Sunday, 30 May 2010

Travel Insurance and Travel Vaccinations – Best Friends or Casual Acquaintances?

Just as with travel insurance, if you can’t afford the cost of travel vaccinations, the conventional wisdom is that you can’t afford to go overseas. Australia is quite a lucky country in disease terms. We have little in the way of hepatitis, typhoid fever, and mosquito borne disease like malaria. Overseas these diseases are rife, and can affect you for the chanel purses handbags rest of your life. If you are planning to travel overseas, here we look at the interaction between your travel insurance and travel vaccinations.

If you aren’t vaccinated, your travel insurance may not cover some emergenciesIf you fail to get recommended travel vaccinations before you go overseas, your travel insurance company will sometimes determine that you are engaging in risky behaviour. If any medical emergencies arise out of your failure to be vaccinated, the costs will sometimes need to be covered out of your own pocket.

Travel insurance and health insurance work togetherTravel vaccinations are expensive, and not every traveller believes that they need every vaccination. Travel doctors will always err on the side of caution and recommend that you get every vaccination that is applicable to your region of travel, but many choose only to get essential vaccinations or go on hearsay that some are not really necessary. Something that you definitely need to consider, though, is that chanel 2.55 quilted handbags if you DO happen to contract a disease for which you aren’t coco chanel handbags vaccinated your travel insurance may cover you while you are overseas. However if you are quite ill, you will no doubt want to return home as soon as possible … where you will be liable for all of your medical expenses, as well as time lost at work due to illness. This is where travel insurance and health insurance work together. Remember though that travel vaccinations are a relatively inexpensive and painless way to ‘insure’ yourself!

Travel insurance doesn’t cover vaccinationsYour travel insurance won’t usually cover the cost of preventative medicine, like getting vaccinations. If you choose to get the vaccinations at home, however, your health insurance provider might.

Needles need timeWhile some travel vaccinations take effect immediately, to build resistance to some diseases it can be necessary to have several shots over a period of time. This will be important for people looking at the cost of vaccinations in Thailand, South Africa, Chile or Hungary, and cursing the fact that Western medicine is so expensive! You can get some travel vaccinations overseas, but some (like hepatitis) you will need to plan for a while before you go.

Recommended travel vaccinationsThe following list of travel vaccinations breaks down your shots by the common essential vaccinations, strongly recommended vaccinations for most world travel, and some that are less strongly recommended, but still an excellent precaution:

* Essential: Yellow fever for parts of Africa and South America * Essential: Meningitis for Saudi Arabia at the time of the Haj * Strongly recommended: Hepatitis A & B for most parts of the world * Strongly recommended: Tetanus/diphtheria, worldwide * Strongly recommended: Malaria, worldwide * Strongly recommended: Japanese Encephalitis is mountainous or jungle areas * Strongly recommended: Typhoid, all developing countries * Recommended for some areas: Rabies * Recommended for some areas: Cholera

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