How Travel Insurance Helps if a Family Member is Hospitalised

Here’s How Trip Insurance Helps if Your Family Member is Hospitalised

Nothing is worse than seeing a loved one sick or hospitalised, especially a day or two before an anticipated vacation that everyone was so hyped about. Not only do all your plans and preparations go to waste, but you’re also probably too worried about your family to handle what’s to come.

Thanks to your overseas travel insurance, you can at least rest assured about an unsuccessful trip. Look at some of these great benefits offered by travel insurance plans in India in case an insured traveller’s immediate family member is hospitalised:

Trip Cancellation Benefits

Sickness and bad health are among the top reasons behind a trip’s cancellation. One of the best ways your international travel insurance can help you is with any sudden trip cancellation.

This will obviously cost you a lot as you must have spent a lot of money booking flight tickets for your journey, hotels, tour operators and other necessary expenses.

Most insurers in India offer coverage in case your trip is cancelled due to a covered reason. This includes your co-traveller or immediate family member getting hospitalised.

Trip insurance helps you get reimbursed for trip costs due to flight cancellation, booked accommodation, etc. if your trip is cancelled because of someone falling sick in your family.

Other booking amounts such as non-refundable travel reservations etc. are covered too as per the insurer.

Trip Curtailment Benefits

Trip curtailment happens when you are forced to cut short your trip. One significant difference between trip curtailment and trip cancellation is that you can avail benefits of interruption if you’re already on your vacation.

An incident that forces you to return early to India will count as a valid reason, including the hospitalisation or death of your family member. In such a case, you can head back home while all the unused pre-booked expenses of your trip are covered by the insurer.

However, please note that the severity of the situation is often an important factor in determining if your claim will be covered by the insurer.

Compassionate Visit

While this benefit is not offered by all insurers, it’s a significant benefit especially if you’re a frequent traveller or a student pursuing studies abroad. In this case, if you fall sick abroad and are unable to return to India then the insurer will cover the travel, accommodation and other important costs of one immediate family member to visit you abroad.

Similarly, if your family member falls sick and gets hospitalised back in India while you’re studying abroad then many insurers pay for your trip to India and back to your study destination so that you can visit your hospitalised family member.

Escort of Minor Child

Though rare, there are cases when an adult travelling with their minor child/children may get hospitalised abroad. In this case, it’s not possible for the child co-traveller to return back to India abroad as most airlines need an adult to accompany minors.

In such cases, your travel insurance company will cover the travel cost of an immediate family member to come abroad and escort back the minor child. Their flight ticket through a common carrier will be covered under the insurance policy.

Things to Know About Travel Insurance Before Your Next Trip

• Understand the Definition of Family: Family members of the insured person can mean their legal spouse, parents, siblings, parents-in-law, siblings-in-law, legal guardian, ward or step-parents.
• Meaning of Hospitalisation: Most insurers require valid proof of your family member’s hospitalisation. This means that the situation must be severe enough for an ordinarily prudent person to cancel a trip.
• Escort of Minor Child Optional: Most trip insurance plans offer this as an add-on benefit. You need to pay an extra premium and must be the only companion of the minor child.
• Reading the Fine Print: When you buy travel insurance, always refer to the policy wording. You will know what is covered and what’s not covered by your insurer. For example, in case your family member is hospitalised, it’s necessary to be verified and certified by the attending physician.

How to Claim Travel Insurance Benefit if Your Family Member is Hospitalised?

In case your immediate family member or your co-traveller’s family member is hospitalised, keep the following in mind:

• In case of hospitalisation before or during your trip abroad, make sure to contact your insurer and inform them of the latest developments.
• As most insurers offer trip cancellation benefits, it is important to keep necessary documents handy. These include hospitalisation bills, receipt, attending physician’s certificate etc.
• Make sure that you’re aware of the list of covered reasons for which you can claim benefits.
• Most insurers don’t cover hospitalisations that are non-threatening or because of mild issues like flu, etc.
• Finally, make sure to read the policy wording of your travel insurance carefully to know exactly what conditions will be covered by your international travel insurance policy.