A co-worker of mine recently returned from a trip to Canada. The pictures he brought back were breathtaking and encouraged me even more to get my trip planned for a ski trip to Canada. His trip was amazing, though he did tell me about a potentially serious situation he encountered while he was over there – his girlfriend had become very sick one evening and was rushed to the hospital. It turned out she needed her appendix removed. Luckily, they had purchased medical insurance before their travels and the whole procedure was covered.

The travel medical insurance was new to me, so I asked him about why he purchased medical insurance when we already had a group health plan here at work. He said that before he left he had inquired with our insurance company and found out that they don’t cover anything done outside of the U.S. His wife decided that they would be better off getting the insurance – and they were happy they did.

Just like regular health insurance, travel insurance takes care of you when you are outside of the U.S. There are many insurance companies that offer these types of policies and most of the time you can get a quote and coverage in no time at all. They cover everything from supplemental insurance (in case your health insurance does cover certain procedures abroad) to full coverage for everything from visiting a doctor, to hospitalization.

Now that my wife and I are planning a trip abroad, we’ve taken his advice and went ahead and purchased travel medical insurance. You can never be too careful.