Imagine: Colombia, friends, summer... A trip carefully prepared throughout the year: a dream vacation. Suddenly, during an excursion to Cartagena de Indias, María, a member of the group, begins to feel severe pain on the right side of her abdomen: she is suffering from biliary colic.
María has to be admitted to a hospital and undergo emergency surgery. Fortunately, the protagonist of this story and her traveling companions have contracted a travel assistance policy from ERGO Travel Insurance, a company specializing in personal assistance. This insurance covers emergency situations like the one in this case, which includes being treated immediately with any medical visit included. And if María had faced this situation without insurance, the hospitalization, surgery, treatment and visits would have amounted to around 8,500 euros. Without a doubt, a huge outlay.
Something similar happened to another traveler: Fernando was in Japan and suffered a fall that caused severe trauma for which he had to undergo emergency surgery and be hospitalized for more than 10 days. The amount of the bill reached almost 12,500 euros, including his surgery, hospital stay and return home accompanied by a nurse. Or Laura, who on a trip to Mexico had to undergo emergency surgery for a cyst: the surgical intervention, admission to a hospital in the destination and medical fees exceeded €17,000.
These travelers also did not have to pay anything thanks to the fact that they had contracted complete travel insurance before starting their vacation.
These cases show how important it is to travel outside of Spain with travel insurance, whether for vacation, work, studies, languages... And the fact is that taking out complete travel insurance has become essential, especially if we talk about countries where Health care can have very high costs, such as the US, Canada, Japan, or very distant destinations from which repatriation is complicated, not only due to distance, but also due to infrastructure.
In addition, there are destinations where it is not possible to access without a vacation policy, making travel insurance another requirement for entering the country. This is the case of Cuba, where the traveler must present travel insurance upon entry. In this case, for example, not any policy or any insurer is valid: the insurance must have been contracted with an insurance agency recognized in the country, such as ERGO Travel Insurance.
ERGO Travel Insurance is the only general insurance company in our country specialized in travel insurance. Inventors of the travel policy more than 100 years ago, since then they continue to create insurance tailored to each trip, and if not, they should tell the almost 4 million insured people that they have on average each year in our country.
As the general director of ERGO Travel Insurance, María Martínez Campo, explains, “more than half of the incidents of our travelers are related to the assistance guarantee, the most common cases being accidents or illnesses that require medical assistance, a hospital admission, medical transfers or early returns.”
After medical assistance cases, trip cancellation coverage becomes the second most common reason why travelers use their insurance coverage. 15% of total claims from policyholders are due to last-minute unforeseen events that prevent the traveler from making their trip. The general director of ERGO Travel Insurance also explains that “the most frequent causes for canceling a trip are usually illness of the insured, a family member, accident of the insured, call for a surgical intervention that makes it impossible for them to travel, or incorporation. to a new job, among others.”
The third most common cause of accident, which represents 24% of the total, encompasses the rest of the incidents, which are very varied: files related to luggage, such as the loss and delay of suitcases, the loss of connections, or delays in the departure of the means of transport, in addition to other types of accidents such as the cancellation of tickets to shows.
With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, many travelers were forced to confine themselves to their vacation destinations due to a positive result for COVID-19, being forced to extend their stay. Many others had to cancel their vacation before starting it due to having been infected or due to an adverse reaction to the vaccine, and were unable to recover the money for their trip. This type of unforeseen event became an unexpected outlay for those who did not have a vacation policy. And until then, most travelers did not consider the need to travel with travel insurance.
María Martínez Campo, general director of ERGO Travel Insurance: “The pandemic marks a before and after in raising awareness about safety in tourism. In 2019, approximately two in ten travelers contracted an assistance product. Now we are talking about the percentage of awareness having risen to more than 37%.”
Of course: more hiring, but well informed. Just as important as hiring good international travel insurance, it is also important to read the contents of the policy so that the traveler knows what they are contracting. The most important and essential guarantees, those mentioned. Medical assistance and trip cancellation, but also that includes luggage coverage, flight delays, civil liability for possible damage to a third party, or even legal protection.
And it is not only important to look at the number of coverages it offers, but also at the limits of each of them: travel insurance may seem very complete, but to travel to countries where medical care costs are high, as in In the United States, without a doubt the best option is a policy that includes unlimited medical expenses. Nor can we leave aside another factor: Who is responsible for the medical costs from the beginning? In many destinations, payment of the bill for health services is required in advance, and the traveler cannot always afford this expense.
And just as important as the coverage and limits of these, is the company behind them. The user must ensure that it is an insurer approved in all destinations and that it has sufficient experience, with its own assistance platform 24/7/365, and a global assistance network with medical providers around the world, such as the one provided by ERGO. Travel Insurance.
