Visitor's Health Insurance

[Help_us 0]

I have a relative who will be visiting the US for a month and was thinking of buying a visitor's insurance policy. I have looked at a couple of the major policies such as Atlas America (Tokio Marine) and Patriot America.

- However from reviews it looks like these companies make it impossible to actually get reimbursed even if the condition is covered under the policy. These visitor's policies are exempt from most of the provisions governing the sale of health insurance for the rest of us. My concern is that I could pay $300-500 for a policy which is effectively a worthless piece of paper

Here's a yelp review of https://www.yelp.com/biz/hcc-medical-insurance-services-indianapolis - This is Tokio Marine

 

- Are there any specific visitor's insurance policies (for the US) you can recommend based on actual experience of being reimbursed? Has anyone actually been able to get reimbursed for health care from any of these companies?

My fear is that they  ask for insane amount of documentation to make it impossible to actually use the policy.

 

- There are a number of discussions about the provisions of different policy but I am interested in a far more basic question. Have people actually been able to get reimbursed from any visitor policy for a true emergency

 

Thanks

Edited September 5, 2019 by Help_us

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Does your relative not have normal travel insurance from his home country? Part of that will likely be from the credit card used to buy the ticket. I had an ER stay as a tourist and it was fully covered by my home travel insurance, most of which came from my credit card insurance.

[Help_us 0]

They don't have any of those.

 

Any suggestions from people who have purchased travel insurance for relatives visiting? I am really interested in hearing of someone has ACTUALLY been reimbursed by any of these policies if they had a health emergency.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Travel insurance is something you buy and hope never to use.  Very few people actually have to use their policies.  Go with a quality company that is recognized worldwide.  

 

Read this: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/travel-insurance/

 

 

[Boiler 45,651]

I have a relative visiting now, travel insurance is something they would buy before leaving. Not something you would.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, Help_us said:

They don't have any of those.

 

Any suggestions from people who have purchased travel insurance for relatives visiting? I am really interested in hearing of someone has ACTUALLY been reimbursed by any of these policies if they had a health emergency.

No credit card? Even if you do it for them, I highly suggest purchasing the air ticket on a credit card for at least some insurance coverage. Like I said, I did get reimbursed through card coverage so that is something I can confirm works.

Edited September 5, 2019 by SusieQQQ