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What do people do for medical insurance when traveling back to the U.S.? If I move to Costa Rica, I’ll be giving up my medical insurance which costs me $800/mo. at the moment and goes up every year. International insurance in CR is bought on a yearly basis and I might want to self-insure instead. Is there any short-term travel insurance available? Thank you!
I am keeping my Canadian VISA charge card, it has automatic medical travel insurance which costs my $60 US a year. I will be looking into the effectiveness of the coverage once I am a pensionado in Costa Rica. The key to keeping my card is having a mailing address in Canada. You maybe able to us an American charge card , and get such coverage. How well it will work if I need it when I travel, is another question all together. Other postings here, talk about medical coverage – some self-insure – they are probably the accountants.
My lawyer indicated I can sign up for the Costa Rican health plan, but I look at that as a ‘catastrophic health plan’ only, since their private medical care is also excellent from what I am told. Good luck Sunshine!Are you sure you have medical insurance in general with a credit card, Curly? Are you sure it isn’t just medical insurance if you’re injured on a common carrier if you bought your ticket with it or medical insurance outside of Canada? I’m looking for medical insurance for travel back in the U.S.
Edited on Aug 30, 2006 14:45
There are numerous aspects to the Canadian Visa Charge Card – in Canadian funds (also have a US Advantgae Visa charge card in US funds, but it works differently: I get benefits, but for the US one I have to keep a minimum amount in US the account, pay no fees, and the charges are automatically deducted from my US account monthly, so I never worry about my credit rating getting messed up – always pay in full but can choose to do a minimum monthly payment – I never make a bank rich – I have had a card since I was 18 and never paid one cent in interest:
For the main Canadian one I pay $99 (Can) a year for the Canadian one, and have a Canadian mailing address – that is in another province – and I get back 1% of my annual purchases – this year is a heavy Visa year – This card includes the NAL service which is similar to the best AAA (CAA) membership – worth more then my annual fee, plus if use the card to charge a trip it covers trip interruption, has car rental insurance, lost lugage, $100 for clothes if luggae lost for same day use, plus a medical component, plus much more – I pay an additional $66 Canadian ($60 US) for an upgraded trip out of country health coverage insurance, for as many time a year but you can only be away a maximum of 180 (one-hundred-eighty days) each trip otherwise you must pay more – it also covers me for trips witin Canada – Oh, and I do not have to charge everything on this card to use this insurance.
My Mom used to pay extra for travel health insurance because she was over some wierd age, like 55 and the unlimited trip policy was a once year payment – like dah’!. Hope that helps.
Call all the banks and see the ones offering you the best option. Also read the fine print, which is what I did over a decade ago when this Visa charge card first became available – then it included travel health insurance – now it does not, such is life, you ge a charge out of it oneway or the other, (It’s okay to groan, now.)
Happy to see you’re uP and about one of these days! Just rememeber not to step or dance on to many toes!
Curly, signing over & out in his twisted way: “a sMILe is a FrowN uPSIDe DowN” copyright dah’ curlyoneI think we’re talking apples and oranges here, Curly. You seem to be talking from the point of view of a Canadian who has medical insurance because you’re a Canadian and you also seem to be talking about traveling out of Canada. I’m talking about giving up my American medical insurance and traveling back to the U.S.
I was in the hospital for nine days in January of 2005 with a medical problem. The hospital bill was about $44,000. The bills for the four doctors who worked on me came to about $5,000 total. That’s $49,000. International insurance purchased in CR pays 70% up to a fixed amount. Thirty percent of $49,000 is $1470. Okay. For a woman my age this is somewhere in the area of the cost of International insurance for one year. However, what if I’d had a severe head trauma and had been in the operating room and/or intensive care for 8-12 hours and/or a few days in the U.S. until I was stabilized and transported back to CR, paying 30%?
Please reread what I wrote. This has nothing to do with my Canadian health insurance plan. In Canada, I have used it when I travelled out of my Province. All things are not as they seem. This Canadian Health Insurance is issued by the province/state and does NOT cover you for international travel, but does cover you for some travel in Canada but not always, as I have found out.If I am gone from Canad for more then 6 months I lose FREE access, to the Canadian Health system.
So maybe our apples and oranges are just kumquats in disquise!?
The point here is every system has within it solutions, that may not be apparent on the surface, but they do exist. The key is discover the legal anomallies (or inefficiencies/weaknesses that are inherent in almost all systems), and utilize them to your advantage. Sometimes looking at the glass from the inside out obscures our vision, so we have to look at it from the outside in. Like dah’!
If that makes sense to you, then you are a better person then I am Chalie Brown, or should I say Sunshine…PPI found a nice surprise recently. I have Blue Cross/ Blue Shield Gov Plan (retired from US Postal Service) They have told me my insrance is good anywhere in the world, The only thing is I have to pay for treatment first and then submit paperwork to get reimbursed. I called them and told them I wasconsidering relocating to Costa Rica,and they didn’t bat an eye.
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