Posted 1/13/10 by BT            

As many of you are now aware there was a very serious earthquake in Haiti.  There are several of you who have clients currently in Haiti. Below is a list of resources you may offer to your clients and their family members if you are contacted.  These resources should be able to provide them needed assistance:

For a Client in an Earthquake Area: 

Refer them to FEMA’s web page about “What to do After an Earthquake”  The most important things are to listen to the radio and to only place phone calls in the event of an emergency, since call volumes are very high during these times.

For Family Members: 

The U.S. State Department Operations Center is advising Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti to call 1-888-407-4747. Due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording. “Our embassy is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens through our Warden Network,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “Communications are very difficult within Haiti at this time.”  

You can also follow the U.S. State Department’s latest Tweets for up-to-date information: http://twitter.com/dipnote

For Anyone Needing to Contact the HCCMIS World Service Center for Support: 

Call: 800-605-2282 in the US, or collect outside the US at 317-262-2132.  HCCMIS coordinates evacuations via these phone numbers and arranges for medically necessary evacuations through various service providers in several regions around the world.

Chat: If our phone lines are busy, Customer Service is also available online via Live Chat.

Email: If you need assistance but it is not an emergency, please connect with us via email at service@hccmis.com to ensure our phone lines are available for those with emergencies.

Twitter: We will be closely monitoring our Customer Service Twitter account, @HCCMIS_Support, and sending out updates and news as the situation develops.  Please contact us via Twitter with any questions as well.

Posted June 12, 2009 by H. Lawrence

A few months back, a friend of mine (Holli) was in a nearly fatal motorcycle accident in India and suffered major brain trauma. The hospitals there, like in most developing countries, weren’t sufficient to care for her injuries. So she needed to be med-evac’d. Do you have any idea how much that costs?? Evidently, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!

So it got me to thinking. What would my family do if I were in an accident like that? The hospitals here in Honduras probably aren’t much better than the ones in India. And I don’t have US health insurance to cover something like that. And who just has $150,000 lying around?

So a couple of weekends ago we were visiting with friends here in Tegus. (The husband commutes from the US every couple of months, and his wife and family live here permanently.) They have health insurance that works in Honduras AND in the US. And it covers emergency evacuation for situations just like the one Holli was in.

So since then I’ve been researching international travel insurance. One of the sites I found was www.hccmis.com. And according to the prices on their site, it’s very affordable depending on the deductible, even on a Honduran salary.

So if you are traveling abroad (studying abroad, backpacking, whatever!) or living abroad like me, then I suggest you consider what you and your family would do if you were in an accident like Holli’s. If you want, you can click HERE to obtain a free quote for international health insurance. It’s quick and painless, and this kind of insurance could turn out to be priceless if something ever happened to you abroad!

Posted 3/6/09 by M. Muntalip

Easter holiday is around the corner. Many people will be traveling this Easter as it is a great time to get away with friends and family, and not to mention, escape from a huge pile of office workloads. But it doesn’t matter if you are away for a day or a month, accidents and sicknesses can strike at any time, without warning. Plus, currently we are living in a recessions, when everything is expensive. Without proper travel insurance, you will suffer greatly. There are many travel medical insurance choices out there that you can pick. One choice is MultiNational Underwriters. They offer low prices and will cover many of your international vacation medical protection needs. The good thing is the Free international travel medical quote. Obtaining travel insurance should be your first priority when you book the Easter vacation. Now you can go almost anywhere you want to go.

Posted 3/2/09 by C. Jalleh

With many airlines offering discounted travel packages, I read of more and more families travelling together, with kids in tow :-) 

I remember the time I had to make a business trip with my 9-month-old baby.

Besides worrying about his water, food and medicines, I was most concerned about our safety. The best advice our travel agent gave us was to buy international travel insurance.

Although the airlines provided some travel medical insurance, you’ll find that your medical and life insurance policies (unless stated specifically) provide coverage for you while you’re in your home country ONLY.

MultiNational Underwriters (www.mnui.com) provides international coverage (for short-term and long-term trips) for lost baggage, medical treatment and most importantly, emergency evacuations (which includes acts of terrorism, political evacuation, and complications of pregnancy).

Insured by Lloyd’s, the world’s largest and oldest insurance, the Atlas series (for US and non-US citizens) sounds useful especially as the coverage provides assistance with:
a) emergency cash transfers;
b) emergency message relays to family, friends and co-workers;
c) a round-trip (air/ground) ticket for a family member to the hospital where you’re hospitalized and
d) return of minor children - in case you’re hospitalized and your child is left unattended (e.g. you’re in a coma or in the ICU) for more than 3 days, they can arrange for your child to be flown back to the airport terminal of your home country.

While the above scenario sounds scary, as a frequent traveler, I can assure you that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN when you are on travel.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you’re travelling anytime soon, how about getting a free international medical insurance quote? At least you’ll have an idea how much international travel insurance would cost.

Don’t be “penny wise, pound foolish” - with travel insurance, you can then really sit back and relax your family holiday.

Have a happy day!

Written 1/29/09 by K. Pilla

We cannot really deny the fact that we love to travel overseas to see different and beautiful places and feel different cultures. But sometimes it limits us to travel if we bring along our whole family, especially if we have small children traveling along with us or even older members of the family.

