CheapMedicalTravel.com

If you travel around the world a lot, you should make sure you find cheap travel insurance policies. Since you travel a lot, you can get really low cost insurance plans by purchasing an annual insurance policy rather than trip by trip policies. The goal is to get plenty of coverage you might need without having to pay much for your insurance plan.

A good idea may be to watch out for overcharging travel agents. Many travel agents make up for low airfare commissions by trying to sell insurance coverage at exorbitant prices. But, there are also some travel agents that provides cheap travel insurance, particularly to their frequent customers who are interested in purchasing annual low cost insurance policies. You just need to make sure you know what you need your policy to cover. For example, even their cheap travel insurance policy should at least cover lost baggage, flight cancellations, and emergency medical expenses.

You should spend some time doing research about what you need and what is a fair price to pay for it. Then you will know if your travel agent is giving you a fair offer or if you need to buy somewhere else. The Web is an excellent place for research and comparison shopping. There are numerous websites that offers some low cost travel insurance comparison shopping options.

If you do go with an annual insurance plan, you will want to make sure you don’t start your coverage date until your next trip. Otherwise you will be paying for all of the time leading up to your next trip even though you aren’t traveling.

Don’t forget to read the fine print on your cheap travel insurance quote. While price is important, it isn’t as important as whether or not you’re getting the coverage you need. If you aren’t getting the coverage you need, you’re better off not paying for coverage at all. When you’re buying an annual plan it is particularly important to anticipate whether what you will need covered on all of your trips will be covered by the annual low cost insurance plan at which you’re looking.

Most often the cheapest couple of prices won’t be the plans that cover your needs. But you should still be able to find cheap travel medical insurance plans for traveling that covers your needs if you are diligent.

To learn more on how to find cheap travel insurance policies try visiting also looking for a cheap travel insurance company online to get all the information you need to know about health insurance for overseas travel.

Medical tourism is becoming more and more common, therefore people are looking at travel with a different perspective than they used to. Previous travel was linked to either work function or vacation. Now, because of medical tourism, healthcare can also be linked to travel, which has changed the economy in many different areas of the world. Singapore, a small island, has a new operation to encourage and sponsor a program called “Singapore medical tourism” through the health and travel world.

People are traveling to other countries to get better healthcare services. So medical tourism sector requires people to cater to these travelers. People working in this sector are able to get handsome salary besides respectful job. You ought to have a good understanding about people’s needs and how all this actually works to get a decent job in this sector.

Medical travel jobs are not meant for everyone. The requirements to be a successful nurse or in medical travel jobs are being laborious, generous and having a supreme respect for humanity. You will also need to learn about different cultures and be able to speak foreign languages fluently.

Learning foreign languages helps you communicate with people who have traveled to your country of work for healthcare. Understanding their culture helps you develop a bond with them and therefore allows you to serve them better. When they get good service, you stand to gain good rewards from them as well as your employer.

Paperwork is ubiquitous for all workers in the medical field, and never more so than when you are working with patients who are tourists or immigrants. An in-depth knowledge of visa documentation and travel insurance is crucial when trying to ascertain the travel insurance medical condition of the foreign patient.

Medical tourism has become popular in many countries such as India, Thailand, the Philippines, Columbia, New Zealand, Jordan, Panama, Portugal, Spain and Canada. Instead of just working in your own country, you can look for medical travel jobs in other countries.

There are FIVE very important things you need to know before taking your next travel assignment:

1. SALARY, SALARY, SALARY.

Chances are INCREDIBLY HIGH you are NOT getting paid top dollar for your assignment if you accept the Standard Benefit Package travel companies offer.

Most travelers (both new and seasoned) do not realize that the Standard Benefit Package offered by a travel company is only a STARTING place for negotiation. Because the initial salary offered is higher than what they receive for a stationary job position, often travelers quickly take the standard salary, not realizing that negotiating for MORE is relatively easy.

I know for a fact that I have worked along side other medical travelers doing the same job I was hired to do at the same time in the same hospital and they were making less per hour than me…And some of these people were not new to the travel game! Why? They might either be unaware of the pay range for their job title and competency and/or they simply thought that their current assignment “just paid that particular amount.”

