You offer so many different international travel medical insurance plans? What is different among them?
You should enter your search criteria on our website at carlton.brokersnexus.com, and you will see several different plans listed one after another, and you will see the prices next to each plan. All the details pertinent to a particular plan is given under the 'Details' section. You can compare the plans side-by-side to find the differences.
I very well know that I can look at the prices from your quotes, and I can compare them side-by-side. However, how do I know which company is better in terms of reliability, quality of customer service and ease of claims processing? There is no way for me to compare or rate those aspects.
What you are looking for are subjective aspects of the particular company. Over the many years of our experience, we have learned that most of the companies we work with (and we work with pretty much all major companies in the U.S. market), at least for the travel medical insurance or visitors insurance, are more or less very similar. There is no one company that stands out much better or worse than other companies.
Therefore, the differences really are the differences in terms of benefits that you see clearly in the side-by-side comparison.
How can all companies be the same in terms of services and reliability? That is not possible, and I don't believe that. There must be a better way to rate them.
When we do so much business with various companies, it is certainly possible that a particular customer had an unsatisfactory experience with one company. However, that does not make the entire company bad. In most of these cases, we have found that the company has acted correctly and had processed the claim according to the policy wording. Most of the time, it is the lack of understanding of the customer or a mismatch of the expectations vs reality.
Of course, there is some amount of subjective matter involved in processing the claims, but most visitors insurance companies work on a similar set of rules and criteria. Therefore, if one company has rejected someone's claim, most likely all other companies would have done the same thing.
For example, if there are a total of five companies in the U.S. market and someone somewhere had less than a perfect experience with each of them, you would still have to choose from one of those five companies only. Of course, the other choice would be to not buy any insurance at all, which is definitely not advisable.
I am still not clear. How can different companies be really similar?
All the companies that we offer health insurance for travelers in the USA from have underwriters that are rated at least A- "Excellent" or better by A.M. Best. Most of the companies participate in the Better Business Bureau (BBB). They all work on a similar concept, a similar set of rules, and after all, they are in the same market, looking for the same set of customers. They all hire from the same pool of staff available, and so on.
Of course, it does not mean that all the companies are identical. Of course, each company has, over time, evolved to be a little different from others, but they are all overall similar companies.
If you are saying that all the companies are more or less equivalent, does it mean you don't have the experience to distinguish them or you don't care?
That is absolutely not true. We are the leading brokerage firm for international travel health insurance. After about a decade of extensive experience, if we really feel that the companies are equivalent, we can not say something different. Again, we as a broker, work for you, our customers, and we care the most about you. You can be confident while purchasing insurance through us.
After reading the reviews, I feel that every company rejects the claim with one or another excuse. Why should I buy any visitors insurance anyway?
Well, there are two major ways to buy visitors insurance or international travel insurance. Either from the home country or from the U.S. based company. Many people have an unpleasant experience with the insurance companies from their home country. Therefore, it is certainly advisable to buy the insurance from a U.S.-based company.
Among the U.S.-based companies, just because someone's claim was rejected, it does not mean the company is bad. There are many claims which are rejected because they are not eligible claims, and it is for valid reasons. Please read about pre-existing conditions FAQ and setting the expectations right for further details.
If you are looking for a company that will not ask you any questions, will not ask you to fill any paperwork, and will pay all your claims no matter what, such a company does not exist, and there are definitely valid reasons for that. Please read the claims process to understand more.
Just because you see an isolated negative experience here and there, it does not mean that is happening with all the customers. Because our website is very popular and the visibility for anything posted here is very high, you may notice something like this right away. However, there are many legitimate claims that are paid promptly, but you never hear about them because none of those customers really bother to post any experience as they are happy with it. Only when someone has some problem, they want to let everyone know about their negative experience and want to do something about it, looking for any help from anywhere etc. We are a leading brokerage firm, and we literally sell thousands and thousands of policies every month and you hardly see anyone posting any experience, about any company. Of course, it does not mean that all the companies are 100% perfect and no one ever had any problems, but overall the customer satisfaction ratio is very high.
Which international travel medical insurance or visitors insurance company rejects the least number of claims for frivolous reasons?
Companies that we work with do not reject the claims for frivolous reasons. Eligible claims are paid. It is a different matter that all the claims are not eligible claims.
I see that for a seemingly similar coverage, there is a lot of difference in price. Does that mean the company that charges higher premium is better?
Not necessarily.
There are two major types of international travel medical insurance plans: fixed coverage plans are cheaper and provide limited coverage while comprehensive coverage cost more but provide much better coverage. Please read visitors insurance types to understand more.
Therefore, the comparison of the features and the prices is appropriate only within a given category.
Within each category, different products provide a little different set of benefits and costs vary. However, it does not necessarily mean that higher priced plans are always the best travel medical insurance. The insurance does not work on that simple logic, but it is a more complex set of rules such as the size of the company, volume of business, various costs, prior claims cost experience, among others. If the company is smaller, and if they had a few large claims in the past, their overall price would be higher. However, if another company sells many more policies, they are more protected against a few big claims and can afford to offer an overall lower price. Of course, the logic is always not as simple as that, but that is one idea.
Can't find answers to your questions?
Ask our specialists - Licensed and experienced insurance professionals in the U.S.