Why You Need Travel Insurance

If you were to become ill several days before a trip such as a week-long cruise and need to cancel your plans, trip cancellation coverage can reimburse you for any prepaid, forfeited, non-refundable payments or deposits that you made for your trip. This could include your airfare, the cost of your cruise, and any hotel stays you paid for in advance.

Any number of situations could happen to cause your travel plans to be delayed—for example, your tour bus or flight could be delayed, inclement weather could prevent air travel, and more. With travel delay coverage, if your trip is delayed for 6 hours or more for a covered reason, your travel insurance helps cover your additional expenses such as hotel arrangements, meals and more while you are delayed.

Should your flight or cruise be canceled—for example, due to inclement weather or a transportation strike—trip cancellation coverage would reimburse you for any prepaid, forfeited, non-refundable payments or deposits that you made for your trip.

Imagine that you are in a foreign country—and your luggage and medications are stolen from your hotel room. Because of your condition, you require an emergency prescription to be filled. One toll-free phone call to our 24/7 emergency travel assistance number would secure the assistance you need to get your emergency prescription filled as fast as possible. And, you would receive reimbursement to help pay for the cost to replace your clothing and other personal items.

Medicare and group health insurance programs may not provide the coverage you need in an emergency when you are traveling outside of the U.S. If you were to have a medical emergency in a foreign country—and need to be hospitalized—the cost of emergency treatment could be financially damaging to you and your family. Not only that, but how would you find the nearest facility that can provide the appropriate care—especially if you can't speak the language?

The U.S. Department of State's website, travel.state.gov, provides the following compelling reasons to have emergency medical insurance when you travel abroad⁽¹⁾:

• The Social Security Medicare Program does not provide coverage for hospital or medical costs outside the United States of America.
• Many health insurance plans do not provide coverage overseas. Those that provide "customary and reasonable" hospital costs abroad may not pay for your medical evacuation back to the United States, which can easily cost $10,000 and up depending on your location and medical condition.
• Many foreign doctors and hospitals require payment in cash prior to providing service.
• Uninsured patients may be refused service.
• Countries with socialized medicine may not provide full services to non-residents.
• Payment of hospital and other expenses abroad is the responsibility of the traveler.
• Some countries require tourists to carry accident or travel insurance. For detailed information on country-specific information, visit the Country Information Sheet on travel.state.gov.

Travel insurance plans from RBC Insurance include emergency medical/dental and emergency medical transportation and assistance coverage. These coverages and services would help you to find proper medical care and protect you financially if you required expensive care such as a medical evacuation by helicopter, a major surgery or a hospital stay.

Even more important, you would have the 24/7 support of our worldwide emergency travel assistance provider, Assured Assistance Inc. (AAI). AAI supports millions of travelers and manages almost 400,000 calls every year. If you have a medical emergency while traveling, AAI will be there 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help you find proper care; maintain contact with your medical providers, family or employers; act as your advocate; facilitate language translation if you are in a foreign country; provide claims assistance; and so much more—all to help you get well and home safely.

If a natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood or earthquake were to cause damage to your hotel or to the area you are traveling to, you may need to either cancel your trip or come home early. Trip cancellation and interruption coverage would reimburse you for the prepaid, forfeited, non-refundable payments or deposits that you made for your trip. In addition, if you are already at your destination and need to return home early, your coverage would pay for additional transportation expenses (such as a new flight) to get you back home.

If your trip is cancelled or interrupted because of the unforeseen financial insolvency or bankruptcy of your travel supplier (for example, a tour operator, cruise line or airline carrier), your coverage will protect your travel investment by reimbursing the non-refundable portion of your prepaid travel arrangements.

Note: Financial Insolvency of a Travel Supplier Coverage is not provided under the RBC TravelProtector™ Basic plan.