International Health Insurance

This is a biggie. What do you do when you are sick? Or get in an accident? There really is no stock answer to that question – it all depends on the individual situation and we can’t predict what the situation will be. Read What do we do when we are sick? to learn more.

We also need to consider health insurance. Although I admit I hate (honestly – I really hate) the health care system of the USA, I admit that we need insurance. If something big were to happen, we would be in the poor house for the rest of our lives without it – so we religiously pay for insurance and never use it.

We’ve opted for a high-deductible travelers’ policy through IMG. The stipulations are that we are outside of the USA for at least six months each year, and we could not pick it up until the day we planned to leave the country. But, when we do return to the US on vacation or whatever, we will still be covered there.

We look at the insurance as exactly that – insurance. We don’t use it on a regular basis – we’ve opted for the $5000 deductible so have never (thank God) had the opportunity to use it. All the small stuff we’ll pay for out of our own pocket – but in Latin America health care is quite reasonable.

There are lots of insurance companies out there that can provide insurance for you, and you will have to read the fine print on them all. We’ve gone with IMG, but honestly I can’t actually recommend them since we’ve never dealt with them except to give them money – and they’ve readily taken it. We hope to keep it that way!