Don't Leave Home Without It!

Travel or trip insurance, that is, but the credit card is important also. I'm just back from a trip Down Under. I had more wonderful experiences visiting the land and its people than I can enumerate but I also had a medical emergency and from that comes the subject matter here.

I was near Katherine when I tripped-I tell people I was chasing a crocodile because it sounds better-and heard a bone in my left ankle break as I fell. The small Outback town of Katherine was about 20 kilometers away and, after an hour's wait for an ambulance, I was transported to the hospital there. I will not go into the details of my medical treatment. In digest form it was very good but the doctors in Katherine were unwilling to commit themselves to treatment. They wanted me seen by a specialist in Darwin, 322 kilometers (about 200 miles) to the north, and that mandated my transfer by air ambulance. I was airlifted to a Darwin hospital.

I called the carrier of the trip insurance I'd purchased upon arrival in Darwin. They assured me they would cover all medical expenses not paid by my primary health insurance (Blue Cross); would also pay for all flight rebookings and upgrades necessitated by my change in schedule and my medical condition; and would cover the cost of required incidentals such as telephone calls, faxes, etc.

I was examined in Darwin by an orthopedic surgeon, scheduled for surgery, went to the operating theater, was anesthetized and regained consciousness in the Recovery Room with a new cast but no increased pain. The surgery had not been performed because of trauma to the ankle from a break ten years ago. The prognosis was to send me on to Cairns to consult with another orthopedic surgeon and get a second opinion. Cairns was selected because I had family there-if I'd not had that luxury, I would have been shipped home.

I flew to Cairns (Qantas did not charge me for changing my original ticket) and the second specialist recommended surgery. He said I could go back to the States to have it, pronounced me "fit for travel," and I began to make calls for rebooking my homeward flight. The new ticket was $5,000-I was required to travel First Class in order to keep the ankle elevated.

The lesson learned here is that we cannot afford to travel outside our own country without this type of coverage. Australia's medical costs are very low compared to those in the U.S., plus our dollar is currently quite strong, but Blue Cross will not cover one hundred percent or touch the incidentals and increase in airfares. If the situation was reversed and an Australian suffered a broken ankle in the U.S., the medical bills alone could quickly mount to more than US$10,000 (currently about AU$16,670) and there might still be air ticket charges and other expenses.

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