Hello,
Following a question I posted in the mega thread, I wanted to try to get a few more insights because this area seems rather wild, full of scammers and vile companies.
I am traveling to the USA from Japan and while I have health insurance through my job, it does not provide overseas coverage. My credit does, to some degree anyway, but not that much. 500,000 I believe, which in America can get you a band-aid at a hospital.
I was looking three options. MS&AD, HIS, Sony or AIG. The latter of which is the most expansive. MS&AD is also related to my bank, SMBC, so I do like the option.
Does anybody have experience with this or these companies, or can provide any insights into how this all works? I am assuming it’s just normal insurance. Get sick, see doctor, get bill, and submit bill to insurer.
Thank you,
3 comments
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I’ve used IMG, not on your list but just offering my take, it was pretty straight forward (see doctor, get bill, and submit bill to insurer, like you say).
The only complication was that I was hospitalized for a preexisting condition (&specifically got the plan that covers ‘acute onset of preexisting condition’), so they asked for a ton of additional medical/hospitalization history when I submitted the bills, and honestly didn’t seem like they wanted to cover it until I pushed hard enough. I forget what I actually had to pay in the end, I think it was like 200$ for a hospital+ambulance +300$ for my prescription, which **is** a lot but,
A. I am from the US so this doesn’t shock me in the slightest, I honestly expected to pay more.
B. Better than going bankrupt from the ICU on vacation I guess
So…. yeah, if that applies to you, just be aware it might take a while to settle, and not all plans/providers even cover a situation like this. If you are an average healthy person with no chronic condition, you would probably be fine with 500,000$ (unless that 500,000 is yen, that probably won’t even cover an ambulance)
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edit: whoops acronym
What insurance plan are you on? The national health insurance? Based on what I have read on this sub, the NHI will cover 70% of the cost of what you would have paid in Japan.
[https://www.internationalinsurance.com/expatriates/japanese-abroad.php](https://www.internationalinsurance.com/expatriates/japanese-abroad.php)
When I go back home I always used a price comparison site [insuremytrip.com](https://insuremytrip.com) The only problem is that the insurance options are limited compared to overseas travel.