Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

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WolfgangPauli
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Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by WolfgangPauli »

Hi,

I am heading to K'stan for a wedding and was wondering what people do for short term health insurance in a "far away land" like that? Any thoughts?
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Watty
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by Watty »

Here is a link to a prior thread where a source for travel insurance is discussed, I would give them a call and see what they say.

viewtopic.php?t=214717

Also check with your health insurance company to see what coverage you have overseas.
InMyDreams
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by InMyDreams »

Watty wrote:Also check with your health insurance company to see what coverage you have overseas.
+1. When I traveled out-of-country, I relied on my US health insurance, and my disability policy to provide travel insurance (emergency evacuation if needed). The disability policy had a travel insurance rider. You could ask your benefits office about that, too. And many credit cards provide some insurance, too.
aqan
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by aqan »

Watty wrote: Also check with your health insurance company to see what coverage you have overseas.
+1. I don't believe I've ever had a plan that didn't cover overseas.
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wassabi
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by wassabi »

I always pick up a travel plan from world nomads or a AIG directly. The plan covers a lot of medical services that my insurance won't cover out of the country, including flying someone out to stay bedside if I am hospitalized and up to $1M to fly me home on a medical flight in an emergency. The price varies based on location and length of trip but I usually pay around $100 for a few weeks overseas. Worth the peace of mind for me. And, again, my health insurance provides very minimal coverage overseas.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by ResearchMed »

WolfgangPauli wrote:Hi,

I am heading to K'stan for a wedding and was wondering what people do for short term health insurance in a "far away land" like that? Any thoughts?
The first thing is to find out if your regular health insurance covers you "out of country", and if so, are there ANY restrictions.
Also consider medevac coverage, which may or may not be included.

(If you happen to be on "plain Medicare", it does NOT cover out of country, but other flavors of Medigap/etc., *might*.)

We always get travel insurance from
http://www.TripInsuranceStore.com - they are a broker and offer several different types of policies from several different vetted insurers.

Importantly, we have made claims (2 of them were not small), and we were paid without the nonsense we sometimes hear about regarding other insurers. (We use Travel Insured, but I'd trust any of the companies/policies that TripInsuranceStore offers.)

NOTE: *IF* you need coverage for "pre-existing medical conditions" (defined specifically by each policy), you probably want to get coverage started within 10-20 days of making the INITIAL payment/deposit.
(If you miss that, there is at least one company that can offer that coverage if payment is started within 24 hours of FINAL payment, which is narrowly defined for obvious reasons).

There is a lot of discussion about travel insurance on the specialty sub-forum at CruiseCritic.com (where insurance really isn't restricted to "cruises" at all):
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

Enjoy your trip!

RM
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jebmke
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by jebmke »

wassabi wrote:I always pick up a travel plan from world nomads or a AIG directly. The plan covers a lot of medical services that my insurance won't cover out of the country, including flying someone out to stay bedside if I am hospitalized and up to $1M to fly me home on a medical flight in an emergency. The price varies based on location and length of trip but I usually pay around $100 for a few weeks overseas. Worth the peace of mind for me. And, again, my health insurance provides very minimal coverage overseas.
When I was doing a lot of international travel I was working so my company guaranteed these flights etc. For some locations the company doctor gave me a vial of Cipro and said: "if at all possible, take these and get on a plane out of there. Try to avoid being taken to a hospital." They also gave us lists of preferred hospitals in many places so whenever possible we could insist on being taken to a preferred hospital rather than any old hospital.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by ResearchMed »

jebmke wrote:
wassabi wrote:I always pick up a travel plan from world nomads or a AIG directly. The plan covers a lot of medical services that my insurance won't cover out of the country, including flying someone out to stay bedside if I am hospitalized and up to $1M to fly me home on a medical flight in an emergency. The price varies based on location and length of trip but I usually pay around $100 for a few weeks overseas. Worth the peace of mind for me. And, again, my health insurance provides very minimal coverage overseas.
When I was doing a lot of international travel I was working so my company guaranteed these flights etc. For some locations the company doctor gave me a vial of Cipro and said: "if at all possible, take these and get on a plane out of there. Try to avoid being taken to a hospital." They also gave us lists of preferred hospitals in many places so whenever possible we could insist on being taken to a preferred hospital rather than any old hospital.
To avoid the "any old hospital" potential problems, we have an annual policy with MedJetAssist (there are also per-trip policies).

That does not kick in unless one is already admitted as an inpatient at least 150 miles from home, but then, one can call MedJetAssist, and they will medevac you to the hospital of YOUR choice in your country. This could be your "home area hospital" or a specialty hospital elsewhere.

What we like about this, that is not a given in the "regular medevac coverage" that might be available with other policies, is that the TRAVELER gets to decide whether to be medevac'd out.
It's not up to the beancounters, and it also doesn't put the local medical staff in the position of needing to state that they aren't fully capable of caring for you "properly".
(We'd still try our best to get to the "best local hospital" that we could find, if there was time for "choice".)

I landed in a hospital overseas about 2 years ago, and it wasn't pleasant.
Things weren't going well.
Just about the time we were thinking, "time to call MedJetAssist", I started to improve.
We were able to continue with the rest of our trip after about a "lost week".

Travel Insured paid for ALL extra costs, and this included some special arrangements due to my weakened condition.

But I must say, we were both VERY glad to be aware that we had MedJetAssist, if it came to that....

RM
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Isabelle77
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by Isabelle77 »

Are you going to Almaty? There is an excellent international medical clinic there used by expats. We were told during our combined 3 months in Kaz (in 2005 & 2007adopting our children) that the clinic should be your first call prior to showing at the hospital. We were actually told to avoid the hospitals.

My information is over 10yrs old now but medjet did evacuate a fellow adoptive parent while we were there to Germany. So I believe it is still worth looking into.

That said Almaty and to a lesser extent, Astana, are modern beautiful cities. I hope you're going in the summer!
wfrobinette
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by wfrobinette »

aqan wrote:
Watty wrote: Also check with your health insurance company to see what coverage you have overseas.
+1. I don't believe I've ever had a plan that didn't cover overseas.
Most health insurance will pay for treatment. I bet Medvac isn't covered under your plan. Those flights can cost upwards of $50k.

I'd look at travel insurance as well.
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VictoriaF
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by VictoriaF »

WolfgangPauli wrote: I am heading to K'stan for a wedding...
Watch a film "Borat" before you go.

Isabelle77 wrote:Are you going to Almaty? There is an excellent international medical clinic there used by expats. We were told during our combined 3 months in Kaz (in 2005 & 2007adopting our children) that the clinic should be your first call prior to showing at the hospital. We were actually told to avoid the hospitals.

My information is over 10yrs old now but medjet did evacuate a fellow adoptive parent while we were there to Germany. So I believe it is still worth looking into.

That said Almaty and to a lesser extent, Astana, are modern beautiful cities. I hope you're going in the summer!
Thank you, Isabelle!

Kazakhstan is on my list of places to visit for sentimental reasons. I normally don't worry about medical insurance when I travel, but it's good to know that if something happens the local medicine is of high quality.

Victoria
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WhiteMaxima
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by WhiteMaxima »

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sawhorse
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Re: Travel to Kazakhstan - Health Insurance

Post by sawhorse »

aqan wrote:
Watty wrote: Also check with your health insurance company to see what coverage you have overseas.
+1. I don't believe I've ever had a plan that didn't cover overseas.
Medicare doesn't.
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