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When embarking on a trip aboard, the expenses under various accounts heads are burgeoning. Amidst seemingly important expenses, if one asks you to insure your trip by paying an extra expense, it is a very repugnant prospect. Therefore, it is not at all surprising to notice that many decent folks give travel insurance a pass. For them it is just another expense which can be avoided and the money thus saved could be used for better purposes. This line of logic is fraught with many anomalies. Let’s understand the concept of travel insurance and then logically try to deduce the conclusion. Travel insurance covers your overseas trip be it for a business trip, holiday abroad or even your stay for higher studies. This includes any loss or damage to your luggage, loss due to cancellation of flight and most importantly it covers you medically abroad. For a moment let’s take into consideration loss of baggage which is a very common mishap that happens while travelling by an aircraft. You have tirelessly invested time, money and effort to collect the clothes that fits you the bet or your favourite piece of jewellery or your quintessential camera and laptop. What would you do in case they are misplaced and you lose your possession on arrival to the new country? You would be completely disarrayed by the non-presence of the vital documents that may be required to do business, may be your sole purpose of travelling overseas. Imagine the inconvenience it would cost you and your bunnies activity. In other case, where you have lost your passport or visa the situation can be dire and you are virtually trapped in a country that is not your own. You will be forbidden from travel and might even be detained by the local authorities of the visiting country due to lack of proper documents. For a moment, imagine being apprehended by the authorities for almost no fault of yours. Now let’s examine the worst case scenario. You are visiting a foreign country and in the midst of your travel you fall terribly sick to the extent that you had to be deported back to the country in a medical emergency situation. Work out the cost of such a procedure, where you are virtually bed-ridden and have to be flown back to your home country and at the same time have to bear all the associated cost. But, what if you had travel insurance? Your loss of baggage would be covered. It might not get you exactly what you lost but however would compensate you adequately for the same. Loss of your critical documents would also be covered and you would be able to procure the documents while the cost would be borne by the insurance company. Last but not the least, your preliminary treatment abroad would be paid for by the insurance company along with associated expenses such as hospitalisation fees, medicine cost, and cost of transporting you back to your home country. Therefore, when you analyse all this probable situations and ask the question again. The unequivocal answer would be that, yes travel insurance is necessary and is not just another expense. _________________________________________________________________________
Pranav Sharma is an insurance agent based in Mumbai; Pranav assists individuals and corporates in purchasing the right travel insurance policy & often shares his insights about the general insurance industry on internet.
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