But the real NUMBER ONE reason they aren’t getting top dollar is they don’t know what to ask and how to ask for it!

Just knowing what to ask can signal to a recruiter that you are a savvy business person and immediately increase your changes of getting the best deal.

Don’t take years to “catch on”, losing money all the while, when you can start smart right out of the gate. And if you’ve already hit the road and are suspecting you’re not getting the best deals, you can change that today!

2. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!

You can end up in some very undesirable locations if you don’t know how to access the best travel assignments.

When I first began medical travel I had no idea of the broad scope of places I could visit. I merely took the only job I was offered and set out to drive across the country in my own car. I arrived to spend a very desolate 13 weeks in a little out of the way town that offered nothing of interest. In addition it was a very dull working environment. So much for the glamour of travel!!

The type of job I just described is obviously harder to fill with a more knowledgeable traveler and therefore many companies merely take advantage of the traveling novice and send them packing to the outer parts of nowhere. After all, the travel company gets paid for you to work…where you work is your problem!

However, even those who have been traveling for awhile often do not know how to land the most desirable job locations. It took me several years to figure out the “nuts and bolts” of ending up where I really wanted to work and visit. (After all, one of the main reasons besides salary to hit the road is to enjoy the view!!) Looking back, accessing the BEST job locations was really just a matter of know-how and not complicated at all.

3. TRAVEL NIGHTMARES!

You can get booked on some flights from “you know where” if you are unaware of the options the travel company can provide.

Some years ago I took a job in Oregon that necessitated me flying across the country from my Florida address. I was still in my medical travel learning curve and thus ended up changing flights three different times complete with hideous layovers plus I arrived at 1 am in the morning at an airport that was two hours away from the town where I would be working! I took the rental car awaiting me and drove to the hotel where I was to spend my first night (if crawling into bed at around 4 am could be called going to bed for the night!) On top of that the motel ended up being a colossal dump with a stuck heater system that turned my room into a steam bath, finally driving me out into the early morning air exhausted and angry.

Since travel companies normally cover your travel expenses, they can save money by re-routing you all over the place and by having you arrive at weird hours and in towns or cities within “driving distance” of your destination. Trust me, it happens often! If you don’t know your “rights” you’ll have the experience fairly quickly once you begin to travel.

So just know that because you’re told your “travel plans are all taken care of” it doesn’t mean you’re going to like the arrangements one bit!!

4. HOUSING…LOUSY, JUST AVERAGE, OR GRAND!

There are many ways to either enjoy or rue the day you took an assignment and one of those factors is the type of housing accommodations the travel company provides for you.

Most assignment last 13 weeks and 13 weeks is a long time to live somewhere you don’t like and enjoy. I’ve had just about every experience possible since I began traveling, from fairly lousy, to just average, to absolutely grand. And as any traveler will tell you, GRAND is always better!

To tell you the truth I could just kick myself when I think back to some of the housing conditions I accepted. It wasn’t that they were terrible (well, one was pretty bad!), many were just “ho-hum.” (Certainly not directly overlooking the ocean, which I have now experienced on two assignments…all due to the negotiating techniques I’ve learned along the way.)

But now I go first class on each of my assignments and I do that on a regular basis. And believe it or not, it’s very easy to get those upscale housing considerations. Very easy! Among the many considerations I ask for and receive besides an upscale apartment complex or condo community ( a good start in and of itself!), are a BIG television (I like sports and I don’t want to squint to see the action!), a washer and dryer inside my personal apartment or condo (no trips to the local wash-dry-and-fold for me!), availability of a pool and work out room, a really well stocked kitchen (not just a few barely adequate necessities) and even a hide-a-bed sofa at my current assignment just in case I want to have guests. These are just a few examples of the things I ask for and receive…My list goes on and on!

5. THE RIGHT JOB!

There are some very simple but critical things you need to ask to determine if you’re walking into a job straight from the pit or into smooth sailing complete with a great environment and friendly co-workers and physicians.

You will be interviewed by a recruiter from the travel company to see where you are best suited to work and you will also be interviewed by a representative of the hospital where you are being considered for a travel position. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, you’ll be able to interview them too.

