Why Get Travel Insurance Without the Pandemic Flu

Mounting infections, various government alerts and massive quarantines of foreign visitors. In terms of H1N1 or swine flu there has yet to be some positive feedback. When it comes to this kind of viral infection epidemic, travelers are left with the worries related to protecting themselves from this. Having adequate travel insurance is what travelers need in this case aside from taking all of the possible health precautions.

You should not expect it to cover every possible situation. Based from the comments of the executive vice president of an online comparison site based in Warwick, RI it is because of the declaration made by the World Health Organization with regard to H1N1 being a global pandemic that caused a number of big trip insurance providers to stop covering H1N1. Now it appears that those providers have finally reconsidered. What he mentioned was that there is no policy from big trip insurers that he knows of that still uses this pandemic exclusion for H1N1.

With regard to the Question and Answer portion provided below, it is on the recent general industry practices on H1N1. Bundled policies are being considered here where coverage is provided for the costs from medical care, other situations, and trip cancellation and interruption. Considering the first question, it is about whether or not a person can get back the nonrefundable deposits from a cancelled trip when it is cancelled before a person departs due to the person, a traveling companion, or a family member contracting H1N1. Any kind of documentation of the illness will be enough to get you your money back from the trip.

When it comes to the next question, it is with regard to cancelling a trip because you are afraid to get swine flu or even be quarantined in your destination country. What you will get in this case is a big no. Insurance companies say that their standard policies are designed to insure against unforeseen events, not to insure against a state of mind. There are cases when a state of mind can be insured and this is if you pay extra for a cancel for any reason rider which can then be added to the coverage from your standard policy.

This is how this arrangement works. When it comes to a standard policy, most of the time you will be covered for any losses from a cancelled trip if the reason for doing so is job loss or an illness. Actually, there are a lot more reasons included in a cancel for any reason rider. In this situation, a trade off exists for the rider can boost the premium and it will normally reach about 4 percent to 8 percent of the cost of the trip but they will only be paying you less than 100 percent of the losses you incur for reasons outside the standard policy. Next is the question pertaining to the release of warnings and advice by a US government agency when it comes to the possible dangers involved when you visit certain destinations. From the US State Department came about travel alerts for China because of quarantines reportedly being done in the thousands when it comes to the American visitors who are suspected to be carriers of the H1N1 infection.

Should there be women, the elderly and some other family members at high risk, or a pregnant companion that contracts the virus then according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will you have a chance of getting your nonrefundable deposits back. All that you will get here is a no. What the executive of the company mentioned was that a government warning is not a viable reason if you were to cancel a trip.