Looks like they wanted him to use NHS, unless he was dying. Luckily, I live in A...

jochakovsky · on July 17, 2018

I think they would still tell you to return, since any costs in the US would be paid by your regular medical insurance, not your travel insurance.

gnode · on July 17, 2018

In this case I presume you'd not be paying for US insurance, as you'd expect to be backpacking for many months more.

ghaff · on July 17, 2018

But the expectation of most travel insurance is that you also have regular health insurance.

If you think you've found a neat hack like:

-- Skip buying regular health insurance

-- Buy a $300 12-month travel insurance instead

-- Spend the savings traveling around for a year while being fully covered for medical expenses

You're probably missing something.

ghaff · on July 17, 2018

Oh, I'm quite sure they would as, once you're back home, you're off their hands and in the hands of your regular medical insurance company which you hopefully have.

These travel policies may notionally cover some level of urgent medical care but they're mostly designed (and priced for) cancelations due to injury/sickness/emergency, lost property, and getting you back home even if that requires a helicopter from some remote hillside (hopefully).

I'm sure there are 12 month policies you can buy that legitimately cover international health care for a 12 month period in addition to other travel-related risks but they'll cost a lot more.