After reading through the HU section on insurance, I spent a few discouraging days of emailing, reading websites, "contact us" pages, etc blah blah, with this result:

World Nomads, which worked well for my Canadian friends who have their own insurance while in Canada, only insures you for travel outside your own country, yet I have no health insurance in the USA. (A common problem here.) I would like to tour in my own country too! Many of the UK sites exclude USA. The sites I mailed either replied saying that they offer nothing to USA residents, or they do not reply at all. One UK site would not let me past the "contact us" form; it forced me to enter a UK airport and postcode, and would not accept any when I did. MedJetAssist never answered.

I've exhausted what I know. I think Markel or other motorcycle insurers can add health coverage, but I am - or was - researching emergency health insurance that would cover being hurt and sick even if it didn't happen on my motorcycle.

Is there some ban by the US insurance companies? What kind of emergency-only (you know, not doctor checkups and suchlike) can be had in the US?
Thank you.

Your inquiry is not at all clear, but I'll give a brief answer to the question I think you're asking. FWIW, I live in your city, so my experience should relate (health insurance, like other insurance, differs by state, so what works for a Washington resident won't necessarily work for someone from anywhere else).

When I needed health insurance I applied (a slow process) and purchased (an expensive process) private insurance. You can do the same. Start your research at Health insurance, and settle in for a bit. A public alternative is currently not being funded, but who knows--it might come back some day: Washington Basic Health.

If you continue to conclude that you don't want coverage of routine stuff, but want to cover yourself against major, catastrophic occurrences, you want a plan with a high deductible: each year you pay the first $1000, $5000 or whatever, and the insurance then kicks in to cover most of whatever comes after. If you have a million-dollar cancer or accident, you'll be glad to pay the first $5k, right?

Such a policy might be relatively cheap, but the operative word is "relatively." A couple of years ago I was paying $600 per month ($7200 per year) for a high deductible policy.

You need to allow time for all of this. If you've got a lot of pre-existing conditions--or even if you've had an assortment of treatments during the past couple of years--you might get denied normal coverage and kicked into a high risk pool. That's what happened to me, and that's one reason my insurance cost so much.

Last note: all this is in a state of flux, and will be changing in the years to come whether or not the current national healthcare plan takes full effect. But remember that even if you carry repatriation insurance (i.e. medivac) while traveling, you'll need USA insurance to take advantage once they airlift you home.

That's how it works here, so if you don't like it you might think about voting for national, single-payer health care like most civilized countries have got. In the meantime, you now know what to do.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Thank you. It wasn't greatly helpful. Yet I am checking out the Commissioner's site in another window now. I'm healthy. I frequently have no employer coverage, often due to having no employer. Travel-only or even motorcycle with medical seemed like the only inexpensive thing available - only to EU, UK and Australian residents. Or those leaving their home country, which presently I am not. I have always planned to vote for a single payer system first chance I get.

Not greatly helpful because.....you were asking about something else? You were hoping for a solution which doesn't exist?

Private medical insurance covering Americans in America is expensive, and it's getting more so. You choice, AFAIK, is expensive vs. ridiculously expensive.

Good luck.

Mark

I don't understand what Washington did to MedJet?


"Who Can Get MedjetAssist? MedjetAssist memberships are available to residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico except Washington State residents"

This is also an unhelpful reply but I suspect the reason travel insurance is cheaper for UK, EU and Australian residents is that all the insurance has to do is pay for initial treatment where you need it then get you home where you will be passed onto the relevant health service, the wonderful NHS here in the UK. I would guess for US citizens it would then have to pay for the rest of the treatment once it has got you home.

Not clear, huh? Which did you perceive me as: abstruse, obtuse, or obfuscating? Heh.
"you were asking about something else?"
Yes. Something like the listed programs on HU, each of which I checked out, who were quick to tell me their services were *not* available in the US, if they replied at all. Something similar to World Nomads.... or all those other listed links I tried.

Different from the standard medical insurance the state commissioner wants to sell me.

"You were hoping for a solution which doesn't exist?" It does, quite definitely, and very accessibly - if you are in the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands.

