Primary Medical Travel Insurance Is Not Better Than Secondary

Most travelers are are mis-informed about how Primary & Secondary Medical Travel Insurance coverage works. Read this to learn the truth about what Primary or Secondary Medical coverage means and how they differ:

Primary Medical Coverage means your medical bills are paid from the first dollar. No “coordination of benefit” claim forms need to be filed.

This works best if the medical claim’s less than the coverage amount. That’s because even though you had insurance pay for part of the claim, when the Primary benefits are exhausted, your other insurance won’t consider any deductibles or co-pays to be satisfied.

For example, here’s what happens if you have a $70,000 medical claim with a travel insurance plan that has $50,000 Primary coverage:

1. You submit the $70,000 medical claim to the travel insurance. It pays $50,000 (its maximum)
2. You submit the remaining $20,000 to your medical insurance plan. Let’s say it has a $5,000 deductible with a 20% copay.
3. Of the remaining $20,000 your medical insurance plan will pay $12,000 and you will be liable for $8,000.

Secondary Medical Coverage means your medical bills are paid after any other coverage you have pays their share. This means that Secondary coverage will pay any deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses or co-pays up to its coverage limit.

Here’s a little detail that’s good to know: Secondary coverage assumes you have other coverage that’s Primary. If you don’t have other coverage Secondary becomes Primary.