Travel with Children - ? travel insurance for 14 yr old traveling to London for the summer

My 14 year old is traveling to London for the summer with a friend. They will be staying with the friends aunt. I have regular medical insurance here in the US, but wondered if I should be buying her travel medical insurance. does anyone have any experience with this or advice? Necessary? A good company to use?

I lived in the U.K. with U.S. medical insurance and it wasn't a problem because costs are so much lower in the U.K.

I also gave birth to three children in France on U.S. insurance.

Talk to your insurance provider. Careful if you have an HMO. Mine wasn't but they required certain forms so I always had them with me to fill out and send in right away.

Don't be discouraged if any forms are initially rejected. I think some companies see anything foreign and systematically reject them! Just send it in again. Also, if it's any kind of procedure or whatever that's different, include an explanation letter. That can help.

My 14 year old is traveling to London for the summer with a friend. They will be staying with the friends aunt. I have regular medical insurance here in the US, but wondered if I should be buying her travel medical insurance. does anyone have any experience with this or advice? Necessary? A good company to use?

If your US medical insurance doesn't give you out of country coverage (most decent), spend the $35 to get travel insurance for your son.

http://www.squaremouth.com/quotes/158-877-6

My 14 year old is traveling to London for the summer with a friend. They will be staying with the friends aunt. I have regular medical insurance here in the US, but wondered if I should be buying her travel medical insurance. does anyone have any experience with this or advice? Necessary? A good company to use?

Would the friend's aunt be prepared to pay the out of pocket cost, and then you reimburse her? For that reason, I might look at travel insurance that includes direct payment for any expenses, as presumably the 14 year old won't have access to funds immediately? (You could give the 14 year old a credit card on your account if they are willing to put her name on the card - but I know a copy of the card with the parent's name on doesn't go down well in the UK, not to mention 14 year olds typically don't have credit card access at all in the UK).

Does your medical insurance cover you out-of-the country? Even if it does, in many cases, you'll have to pay the bill in full, and then get reimbursed by your insurance company.

I would really just purchase a travel insurance policy and make the medical insurance primary, if it isn't already for your state.

We usually purchase from TravelGuard and have had no problems with claims.

It's really cheap for what you get.

I would really just purchase a travel insurance policy and make the medical insurance primary, if it isn't already for your state.

We usually purchase from TravelGuard and have had no problems with claims.


^ A comprehensive policy (meaning that they pay and your medical does not) from TravelGuard is the way to go. :)

Do insurance companies in the U.S. provide this service for an extra fee?

Living in another country is different so go with the others' advice. If she needs anything, it would probably be on an emergency basis and we had a whole other deal for emergencies while we were at work.

When deciding, remember though that the costs are much less and she can probably out-of-pocket in the U.K. for a visit for a bug bite without much problem (and get reimbursed later). What you need is emergency coverage basically.

The main thing I would be looking to cover is "repatriation". In case of an emergency good travel medical insurance will cover the cost for you to visit your daughter in the hospital and/or send your daughter home which could be very expensive with ambulances, medical care in flight, etc.

IMHO the other stuff they sell like covering lost baggage or delayed flights is all b.s. and a waste of money. And imho you should ignore most of the medical coverage for things that you could easily pay out of pocket. Insurance is for protecting against low probability expenses that you can't afford. There are fewer of these in the UK than in the US and most things that would be really expensive travel insurance wouldn't cover anyways since they would just send her home and wash their hands of it at that point.

You should check whether your existing health insurance covers her for travel. It probably does for trips up to some length and you can probably pay to increase the length, usually up to something like 3 months.

The main thing I would be looking to cover is "repatriation". In case of an emergency good travel medical insurance will cover the cost for you to visit your daughter in the hospital and/or send your daughter home which could be very expensive with ambulances, medical care in flight, etc.

IMHO the other stuff they sell like covering lost baggage or delayed flights is all b.s. and a waste of money. And imho you should ignore most of the medical coverage for things that you could easily pay out of pocket. Insurance is for protecting against low probability expenses that you can't afford. There are fewer of these in the UK than in the US and most things that would be really expensive travel insurance wouldn't cover anyways since they would just send her home and wash their hands of it at that point.

You should check whether your existing health insurance covers her for travel. It probably does for trips up to some length and you can probably pay to increase the length, usually up to something like 3 months.

OP lives in the US and coverage is different here. Many people's health insurance plans will not cover them out of the US. Most available travel insurance policies are "bundled" together; they include flight delay, cancellation, missing baggage, along with medical insurance and emergency medical transportation. You can't just separate out one portion, and if you find a plan where you can, often it's more expensive then just purchasing the comprehensive one.

Any policy I've purchased does not "wash their hands" of it after you go home. They will continue to pay for any treatment up to the policy limits.

A policy with Travelguard for this child would probably cost less than $70.00, and IMO, would be well worth it, especially since a friend will be caring for the child. Anything to make it easier for them is helpful.

Thank you all for some great advice