IAMAT |International Association of Medical Assistance to Travellers| IAMAT |International Association of Medical Assistance to Travellers|

Travel Health Journal

Insurance

Airplane flying overhead

Travel health insurance: Lessons from COVID-19

For many travellers, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of their travel health insurance. In this blog, we discuss how the pandemic has affected travel health insurance coverage and offer advice on what to consider for your next trip. Many people began reconsidering their travel plans at the beginning of the pandemic and due to a lack of coverage, were forced to make the difficult decision between cancelling their trip – and losing hundreds or thousands of dollars – or risk travelling. Some insurers also began flagging the COVID-19 pandemic as a “known event” as early as January, meaning that policies purchased thereafter would not cover any COVID-19 related claims. As governments began implementing travel restrictions and encouraging ...

Student in library

What to do and where to go? A doctor’s advice for students abroad

Imagine: You’re a student, excited to study abroad. You arrive in your new home away from home, ready for a semester of learning and exploring. New people, new places, new culture – but something isn’t right, you don’t feel well. Alone in a new place, you think, “my symptoms aren’t very serious, I don’t need a doctor”. But your condition is getting worse, and you don’t speak the language or know where to go. For a 20-year-old student from San Francisco, her stay in Rome took an unexpected turn last year when she began to experience symptoms of cough, tiredness, and difficulty swallowing. All the signs pointed towards a common cold, but she was actually suffering from a rare ...

View from airplane window

True or false? The facts on airplane air, Yellow Fever, insurance, and street food

In this edition of True or false?, we take a closer look at myths about airplane air, Yellow Fever certificates, travel health insurance, and street food. Myth #1: “Breathing airplane air makes you sick.” A common misconception is that if one passenger on an airplane has an illness, then everyone else on the plane will get sick. These fears can be propelled by news stories such this one, when a flight carrying over 500 people was quarantined in New York due to sick passengers on board. The culprit of the illness, which hospitalized 11, was determined to be the flu. Is aircraft air to blame? Airplane cabins are confined spaces that may appear to be the perfect breeding ground ...

Understanding Travel Health Insurance: 26 Important Terms You Need to Know

You purchased travel health insurance coverage and are ready for your trip, but do you find yourself looking at pages and pages of fine print containing legal and medical jargon? Our latest resource Understanding Travel Health Insurance helps demystify some common terms found in insurance plans. It also includes helpful tips, advice, and questions to ask your insurer before you buy. It’s a crowded marketplace out there and finding the best coverage for your needs can be daunting. Unfortunately, travellers can find themselves out-of-pocket for medical care needed abroad because they didn’t understand their coverage. Our members have told us that policy terms and conditions have many exceptions and are difficult to understand. To help, we reviewed travel health ...

Person standing on a beach in a storm. Photo by Witch Kiki, Unsplash.

In the news: Extreme weather

This article is part of our monthly travel and global health news round-up. Here at IAMAT, our main focus is on travel health and not specifically on safety when abroad (there are many organizations and government departments that provide useful travel safety information). However, the two often overlap, and nowhere is this more evident than during extreme weather at popular travel destinations. Flooding, hurricanes, heat waves, and other weather events can have sudden and dramatic impacts on the health and safety of travellers and local people. Hurricanes and flooding Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria battered the Caribbean and the southern United States in September. Some locations suffered minimal damage and were ready to host travellers again within a week or ...

Boat on the Amazon River. Photo by Kepler Web, FreeImages.

The Amazon: Staying well on your river cruise

River cruising in the rainforest The Amazon basin is a vast region that spans 9 countries. Travellers visit the region for its incredible biodiversity and the chance to experience wildlife and the rainforest firsthand. There’s no doubt about the amazing flora and fauna in the Amazon, but the confined spaces of a cruise ship and infections transmitted by insects, animals, and microorganisms can be a risk to your health. Here’s how to stay well as you explore. Staying healthy in the Amazon Most Amazon cruises begin in the city of Manaus, Brazil or Iquitos, Peru. In the Amazon region, the extent of some diseases (such as Schistosomiasis and Chagas) remains unknown. Luckily, you don’t have to leave your health ...

A man, woman, and child sitting on a low bridge by a field. Photo by Keith Moore.

In the news: Travel health insurance

This article is part of our monthly travel and global health news round-up. July and August are busy months for travellers. Several stories about travellers’ medical care experiences abroad have been in the news lately, so travel health insurance is the theme of this edition. In the news this month 1. Travel insurance providers remove mental health illness exclusions The Sydney Morning Herald Great news! Two Australian insurance companies have removed exclusions that deny travellers coverage for mental health conditions. This is a step in the right direction. We recognise the critical importance of incorporating specific cover for people with mental health conditions into our policies. – Mike Emmett, chief executive of the insurance company Cover-More Australia Travellers with ...

Garlic. Photo by Lobo Studio Hamburg.

True or false? Common travel health myths

This year, we introduced a new feature on social media: the Myth of the Month. Every month, we share a travel health myth and set the record straight with current recommendations from travel health professionals. Have you heard any of these travel health myths? Myth #1: “Eating garlic prevents mosquito bites.” False! (But it may keep your travel companions away…) There is no scientific evidence that garlic prevents mosquito bites. The best insect bite protection comes from a combination of: Physical barriers: Wearing breathable, light-coloured, long-sleeved clothing. Chemical protection: Using insect repellent containing 20-30% DEET or 20% Picaridin. Bed nets: Sleeping or resting under a bed net in areas where there is a risk of Malaria, Chagas or other ...

IAMAT's Guide to Healthy Travel

NEW! Guide to Travel Health Insurance

Did you know that our new Guide to Travel Health Insurance is out? Hot off the presses, this guide seeks to answer one of the most frequently asked questions we get from travellers: “Where can I find travel health insurance and what should I look for?” IAMAT members told us that they are looking for guidance on how to navigate the world of travel health insurance. We did the research for you and wrote a comprehensive primer to help you find the best coverage for your needs. Travel insurance insiders Bruce Cappon of First Rate Insurance and Damian Tysdal of Travel Insurance Review also share their tips on how to buy wisely. We do not name any companies in ...

IAMAT - The International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers

Getting Travel Health Insurance? Here’s What You Need to Know

Looking for advice on travel health insurance? Check out our Guide to Travel Health Insurance. We often get asked about the merits and pitfalls of travel health insurance here at IAMAT. Distraught friends or family members of hospitalized travellers who are not insured call us inquiring about last-minute evacuation plans, others ask us whether they should get travel health insurance. Many also contact us to tell us about their frustration with their travel health insurance policy, mainly for what it doesn’t cover. When we first started 49 years ago, travel health insurance did not exist. Nowadays, the travel health insurance sector is a multi-million dollar industry with hundreds of companies and brokers, including web-based ones, who specialize in this ...