A co-worker of mine recently returned from a trip to China. The pictures he brought back were breathtaking and encouraged me even more to get my trip planned for visiting China. As beautiful as the pictures were, he did tell me about a potentially serious situation he encountered while he was over there – his wife had become very sick one evening and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out she needed her appendix removed. Luckily, he said, they had purchased medical insurance before their travels and the whole procedure was covered and they were able to resume their touring of the country in just a few days.

I was a little confused, so I asked him about why he purchased medical insurance when we already had a group health plan here at work. He said that before he left he had inquired with our insurance company and found out that they don’t cover anything done outside of the U.S. He and his wife had debated about whether to spend the extra money on travel medical insurance before the trip and decided the small price of the insurance was negligible considering the peace of mind it offered – and boy was he glad that he did!

Just like regular health insurance, these policies take care of you when you are outside of the country. There are many insurance companies that offer these types of policies and most of the time you can get a quote and purchase coverage in no time at all. They can cover everything from supplemental insurance (in case your health insurance does cover certain procedures abroad) to full coverage for everything from visiting a doctor down to hospitalization.

Now that I’m planning my trip abroad I’ve taken his advice and went ahead and added one more thing to my planning list – purchasing travel medical insurance. The peace of mind – and his adventure – were enough to convince me that the cost is worth it for having one less thing to worry about during my travels!