I am still appalled when I hear even seasoned travelers tell me they ask very few questions, other than the basics, when they are considering a position. As a result, horror stories constantly make the rounds about travelers arriving at jobs that turned out to be anything but what they expected. And now they are bound by a legal contract to complete the assignment!

To me, not asking the right questions is not only totally foolish, it’s completely unnecessary. Almost without exception I can spot “red flags” about a job just by asking some critical questions of the travel company recruiter and the hospital representative. In fact, you’ll be awed at the information people will volunteer if you just ask the right way!!

Case in point…not long ago I was interviewing for a position in my home state of Florida. It had all the criteria on the surface that made it seem the perfect set up. However, after asking the questions I’ve learned over time to ask, I knew I would be walking straight into one those situations I wanted to avoid at all costs. For example, just one of the red flags that presented was this…three people had left all at once from this particular department, indicating there were some major problems there. I would not have known that if I hadn’t asked the right question. The exit of those three employees leads me to ask a few more questions. As a result, I quickly moved on to another assignment.

The interesting follow up to this story is that some months later I returned and took this exact assignment. Why? The whole stage had changed…new people, new environment…things had settled down and the unworkable situation had been corrected. And the job was great this time around. One of the other travelers that had lasted out the initial nightmare and had renewed his assignment told me I had certainly avoided the worst. Hear, hear!

Now, I’ve given you just five things from the many chapters of my book, Insider Secrets to Medical Travel that you must know before taking your next travel assignment, whether you’re a novice or a seasoned traveler who has become dissatisfied with the deals you’re being offered.

Implementing any ONE of these five things in an informed manner can bring you tremendous benefits while saving you untold grief and a lengthy, painful learning curve.

Medical travel can be a lucrative, fun, exciting, and fulfilling career…IF you know how to navigate the system and access the highest salary, most desirable locations, comfortable travel plans, nicest housing accommodations, and the best job scenarios.

If you are a medical traveler there may be occasions when you are called about taking a travel assignment in a hospital where the regular employees have gone on strike. The usual advantage of working strike situations is the higher than normal hourly wage. In fact, there are some travelers that work almost exclusively strike related situations, feeling the rewards more than balance out the disadvantages.

Strike opportunities have some unique qualities. First, be aware you will probably be entering a situation where picketers will view you as the “enemy”, a person who is interfering with their leverage for negotiating a better work contract. It is wise to inquire of your recruiter as to whether picketers in a particular town are allowed to be on the actual hospital grounds during their protests or if they are required to be across the street. This can make a difference in what you will experience as you enter and exit the hospital. The closer protestors are allowed to you, the more disconcerting and even dangerous the situation can potentially be.

I would also suggest you ask whether security personnel will be provided to take you back and forth to the hospital from your hotel (I was transported in a van with several other travelers on a recent strike assignment) as well as accompany you safely into the hospital. Occasionally if the hospital deems it necessary for your safety, you may be housed in the hospital itself and not allowed to travel back and forth to a hotel.

Although your salary will normally be higher, your assignment time could be as brief as two weeks, with an option to renew as the strike continues. Strike situations can last for short or long periods of time and usually end abruptly with a settlement agreement. Normally you will be guaranteed a minimum of hours or shifts that you will be paid even if the strike settles prior to your anticipated assignment end date as long as you have reported for the first day of work (be sure that guarantee is in your contract…written, not verbal!). However, if the strike should settle while you are in route to the assignment or before you report for that first day of work, that guarantee is usually not valid.

In addition, on a strike assignment you may be asked to work longer than normal hours with minimum time off and are often required to share living accommodations, normally a hotel room, with another traveler. While you will be provided food, remember that often the cafeteria staff is on strike too so what you will be provided can be less than wonderful at times.

However, even with all that said, as long as you ask all the right questions in advance and arrive with an understanding of the unique qualities of this particular kind of assignment, you’ll find strike situations can be quite LUCRATIVE and even FUN, especially if you happen to meet up with an interesting “cast of characters” (I did!) that have all arrived to work the strike situation with a good attitude.

There are fewer regulations, regarding health in India, applicable to foreign tourists. These regulations are more of the nature of prevention than anything else.