Anyone else? Does any current or former resident of the USA (this means someone who has lived or does live in the big country in the middle of North America) know of any motorcycle travel medical insurance (this means some kind of medical insurance specific to traveling by motorcycle), like the links listed in HU "Staying Healthy on the Road", that does cover USA residents? (This means you can search for and read the links and see what kind of coverage they offer.)

Some of the links clearly state they do not cover USA residents. (This means that their coverage is only available in the specified country or region, e.g. Australia, the Netherlands, or the United Kingdom.) I did not contact them. The rest did not specify. (This means that the link did not say that they excluded or included the USA.) I checked and contacted those, and they replied that they do not cover USA residents. (This means that I clicked on and read their websites, emailed them, and they answered that their service is not available in the USA.)

I am researching World Nomads. (This means that I am reading their website more thoroughly and finding out exactly what they cover.)

If anyone else knows of similar agencies that provide coverage similar to World Nomads (this means an insurance company that offers motorcycle travel medical coverage that is sorta like World Nomads) that covers USA residents traveling in the USA, please let me know.

Thanks!

On the off chance that you haven't already tried you might check out AAA. I tried to check from here but it keeps booting me back to the Canadian (CAA) site. I know that we have booked travel insurance through the CAA site when riding down intop the USA and beyond into Mexico.

If you have already tried then please disregard this post.

Rick

Thanks! I have a AAA card, and had not thought of them for travel insurance. Heh. Sounds funny now. But then, except for the card, I'd only tried them for (more expensive than competitors, can you believe it?) auto insurance, and never thought about them doing medical.

Thank you for trying AAA from there; I will explore their website from here.

And, if the search is frutiful, can also post results for others.

It never occurred to me that AAA would have travel medical. This means, y'know, that they would insure for repair of human bodies and not just repair of auto bodies.

Here is what I have found:

(1) AAA does have travel insurance. I had to check ("click on a FAQ on what else is covered") to verify that it wasn't just flight cancellation, lost baggage, blah blah blah. It *does* cover "emergency medical and emergency medical transportation", under several choices. This is true at least for my state.

Since I have to choose a state, it must vary widely from state to state, and have different underwriters. Does it vary province to province also?

(2) I have also explored MedJetAssist's site, and found that it provides the emergency evacuation but not insurance. I contacted them and asked if they knew of anyone who provided the travel medical insurance. (Since, y'know, not all of us are already insured.) They replied that they do indeed have a sister company, InsureAssist.

I hesitated to include them here because in my initial exploration of their site, I have had some difficulty getting quotes. They may require travel outside of your own country. That sucks in one way because my own country offers a lot of unexplored territory for me. Further research is called for.


Members' suggestions to add to my search have led to this great information! Thanks much. Any more info, please share. Thanks!

In the UK this kind of service is provided:- Bikers Travel Insurance
I guess the holy grail you are seeking is the equivalent company based in the USA who have the where-with-all to offer an equivalent service.
For instance;
Motorcycle tour operators?
Motor cycle hirers?

__________________
Dave

Walkabout, YES!

I do not know what the problem with the USA is. (Cartel, Monopoly, Price-fixing, Restraint of Trade, Tying Arrangements, among some definitions I found in a legal dictionary, perhaps, eh?)

But I think I will find the actual Holy Grail before I will see the many options that are offered in the UK offered in the USA.

I got through today to Medjetassist and insureassist no problem. It seems fairly affordable, combing through the fine print now. Nothing about motorcycling not being covered. I was concerned that having both insure & medjet might be redundant? The latter will pay to get you home if they deem it necessary and they will dictate the terms so I think it may be worth it to have both. for 2 of us its relatively affordable, together less than the bill we just got for 1 month of COBRA!

High deductible insurance policies are dirt cheap.

And so is Medjet assist.

What's wrong with that approach? :confused1:

Looking for motorcycle trip specific policies is a completely misguided approach because every company will see it as a higher risk, which will result in higher cost. You want to look for health insurance - period. They have no business in knowing if you ride and you shouldn't be volunteering this info unless you are keen on paying more. Since motorcycling is not that big in the USA, I doubt there are any policies that actively exclude moto accidents in their fine print but probably worth checking.