We all know someone who has gotten hurt riding their bicycle. Or maybe it was you… While it’s bad when this happens at home, it can be much rougher if it happens when you are abroad.

We suspect that everyone on our mailing list has some form of medical insurance. However, your medical insurance may not cover you when you are traveling outside of the United States. If you are covered by Medicare, you most likely do not have have coverage outside of the US. However, if you have a Medigap policy or other secondary plan, you may have some coverage. It is important to make sure that you have coverage before you travel. Just call your insurance carrier or 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) and ask them.

If you have paid for your trip with a travel credit card, you may also have some coverage. However, sometimes medical and evacuation coverage is excluded. Medical coverage covers the medical treatment that you receive while traveling. Evacuation coverage pays for the additional expenses that you may incur getting back home. Note that credit cards can change their coverage and unless you read every communication from your credit card company, you may not be aware of the change. Best to check with your credit card company before you travel if you are relying on their medical or evacuation coverage.

If you do not have medical coverage, we recommend that you purchase a travel insurance policy that provides it. We recommend this even if you are traveling to a country that has socialized medicine – such as Denmark. This protects you if something happens to you on your way to Denmark.

Travel insurance policies tend to cover many contingencies including trip interruption or cancellation, lost or damaged baggage, rental car coverage, medical and dental expenses, as well as emergency evacuation. Each benefit will most likely have a dollar limit. It is important to be comfortable with the limits. The policies will most likely have a pre-existing condition exclusion. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you will want to talk about this with the travel insurance provider to understand if it is covered or not.

You could purchase a policy just for your trip, or you may want to consider an annual policy. An annual policy is most likely to be economical if you take more than two trips a year and it can even cover you when you go on a long weekend, if you are more than 100 miles from home. We at Adventures in Tandem purchase the AllTrips Premier Plan with Allianz Global Assistance. It costs under $500 for a year of coverage for both of us.

Emergency Transportation, also known as Medical Evacuation, coverage is as important as medical coverage. While we hate to focus on what can go wrong on a trip, we feel that it is important to highlight this so that people can be prepared. Let’s say you fall and break your leg while cycling. Your medical coverage can pay for the medical care you need to repair your leg, but now you need to get home. Economy class is too tight when you need to keep your leg straight and elevated. Business class airline tickets bought at the last minute can frequently cost $6000 per person, or more. And just how are you going to be able to get around the airport? Having a nurse join you on your travels could be pretty useful. This can all cost pretty big bucks. Maybe even more than the surgery cost. This really could happen. (Well it actually did.)

Another useful aspect of having travel insurance is that the plan may have a “Concierge” service. This is someone who can help you with your travel issues. They can help you arrange for a hotel when you forgot to book one, or help you re-book your flights home when there are travel delays. They can also help you when you have experienced a medical event while traveling.

Having a background as an actuary, I have learned two things.

First, don’t feel like you need to insure stuff that you can afford to take a loss on. You decide how much that is. Will a few thousand dollars really hurt? If so, then you should also insure for your trip costs. If you could afford to be out the cost of a trip if you have to cancel, then you may not need to have a policy with high trip cancellation limits. Insure the things that could really be a financial hardship – such as the cost for medical treatment or medical evacuation.

Second, if you feel like the chances of you having a claim are larger than the average population buying the policy, then recognize that you are getting a bargain. Cycling can be dangerous. You are more likely to get hurt on a cycling trip than you would if you go on a bus tour vacation. Cycling may result in better health over the long run and is certainly more fun than the bus tour, but you have to also recognize the risks. We feel that the premiums charged for travel insurance (usually in the $200 range for a single tour, and as we stated, about $500 for a full year) are a pretty good bargain.

We know that thinking about the things that can go wrong on a tour isn’t fun. But being prepared for things that could happen on your tour is really important.

Safe travels and we hope to see you on a tour soon!