* WHO website for International Travellers.

* WHO India

Yellow Fever

Any person (including infants) arriving by air or sea without a certificate can be detained in isolation for a period up to 6 days if arriving within six days of departing from an infected area or has been in such an area in transit, or has come by aircraft which has been in an infected area and has not been disinfected in accordance with Indian Aircraft (Public Health) Rules, or those recommended by WHO. Various countries in Central and South America and Africa are regarded as being infected, enquire at the concerned Indian Mission for an up to date list. When a case of yellow fever is reported from any country, that country is regarded by Government of India as infected with yellow fever and is added to the above list.

Malaria

Malaria risk exists throughout the year in the whole country excluding parts of the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim. No certificate is required, but a course of anti malaria pills is recommended for all travellers to India.

Protect yourself from insects by remaining in well-screened areas, using repellents (applied sparingly at 4 hour intervals), and wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants from dusk through dawn.

Cholera

Travelers proceeding to countries that impose restrictions for arrivals from India or from an infected area in India on account of cholera are required to possess a certificate. In any case, an inoculation against cholera is recommended.

General Tips

* Drink only bottled or boiled water, or carbonated (bubbly) drinks in cans or bottles. Avoid tap water, fountain drinks, and ice cubes. If this is not possible, make water safer by both filtering through an “absolute 1 micron or less” filter AND adding iodine tablets to the filtered water. “Absolute 1 micron filters” are found in camping/outdoor supply stores.

* Buy bottled water from respectable outlets to guard against stomach upsets. Some of the better known brands are Bisleri, Kinley, Aqua Fina, Himalaya etc. Make sure that the seal of the bottle is intact.

* Watch out for spicy dishes, especially at the outset of your tour. Avoid eating food from road side stalls. Eat unpeeled fruits and avoid fresh salads, especially in small hotels. If you are forced to eat food at some place that you have doubts about, make sure the food is served hot.

* Always use an insect repellent if you find yourself in a mosquito-prone area. But remember, not every place is mosquito-infested and low temperatures in winters (when most tourists come to India) kill most bugs in the northern plains and hills.

* If traveling in scorching heat, remember to drink enough water, use hats, sunglasses & UV lotions. Do not venture out in the mid day sun.

* Pharmacies or chemists are available in every little town and village and you can buy medication. In case you need to see a doctor for a specific condition, ask for help from your hotel (most have doctors on call) or your tour operator. The cost of visiting a doctor is fairly low(less than a dollar) compared to western countries.

Health Kit

In India, most modern medicines are available over the counters in drugstores, but it is wise to travel with a reserve stock. If any prescription drugs are required, bring enough for the duration of the trip. It is advisable that you carry a small health kit which should include remedy for upset stomachs, some antiseptic cream, mosquito repellant cream, suntan/uv lotion, etc.

Caution: This document is not a complete medical guide for travelers to this region. Consult with your doctor for specific information related to your needs and your medical history; recommendations may differ for pregnant women, young children, and persons who have chronic medical conditions.

When you head out on a vacation, particularly outside the country, it is highly recommended that you purchase medical travel insurance. You certainly aren’t expecting to get hurt, but if something does happen, you want to be sure that you get the best care, without having to worry about the medical costs.

There are plenty of benefits to having medical travel insurance, and the fact is that it is usually so cheap that you shouldn’t even have to wonder about it. Just get it and be protected. Here are a few of the benefits:

Get better medical care. If you are in a car accident while traveling, you will need medical attention. Not every country has the same system, so you might be sent to a free hospital or clinic if you haven’t got enough money on you. These places are notorious for doing poor work and even killing their patients! This way, your medical travel insurance covers everything and you will be sent to a good hospital, no matter what country you are in.

Avoid “foreigner” fees. Depending on what country you are in, you may be charged extra simply because you are from elsewhere. This is unfair, but a common practice in many countries, such as Mexico, a popular vacation spot. If you are paying out of your own pocket, the cost could be too much to deal with, but with medical travel insurance, you have backup. If there is an issue, the insurance company will probably deal with it.

