Why you should have travel Insurance for Thailand
While individual circumstances may vary, Aussie Divers Phuket highly recommends to anyone planning to visit Thailand to invest in travel insurance. Although scuba diving is a relatively low risk activity, as long as you listen to your instructor/guide. Travel insurance is cheap these days. It really can go a long way in any accident, emergency or cancellations/delays whilst travelling.
Many travellers to Thailand & Southeast Asia hold a perception that as basic medical care is relatively cheap. There’s little need for travel insurance. While it is true that basic healthcare in Southeast Asia can be cheap. The emphasis should be on the word basic — not cheap.
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True, Thailand does have a higher standard of medical care than other South East Asian countries. Here in Phuket there are a number of good high standard private hospitals. However anything more than a few nights in hospital gets expensive fast. The medical bills associated with longer stays can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars — and higher.
The other thing to consider when travelling in places like Thailand is that for minor accidents and illness’s. Things like falling of a scooter or food poisoning, the hospital will require up front payment or proof of insurance. This needs to be prior to giving any type of treatment. If you have insurance this will drastically reduce the waiting time before receiving treatment at the hospital.
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So what does travel insurance cover?
Aside from medical care, travel insurance can protect you in the case of lost or stolen luggage and personal effects. Also flight delays and cancelations, personal liability and financial difficulty. Also things like emergency dental treatment and evacuation back to your country of residence. Most policies also now cover scuba diving and other activities during your holidays.
All manner of add-ons will cover items like expensive cameras, laptops and iPads and more adventuresome pursuits. But for many travellers, a general travel insurance policy should provide a good starting point.
That said, bear in mind that not all travel insurance policies are born equal. Be sure to check the fine print for scuba diving coverage and any other items or activities you may be planning whilst on holidays.
How to choose a right Travel Insurance?
Buy a policy that suits your travelling requirements and needs. You should research and compare all the plans extensively offered by various insurance companies. Moreover, it is important to understand their claims processes, documentation procedure, payment options, network of hospitals, special conditions, coverage and exclusions.
It is also a good idea to scan and keep a copy of all your travel documents, including your travel insurance policy number and their contact number. This is so you can access them easily in case you need them. These days you can save all of your scanned documents in the ‘cloud’ with google drive, one drive or iCloud. This way if you lose everything you can simply log in with a computer and access your travel documents.
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Daily Scuba Diving Insurance
If you would like extra peace of mind, or choose to not have travel insurance you can simply get daily scuba diving insurance for as little as US$10 per day. Having daily dive insurance will cover you in the unlikely event of a dive accident or incident. One of the best aspects to dive insurance is that it is there for you for issues specific to scuba diving, for example damaged ear drums, nasal passages or DCI.
If you would like more information on the daily dive insurance option speak to our staff at Aussie Divers Phuket and we can give you more details.
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