Medical Travel Insurance

Australians travelling abroad enjoy free access to public health facilities in only nine countries. Any private health insurance you already have in Australia probably won’t help once you leave our shores.

If you need medical attention in every other country on earth, you’ll have to pay … and pay a lot.

The Australian government’s Smart Traveller website says “… the cost of medical evacuations from the United States regularly range from $75,000 to $95,000 and sometimes up to $300,000 …� and adds that “medical evacuations from nearby Bali … have exceeded $60,000.�

And that’s just the evacuation. You also need to pay for treatment, which if you are hospitalised for a couple of weeks could easily reach tens of thousands of dollars.

As Smart Traveller warns, Daily hospitalisation costs in Southeast Asia regularly exceed $800; return of remains from Europe in excess of $10,000� and when “victims are not covered by travel insurance, such personal tragedies are further compounded by a long-term financial burden� because “travellers who are not covered by insurance are personally liable for covering incurred medical and associated costs.�

Don’t think this cannot happen to you. The Australian government says it handles “20,000 cases involving Australians in difficulty overseas� every year, including “700 hospitalisations, 600 deaths and 100 evacuations of Australians to another location for medical purposes.