During vacations or short trips abroad, unexpected inconveniences, accidents or illness can occur. The costs associated with the necessary medical treatment can be very high. Therefore, when planning a holiday, it is necessary to provide yourself with travel insurance that covers sudden illness and health complications.

When purchasing insurance, it is best to inform about all important details, especially if a member of your family has a specific health situation.
Different information can be found on the Internet, and we provide information from long-standing practice with tourists and traveler’s experiences.

Changing the climate, long journey, very high temperatures and winds can contribute to getting sick during holidays. During the holidays, very frequent are sea urchins stings, inflammation, cuts, and stomach problems. Stealing of luggage and documents can also be covered by travel insurance but only in much more expensive policies than basic ones (50%)

The insurance does not cover chronic illness, however, if the insured’s condition is stable with the applied regular therapy that keeps chronic disease “under control”, the insurance company usually covers 50% of the amount of damage, if an insured case related to such a chronic disease occurs. This information on the coverage of these 50% of the damage does not exist under the conditions of insurance, but there are such cases in practice, so it is important to keep in mind that chronic diseases do not have to be covered.

Allergies caused by sun or dirty water, insect stings are not covered. Serious allergies are covered. Sea urchin stings are not excluded from practice in most insurance companies. Bees and axes stings in Greek resorts are frequent so it would be good to have with you some anti-allergy products.

Most insurance companies exclude their obligation in secured cases in connection with pregnancy if the pregnant woman is older than 38 years or if she has completed 28 weeks of pregnancy. In any case, for pregnant women who don’t belong in these categories (38 yrs and 28 weeks of pregnancy), each pregnant woman should receive from her chosen doctor, before traveling, a confirmation that her pregnancy is not risky and that she can travel. When purchasing a policy, the insurance company does not require this certificate, but if a health problem occurs, according to the terms of insurance, the pregnant woman should have the confirmation as well. When it comes to age and stadium of pregnancy is different in insurance companies.

When purchasing a travel health insurance policy, you should pay attention to the amount of coverage (a recommendation is 30 000€ because there were cases where the coverage of 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 euros is insufficient), then whether there is a insured person participation, then whether the insurance directly covers the cost of treatment to the healthcare institution or whether the insured person has to pay the bill himself and refund the amount upon return.

The basic insurance policy mainly covers only acute conditions related to tooth diseases, usually up to a value of about 300€.

The cost for medicines is refunded, but you need to submit the original receipt and diagnosis from the doctor upon return, fill in the application, a photocopy of the passport pages with enters and exits from Serbia, as well as a copy of the current dinar account card for payment. If the insured person does not have a current account, on the basis of your personal number insurance company opens the temporary account on which they make payment, which the insured person can take with an ID card. Since you have to pay your medication yourself, and then you get a refund, it’s best to take some basic medicines with you (brufen, aspirin, andol, burning cream …), and if you are a chronic patient then definitely your usual medications.

When an accident or a health problem occurs, in order to activate the policy, as a rule, a call center should be called (the number is on the back of the policy and is active for 24h). The operators will give you further instructions and refer you to the nearest clinic. In case of calling the call center, the insurance company takes over the obligation to pay the doctor directly. Otherwise, the client is obliged to pay the bill himself, and refund it upon return.

Doctors or institutions with which the insurance house has a contract call the call center themselves and it is also a way of not making payments on the spot, and it’s done by the doctor and an insurance company.

If an emergency situation and hospitalization occur, any person, doctor, follower, etc. should be registered within 48 hours of admission to the hospital.

When the case was not reported, doctors sometimes charge more than the real price in that country, and when the client filed a refund request, a problem arises because the insurance company pays the amount that is customary for that type of medical service. Therefore, the case should be reported, where possible.

You have more options when buying insurance. The family package has the largest discount, in case 5 or more persons travel in the same period to the same place, a group policy that also has a discount can be made.

Some banks have for their clients travel health insurance, so if you use this option, you should check what conditions and what amount of insurance your bank covers.

In the insurance house where you buy the policy, you can ask for a list of doctors and institutions with whom they have a cooperation agreement at your destination when buying.

And one more thing to pay attention if you pay insurance through AMSS: “Travel Health Insurance - read the tiny letters in the General Terms and Conditions of Insurance.

AMSS does not cover your first day of insurance in the policy, here is what is written in their General Terms:

“Travel health insurance shall be valid until the expiration of the twenty-fourth hours of the day which is stated in the policy as the insurance start date, and expires on the last day which is stated in the policy as the date of termination of the insurance”

So, the first day, the day of the trip when the risk is large is not covered. It should be paid from the day before. This is valid for AMSS, while for most other insurances is valid for the first day. Still, inform well before you pay.