioned above, you will notice that they will ask you to choose from fixed coverage or comprehensive coverage plans. What is the meaning of these plans and how are they different from each other? Keep reading to know more about the same.

Fixed coverage plans

As the name indicates, these plans provide a fixed sum as coverage for medical procedures or treatments, regardless of the actual cost incurred for the same. If the insurance plan you have chosen gives you fixed coverage of $5000 towards hospitalization, you will only get this amount as coverage, even if you had actually spent $25000 towards hospitalization charges. Even the amount paid out by the company ($5000, in this case) depends on the deductible of the policy.

Since the coverage is very limited in nature, the premiums for these policies are quite low. Also, not many people prefer fixed coverage USA travel insurance, because you have to pay a deductible every time you submit a claim.

Comprehensive coverage plans

Under this plan, the insurance company agrees to pay out some percentage of the medical treatment costs up to a certain amount. If the actual treatment costs go beyond this amount, the company pays you 100% of the treatment costs. A company may agree to pay you around 90% of your hospitalization costs up to a maximum cost of $50,000. However, if your total hospitalization costs exceed $50,000, the company pays you the entire charges up to the maximum policy amount.

The premium costs for this policy are higher than the fixed coverage plans. The best thing about these plans is that you have to pay the deductible only once for the entire duration of the policy.

What to remember while buying USA travel insurance

Now that you know about the different insurance companies and plans when choosing USA tourist insurance, here are some basic tips that will help you select the right plan:

• Check for the conditions in the fine print – More often than not, people miss reading the conditions mentioned in the fine print while purchasing insurance policies. This leads to unpleasant surprises later. So, it is important to read through all the terms to know what is covered and more importantly, what is not covered, as per your insurance plan.
• Buy only what you want – If you plan to stay in the USA for a short term, you can buy only a basic insurance plan with the normal coverage features. These plans are quite affordable and protect you against some of the common risks. The ones that offer an exhaustive list of coverage details are quite costly. So, opt for insurance plans only if they provide you with the coverage that you need.