We cannot help but think about compromising one’s health while traveling abroad. We cannot avoid some incidents that we could encounter such as minor accidents and illnesses while outside the country and traveling. We know how hard it is to be hospitalized in foreign places where it could usually cost a lot due to the fact that domestic health insurance policies only cover us in our home country.

Fortunately, MultiNational Underwriters at www.mnui.com addresses these limitations. They offer international travel health insurance plans that could cover medical health services and provide benefits for your specific travels abroad.

Get a free medical insurance quote now and be protected.

Posted 1/30/09 by J. Halsted

One of my girlfriends went to Asia recently (a volunteer vacation that took her into Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia & the Philippines, and maybe a couple more countries). She had been saving quite a while to do this and planned to spend a few months over there.

During the first week of her trip she had an appendicitis attack and had to have immediate surgery. She said that she was very lucky for two reasons: 1) She was in a major city when it happened and 2) she had purchased international travel medical insurance.

While I may take all I can with me to keep us safe when we travel I certainly don’t plan for emergency medical care, mostly because we are healthy. But so was she. This has made me rethink our travel a bit and look into travel insurance a bit more closely.

I found this site for a Free International Medical Insurance Quote. I input all the info requested and got an instant quote for Doug & I (children under 9 are free) It was not a lot of money for the peace of mind it brings.

Of course you want to read up on travel insurance yourself and see if it is worth it for you, personally. MultiNational Underwriters (www.mnui.com) has lots of information to help you decide.

Posted 1/25/09 by Debbie Brewer

This past week I was hospitalized with pneumonia.  It was totally unexpected and I am still not feeling up to par.  Thankfully I was at home and not traveling when I came down with it.  The cost of an unexpected illness while traveling can be extremely high.  If you’re traveling overseas, those costs can skyrocket even higher.

I have always recommended you get travel insurance to protect the investment of your trip.  Now I am recommending you also get travel insurance for your health.  That’s right!  You can buy health insurance to protect you while traveling.  MultiNational Underwriters (MNU) is a US based company that allows you to purchase health insurance for as little as $1 per day.  You choose your deductible, amount of coverage, and dates you want to be covered.  MNU will do the rest.  No, they can’t guarantee you won’t get sick while you are on vacation or business.  What they can do is provide you peace of mind knowing that if you do fall ill, it won’t bankrupt you.  You are covered. 

Have a graduate student who is planning time abroad after graduation?  MNU has coverage for them too. 

Check out their website (www.mnui.com) before your next trip overseas.  They offer 24 hour support – Protect yourself with health insurance for travelers.  Free travel medical insurance quote.

Posted 1/21/09 by David Hutasoit

People nowadays are relatively well-educated about the importance of health, life, and travel insurance. They realize that insurance is very useful to protect them when certain bad things happen. The protection usually comes in the form of money to cover all the harmful things. However, not many people understand that most of this insurance does not cover international travel insurance.

This situation is very miserable. Every year lots of travelers are having a trip without international travel medical/health protection. They do not recognize that their domestic insurance will not cover any medical emergency outside their home country. If you feel that you are part of them, then you are now in the right track to read this article. You can get a free international travel medical insurance quote from MultiNational Underwriters (MNU), a leader in the field of international medical insurance.

MNU offers a complete portfolio of health and life insurance products to customers in over 130 countries. Some of their best products are “The Atlas Series”, “Student Secure”, “Trip Cancellation Series”, and many more. Get your self protected world wide with only $1 per day. Too see further their products’ detail you can click their friendly website at www.mnui.com.

Posted 12/23/08 by I. Suing

Many Philippine travelers, either Filipino native who are already residing outside the country, or  tourists around the globe, are not aware that their insurance does not have international coverage. Travel insurance is important, especially when you travel outside your home country. When you are visiting other countries such as the Philippines you just don’t know what to expect out there during your trip. Before you travel get more information for your international travel insurance. It is still a very good idea when you travel to get a travel medical insurance for you and your family. You can get more information by visiting www.mnui.com. You can also get a free travel medical insurance quote by visiting www.mnui.com website.

Posted 12/20/08 by Ben

There are a lot of people out there who do the same thing that I do:  they live, study and work overseas.  What they don’t know is that they can grab medical insurance that works internationally.  When I studied in Australia, I had to grab a special medical insurance but I never understood that I could be covered in both places if needed be.  One of the facts of life is that no one really knows when you will need the many benefits of insurance until the situation is happening.  We can’t be expected to only hold coverage in the USA when we’re not living there all the time and working around the world.  That’s where MultiNational Underwriters (www.mnui.com) comes in.  They can really help you out to provide coverage no matter where you are.  You can grab a free international insurance quote and let me tell you, you’ll be happy that you did.  I really wish I had the opportunity to do that before.  It’s absolutely something I need to look into before I head back and I will!  So if you’re thinking of working in another country, studying, living or visiting another country, I wish you luck and hope you enjoy your trip with a peace of mind knowing you’ll have that extra protection you need.  Nothing ruins a good trip overseas than possibly being in thousands of dollars of debt by the time you leave.

Again, good luck and happy travels!