My friend is coming to the UK later in the year. She has her flight booked, and I believe that she's covered under the Visa Waiver Program, so there's no problem there. However, she will need insurance. Can anyone recommend a good company to use? Is there anything else she might need that I've not thought of?
Yes, but it isn't comprehensive - she has to pay a certain amount each time she goes to the doctor, hospital etc. I'm guessing that wouldn't matter, though... as it is a seperate product.
What she can find out from them is if they cover her in other countries. She should read the fine print just to be sure, and to see if there is a different copay, deductible. Of course, this only applies to health. If she rents a car then she has to talk to her car insurance company.
Yeah, its the other stuff that needs to be taken into consideration, too. Cancelled flights, lost luggage, theft etc. At least, we get all that on travel insurance!
Any other ideas? I'm looking for something like this: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=19300208&mediaId=19500187 i.e. cover for illness etc. plus luggage, delayed flights etc.
We used AIG http://www.aig.com/Travel_20_17493.html last time we visited the UK (the wife and I). Of course, I have insurance in the UK under the NHS, but she needed it and we wanted to cover ourselves with lost baggage, delay, etc. It was reasonable and fairly competative. I think $40 each or something like that, for 2 weeks. EDIT: oops. My wife just reminded me that we went with CSA in the end. http://www.csatravelprotection.com/ It's an open market. Go with someone that is underwritten by a big company and you'll be fine. Much of the coverage is the same but make sure she has the right amount of medical insurance especially for transportation back to the USA in case of bad illness or death. Those flights cost an insane amount of money and I have heard scare stores of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. Costs for healthcare in the UK actually are not too bad. My wife had to see a doctor this last time for asthma and he only charged us 20GBP, then 10GBP for the medication. That was unrelated to me being an NHS covered person, my wife is not covered by that. I was very impressed, as we'd have paid more that that for treatment in co-pays WITH insurance in the US. It was so low that we didn't claim it back on the CSA insurance (I think it was below the deductable anyway).
I think the norm would be to have a deductible (health, auto, theft, etc). A deterrent to keep you from going and using it.