Choose your own trip length. You can purchase medical travel insurance to cover a specific time period, making sure that you are covered the whole time you are out of the country. If you will be traveling in and out of the country over the year, it´s usually best to buy coverage for the whole year, rather than individual trips. You´ll find that it comes out cheaper and you will be protected on every trip, not just one.

Emergency medical evacuation. There are times when the local hospitals (particularly in third world countries) are simply not equipped to deal with your medical issues. If you come down with something that they can´t treat or don´t have the equipment to treat your injuries, rather than dying there, you will be covered for evacuation by your medical travel insurance. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be sent back to your home country, you may be relocated to a hospital that is closer and equipped to handle your medical issues, first.

Return of body. No one ever wants to think of dying in a foreign country, while on vacation, but unfortunately, this does happen from time to time. In this case, your medical travel insurance should cover the shipping of your body or ashes, whichever you prefer, to your home country where your family members can bury you appropriately. Without this option, your family would have to come to the country and make arrangements to transport your body back, a process which can be very complicated and expensive at a time when they are mourning.

Medical travel insurance is something that every traveler needs to consider. You don´t want to end up sick or injured on your vacation and without options. Medical travel insurance allows you to receive the best care and for the expenses to be covered, so you can simply focus on recovering and enjoying the rest of your vacation.

When traveling abroad on holiday, no one expects to fall ill, and if you are visiting overseas destinations it really is important to give some thought to the healthcare available and how to deal with an unforeseen medical situation in a foreign country. The unfamiliar environment can contribute to great distress for the unsuspecting tourist. Having to communicate in a foreign language with different and unfamiliar customs and the inability to understand what is happening can be very frightening. It is important to know that there are some unscrupulous medical centres around, particularly in popular tourist resorts where they prioritize financial considerations over quality of treatment and there are plenty of pitfalls to affect the unsuspecting tourist.

In Europe most countries have a very robust State healthcare system that provides the very highest levels of medical facilities and expertise. Generally if you fall ill, there is no shortage of medical care available, however, if you travel to Southern Europe, along the Mediterranean coast, (this area includes countries such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus etc.) you may find that, although there are State Health facilities, many private outpatient and inpatient hospitals have been built specifically to deal with the tourist market and one needs to take certain precautions if medical attention is required.

Often in these countries there is a whole network that has been established to take tourists directly to a private hospital or its affiliate outpatient centres where they commence an elaborate treatment regime which is often very expensive and often clinically unnecessary, purely for monetary gain. If you have traveled without Travel Insurance or without a reputable insurance product, this can lead to great personal hardship with treatment costs often ending up in thousands of dollars.

One infamous example of this type of abuse, which has been highly publicized in the European Press, occurred recently in Corfu. It was found that numerous tourists, who, after suffering a minor fall which resulted in a mild ankle sprain, were being x-rayed and operated upon under general anesthetic for a procedure which was not medically appropriate. Not only was this potentially life threatening and likely to cause unnecessary complications but also very expensive the average cost being $20,000. Incredibly these clinics are still operating unabated today.

Many of the hotels in major tourist resorts will also offer free health checks particularly to the elderly. Beware, Most elderly people will have some underlying medical condition which is maintained with regular medication prescribed by their GP. There have been numerous cases, where people have gone to these health checks with a medically stable condition and found that their treatment regimes were being altered which then caused complications resulting in admission to a private hospital and the loss of a holiday.

Additionally, hotels, taxis and even travel reps are often given commissions for taking tourists to a private clinic and indeed in many tourist resorts the ambulances are provided by the private hospitals purely to capitalize on the tourist dollar. For example, it is quite common in an emergency for a patient to be driven past a major State Hospital with all the appropriate emergency facilities and be admitted instead to an inferior private clinic. This is because the private hospital network is funded largely by the tourist market.

It is also worth knowing that in many European countries, whilst the State Hospitals offer a high level of medical care the nursing care is limited to medical attention only. This seldom includes the type of care we take for granted here in Australia such as welfare and general personal hygiene issues as they see this as something a relative or loved one would take care of. In such a situation it is possible to arrange for a private nurse to assist and this may even be covered by a Travel Insurance policy.

