Your health policy generally stops at the border
This is the fact the product exists for, and most travellers do not know it.
An ordinary Indian health policy covers treatment in India. Treatment abroad is typically excluded, unless you hold a specific global-cover variant — which is a distinct and more expensive product rather than a feature of standard cover.
So a household with excellent health insurance can be entirely uncovered the moment it boards a flight. And the exposure on the other side is severe: medical costs in North America, Western Europe or Japan run at multiples of Indian prices, and an emergency admission with a few days of intensive care can exceed the cost of the entire trip many times over.
The medical section is the product. Everything else is a bundled convenience.
What a policy contains
| Section | Covers | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency medical | Illness or accident abroad, hospitalisation, treatment | The reason to buy |
| Medical evacuation and repatriation | Transport to adequate care, or home | Very high — an air ambulance is a large, unbudgetable sum |
| Personal liability | Injury or damage you cause to others abroad | High, and almost never considered |
| Trip cancellation and curtailment | Non-refundable costs if the trip fails | Moderate; a bounded loss you could absorb |
| Baggage and passport loss | Replacement and re-issue costs | Low — the passport help is worth more than the cash |
| Flight delay | A fixed amount after a stated delay | Low |
The ordering is worth noting because it inverts the marketing. Baggage and delay lead most advertising and sit at the bottom on value; evacuation sits near the top and is almost never mentioned, despite being the one item an ordinary household genuinely could not fund.
The exclusions that decide claims
Four, and they account for most rejected travel claims.
Pre-existing conditions. Generally excluded, or covered only in a life-threatening emergency, and the definition is broad. If you have a managed condition, check specifically how the policy treats it — this is the single most common gap between what a traveller assumes and what the policy says.
Adventure activities. Skiing, diving, trekking above a stated altitude, motorcycling. Frequently excluded as standard and available as an add-on. The activity people most often assume is covered and is not tends to be the one the trip was booked for.
Alcohol and substance involvement. An injury sustained while intoxicated is typically excluded, which removes cover in a meaningful share of holiday accidents.
Travelling against medical advice, or to a destination under an official advisory.
There is also a limit worth checking rather than assuming: many policies cap the maximum trip duration per journey and have an upper age limit or steeply higher premium beyond a certain age — which matters most for the travellers with the highest medical risk.
Sizing the medical cover
Not by the cost of the trip. By the cost of treatment where you are going.
A modest sum insured is adequate for a short trip within Asia and inadequate for the United States, where a serious admission can run far beyond it. The sum insured should be set by the destination's medical costs, and the premium difference between a small and a large sum insured is usually minor relative to the exposure.
Two related checks. Is there a deductible, and how large — travel policies commonly carry one, and it applies per claim. And is treatment cashless at the destination or reimbursement-only, which determines whether you need funds available immediately, as in any medical emergency.
Where cover may already exist
Worth checking before buying, and worth not over-relying on.
- Credit cards. Some offer travel cover, occasionally conditional on booking the tickets with that card. Coverage is usually narrower and sums insured lower than a standalone policy — read what it actually includes rather than the summary.
- Employer cover for business travel, which typically does not extend to personal trips or to accompanying family.
- Student policies, where universities require or provide cover, which may or may not be adequate.
Where a visa requires insurance — Schengen being the common case — there is a mandated minimum sum insured and specific coverage terms. Meeting the visa minimum is a compliance exercise, not a judgement about adequacy, and the two should not be confused.
If something happens
- Call the insurer's assistance line before treatment where the situation allows. Most policies require intimation, and the assistance provider can direct you to a network hospital and arrange cashless treatment.
- Keep everything — bills, prescriptions, reports, and the discharge summary in a language the insurer can process.
- Report theft to local police immediately and obtain a written report. Baggage and passport claims are routinely refused for want of one.
- Report baggage loss to the airline and get the reference, since the insurer will require the airline's response first.
- Note the claim window, which is often short after returning.
The assistance line is the part that carries the most practical value in a real emergency — arranging care in an unfamiliar system, in another language, is worth considerably more than the reimbursement that follows.
Where it fits
Travel insurance is a small, bounded purchase that protects against an unbounded one, which is the test from what insurance is for: insure what you could not absorb, not what merely annoys you.
A cancelled trip is a bounded loss. A medical evacuation is not — and the alternative to cover is funding it by selling long-term assets, usually at short notice. FNOTrader's Mutual Funds app reports maximum drawdown alongside returns across the full AMFI NAV history — around 34 million NAV rows — and the gap between a plan left intact and one liquidated under pressure is what a modest premium is buying.
FNOTrader does not sell insurance and does not recommend policies or insurers.
Common questions
Does my Indian health insurance cover me abroad?
Generally not. Ordinary Indian health policies cover treatment in India and typically exclude treatment abroad unless you hold a specific global-cover variant, which is a distinct and more expensive product rather than a standard feature.
What is the most valuable part of a travel policy?
Emergency medical cover and medical evacuation. Medical costs in North America, Western Europe or Japan run at multiples of Indian prices, and an air ambulance is a large sum no ordinary household could fund — yet evacuation is almost never mentioned in marketing.
What are the most common travel insurance exclusions?
Pre-existing conditions, adventure activities such as skiing or diving, injuries involving alcohol, and travel against medical advice or to a destination under an official advisory. Trip duration caps and upper age limits also catch people.
How much medical cover should I take?
Set it by the destination's medical costs rather than the cost of the trip. A modest sum insured is adequate for a short trip in Asia and inadequate for the United States, and the premium difference is usually minor relative to the exposure.
Is the insurance included with my credit card enough?
Often narrower and with lower sums insured than a standalone policy, and sometimes conditional on booking the tickets with that card. Read what it actually includes rather than the summary before relying on it.
Is meeting the Schengen insurance requirement enough?
It is a compliance exercise rather than a judgement about adequacy. The visa minimum is a floor set for the visa, not an assessment of what your trip and destination actually require.
What should I do if I need treatment abroad?
Call the insurer's assistance line before treatment where possible — most policies require intimation, and the assistance provider can direct you to a network hospital and arrange cashless care. That service is often worth more than the reimbursement itself.
Continue reading
More in Insurance · App: Mutual Funds · Definitions: glossary · Free tools: calculators · All: every article