Travel Insurance: What's Covered and What Isn't

A typical comprehensive plan covers trip cancellation and interruption for specified reasons (illness, injury, certain emergencies), emergency medical treatment and evacuation abroad, baggage loss or delay, and travel delays. It does not cover cancellations for reasons outside the policy's covered list unless you buy a 'cancel for any reason' upgrade. Always check the specific covered reasons — they define the whole policy.

Often not, or only minimally. Many U.S. health plans provide little or no coverage outside the country, and Medicare generally doesn't cover care abroad. That's why travel medical coverage — and especially emergency medical evacuation, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars — is the part of travel insurance many experts consider most important for international trips. Check your health plan's out-of-country rules before you travel.

It's an optional upgrade that lets you cancel for reasons not on the standard covered list and still recover part of your cost — typically 50-75% of nonrefundable trip expenses — as long as you cancel before a deadline (often 48 hours before departure). It costs more and must usually be added soon after your first trip payment, but it's the only way to get flexibility for reasons a standard policy excludes.

Only if the policy includes a pre-existing-condition waiver, which you generally must qualify for by buying the plan within a short window (often 14-21 days) of your first trip payment and insuring the full trip cost. Without the waiver, a claim tied to a condition you had before buying is typically excluded. If you have a health condition, buy early and confirm the waiver applies.

It covers your losses from covered delays and cancellations — like nonrefundable expenses and extra costs from a lengthy delay — but it doesn't replace the airline's own obligations. If the airline cancels, you're first owed a refund or rebooking from them; travel insurance fills gaps like prepaid, nonrefundable bookings you lose because of a covered delay. Keep documentation of the delay and your expenses.

For a cheap, fully-refundable domestic trip with no prepaid nonrefundable costs and where your health plan already covers you, travel insurance may add little. Its value rises with trip cost, nonrefundable prepayments, international travel (for the medical and evacuation coverage), and health or weather risk. Match the plan to what you'd actually lose if the trip went wrong.