In African and Asian countries the biggest issue is the actual availability of healthcare and if you suffer from a more serious underlying medical condition then often the nearest medical facility will not have sufficient resources and expertise to deal with it. It is therefore quite common in serious cases to medically evacuate patients to a more suitable hospital which can cost anything up to $100,000. Even in this situation caution is required as there are unscrupulous Air Ambulance companies that act independently from the hospital with the sole aim of transferring a patient to another hospital outside the existing health arrangements which can prove extremely costly.

Healthcare in North America, including the Caribbean and Mexico, is very expensive and no one should consider traveling to these destinations without a comprehensive insurance policy. Whilst the medical care is of a high standard the costs are also extremely high and can easily escalate to hundreds of thousands of dollars. If holidaying in the Caribbean or countries in the Gulf region, again there is the risk of requiring a medical evacuation into the USA for treatment and this adds further to the already expensive costs.

There is no substitute for having a good quality travel insurance product. This will ensure that well trained medical assistance staff will always be on hand to offer all the support that you need in any such unforeseen situation.

Experienced multi-lingual staff will always be available to guide and assist you through these difficult times and the highest standard of medical expertise will always ensure that you have the appropriate medical treatment at the right time so you can avoid the complications of inappropriate and potentially dangerous medical treatment and the worry of unnecessary medical fees. They will also make sure that you arrive home safely if your travel plans are affected.

Save money on your travel insurance today. For a free quote, visit Cheap Travel Insurance.

More and more people from all over the world are traveling to other countries not only as tourists who come for sightseeing and shopping but also to get medical, dental, and surgical services from hospitals and other health destinations. Medical travel is a rapidly growing industry with countries like Cuba, Costa Rica, Hungary, India, Israel, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand actively promoting it. The Philippines is also fast becoming a favored destination for patients seeking quality medical care at very affordable prices.

The high costs of healthcare in industrialized countries, the improved standards in foreign countries and the lower costs of air travel have made medical tourism a popular trend. In the Philippines, both local and foreign patients who otherwise couldn’t afford medical procedures such as plastic surgery benefit from the highly favorable exchange rate. The cost savings are significant. For example, if the average surgeon’s fee for eyelid surgery in the U.S. is $2,500, in the Philippines, a qualified surgeon will charge only $600 to $1,500. For liposuction, surgeon’s fees in the U.S. average $2,000 per area. In the Philippines, it is around $800 for the first area and $500 for succeeding areas. Anesthesiologist’s fees and facility costs are also much lower.

Lower overhead costs and professional fees makes it possible for surgeons to perform these surgeries at a fraction of the cost of the same procedures in the United States, U.K. and other countries, without sacrificing quality of care. The Philippines’ medical services can rival the best in the world and a significant number of foreigners are choosing to undergo their cosmetic plastic surgery procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, face lift, tummy tuck and blepharoplasty at local hospitals and out-patient surgeries.

Patients also usually appreciate the added benefit that they are away from their surroundings during the recuperation period, with no friends and family to see them when looking less than their best after the operation.

Whether patients are having cosmetic surgery abroad or in their home country, choosing the right surgeon is the single most important decision they will make. In the Philippines, there are many qualified and well-trained doctors who have had formal training in plastic and reconstructive surgery, have acquired their postgraduate or fellowship training from well-known institutions in the U.S.A. and have been mentored by leading plastic surgeons. To enhance their expertise, they regularly attend various seminars worldwide, where new techniques in plastic and cosmetic surgery are introduced.

The greater acceptance and growth of cosmetic surgery among the general public has encouraged many Filipino doctors to perform cosmetic plastic surgery. However, not all of them have trained as plastic surgeons. Once doctors get their medical degrees, they may practice any specialty, even if they have not completed advanced training in the field they have chosen. And so, a doctor who performs cosmetic plastic surgery is not necessarily trained as a plastic surgeon. To ensure best results, patients should choose an authentic plastic surgeon with the training and experience that is essential for the success of their surgery. When foreign patients choose to have their elective cosmetic surgeries done by qualified plastic surgeons in Philippines, they get exceptional value for the latest techniques in cosmetic plastic surgery. They combine having a vacation in a beautiful tropical country with affordable, quality elective plastic surgery.