Visitors Care Insurance is a plan with a wide variety of plan options for travel outside a person’s home country. It offers basic coverage for short-term international travel. The visitors insurance plan offers three levels of maximum benefits, and three deductibles, for a total of nine options. The maximum visitor insurance benefits are $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000, and the deductibles are $0, $50, and $100.
You can request Visitors Care insurance for any period from 5 days to 12 months, with a possibility of extension for another 12 months. The extension, however, will fall under a new policy, with new parameters such as deductibles and pre-existing conditions.
Some features are common to all Visitors Care insurance policies. These include emergency medical evacuation, accident death benefit in case of common carrier travel, repatriation of remains (in case of death), and coverage in the home country for in-between trips home.
While the presence of coverage is standard across the Visitor Care Insurance plan options, the level of coverage differs. The common medical benefits include ambulance charges, inpatient and outpatient treatment, physician consultation, surgery, physician visits, diagnostic tests, prescription medicines, nursing charges, and physiotherapy. Dental expenses are covered by the visitor care insurance plan in case of damage to natural teeth due to an accident.
Benefits under Visitors Care are not just capped by the maximum benefit chosen, but also depend on the limits set for each benefit. The plan holder must pay the amount that exceeds the specified maximum for that benefit.
Visitor health insurance typically provides coverage for the treatment of any new injury or illness. Pre-existing conditions, wellness visits and maternity are usually not covered.
While it is not necessary to use a hospital or doctor within a preferred provider network, providers within the Preferred Provider Organization may be able to bill the policy directly, thus enabling cashless billing. Various resources, such as the Preferred Provider Organization link to locate a provider in the United States, or the Visitors Care Insurance online database for international health care providers, are available. Round-the-clock travel-related assistance is also provided and comes in handy in an emergency.
Visitor insurance policies are underwritten by reputed insurance firms. The underwriters for Visitors Care insurance are Sirius International Insurance Corporation (publ). A.M. Best rates the company A (excellent) and S&P rates the company A.
Ray Sondeo often writes about Visitor medical insurance.