The Best travel insurance for New York 2022

Do I need travel insurance for New York? If you are asking yourself this question, the answer is a resounding yes.

In the United States, any medical expense can cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars, so to avoid surprises, it is essential to invest in insurance with high coverage.

But how much should the coverage be? And how to choose? We know that it is a topic that brings them to you, so in this guide, we solve the most frequent doubts. Point out what to take into account to choose the best travel insurance for New York!

DO I NEED INSURANCE TO TRAVEL TO NEW YORK?

Although we have already given you a spoiler at the beginning, the answer is clear: if you travel anywhere in the United States, New York included, do it with insurance yes or yes.

WHY IS INSURANCE ESSENTIAL?

• In the United States, healthcare is private and exorbitantly expensive. Any small procedure, like going to get a prescription for medicine, can cost you hundreds of dollars.
• And, if by bad luck you have an accident or complication and need a hospital stay or an operation, the expenses go up to thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars.
• In the years we’ve lived in New York, we’ve been able to see this countless times: from $750 blood tests to $10,000+ hospital nights that luckily our insurance has covered.
• And unfortunately, our family has had to use the insurance as well due to an accident and emergency operation, something that, without it, would have cost them thousands of dollars.
• The United States does not have health agreements with other countries. In other words, even if you have a health card from your country or a card such as the European Health Card, they will not be valid in New York.
• Good insurance that covers medical expenses in New York will cost you around $50 to $75 per person per week. It is an important investment, but it can save you a thousand times higher expenses. For us, it is undoubtedly the most important investment of the travel budget: it is not worth risking!

MEDICAL COSTS IN THE UNITED STATES

So you can see that we are not exaggerating, here we share how much healthcare can cost with figures taken from the official website of the United States government.

When we come from a country where we have covered access to healthcare, these figures seem almost surreal, right? But, unfortunately, in this country, they are the daily bread.

X-rays at a clinic to check for a fracture – $750

Operation if you break a bone (without a hospital stay, everything is charged separately) – $7,500
Hospital stay – $10,000 per day. The average stay is 3 days, so $30,000.

The worst thing is that, although they are reference prices, the deals between different hospitals and insurance companies make the final price unpredictable and you never know how much something could end up costing you as a patient.

To this, we must add that New York is one of the cities with one of the highest health costs in the country, which may even be higher than those mentioned.

IS TRAVEL INSURANCE MANDATORY FOR NEW YORK?

No, having insurance is not a requirement to enter the United States. At the airport security check, they will not ask you if you have it; It is something that they leave to the choice of each traveler.

But you see that, if for some unforeseen event you need medical assistance during your trip and you do not have insurance, you will have to assume very high costs.

After years of struggling with this system, we cannot repeat enough that you take out good insurance (either one of the ones we recommend here or another). It is an added expense, but it is the best investment to travel with peace of mind and know that they will attend to you if you need it and that you will not return with debts.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

Take out travel insurance with coverage for at least $200,000 of medical expenses (better if it is more). The higher the coverage, the more expensive the insurance will be, but in the case of the United States, we would not travel with less than $200,000.

The most typical coverage for traveling to other countries (about $50,000) here can fall far short.
Buy it before the trip, and the sooner the better. Most insurance cannot be contracted at the destination; you have to do it before you travel. Also, if you want to add coverage in case you have to cancel the trip, you will have to do it up to 7 days after booking the trip (or pay a lot more).

The insurance that we recommend, and that meets all these requirements (it has coverage of $2,000,000), is Mondo’s Top Trip plan. Here you have all the information and a 5% discount that is applied when calculating the price.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST TRAVEL INSURANCE FOR NEW YORK

And how to choose between all the insurances? If you do some research, you will see that this part is not easy at all:

In the market you will find a thousand and one insurances and, often, they are very difficult to compare, since each insurer includes different coverages and conditions.
Insurers use very specific vocabulary, which at first sounds like Mandarin Chinese if you haven’t read about it before, and try to sell you coverage that you may not need. Or yes… but theirs is that you hire them knowing what you buy!

THE ESSENTIALS IN INSURANCE

So, for you to make an informed choice, here’s what we think you should keep in mind when buying travel insurance for New York with any company.

Medical coverage of at least $200,000 (the more the better) for illnesses and accidents. Make sure that this coverage covers car accidents and that part of it is destined for dental emergencies (because there is always that tooth waiting for you to go on a trip to make your life impossible, it never fails!).

The coverage usually includes shipping medications abroad, although, in the case of New York, it is not so important, since you will be able to find any medication here.

Coverage for coronavirus on your trip to New York. At this time, it is very important that the insurance you take out covers medical care also in case of infection by COVID-19 (including the test) and the extension of the stay in your accommodation in case you need medical quarantine.
The insurances that we recommend below include it.

You don’t have to advance the money. You have already seen that medical expenses in the United States can be very high, so it is very important that your insurance manages the payments directly with the medical center and does not make you advance the money.

Some insurances ask you to pay and then reimburse you, but, in addition to the problem that disbursing such a large amount at once, it is possible that you lose money in the currency exchange.

Repatriation. It is very important that the insurance includes the repatriation or medical transfer of the insured in the event of illness or death.

Civil liability and legal assistance. The insurance should include civil liability coverage (for damages you may cause to third parties) and legal assistance, so you can have the advice of a lawyer if you need it.

They serve you in Spanish. Even if you have a good level of English, in a time of emergency you will appreciate being able to communicate in your language, especially because of the specific vocabulary used in the health field. For example, surely few of us would know, a priori, that we have angina or that we have sprained our ankle in English, right?

Customer Support. Being able to communicate quickly and easily with the insurance in case you need it is very important. They all offer 24-hour telephone support, but if they have a chat it is even better since you will be able to have an open line of communication and not have to repeat everything every time you call.

OTHER ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

Although the most important thing we have already covered, if you are considering adding other coverage to the insurance, take into account aspects such as these :

Luggage theft. Most insurances will cover robberies with violence or intimidation (very rare in New York, since it is a very safe city) but, on the other hand, they will not compensate you for thefts in which your belongings have been stolen without you realizing it.

In addition, to compensate you many times they will ask you for the original invoice of the stolen object, which it is unlikely that you have kept.

Cancellation of the trip. Normally, there is a list of valid conditions for you to be compensated if you have to cancel the trip (hospitalization of the insured or close relatives, dismissal from work…). In addition, many insurers will ask you to purchase this coverage at the time of purchasing travel insurance or, at the latest, within 7 days.
If you wait longer, the insurance will go up quite a bit in price.

Delay or cancellation of the trip. A trip to New York is very expensive, and we want to have some compensation in case our flights are delayed or canceled, but it’s important to read the fine print. For example, insurance does not usually compensate you if the compensation corresponds to the airline if the delay is due to a strike if it has not been at least 4-6 hours…

Extension of the trip. If you have to extend your stay due to convalescence or have a family member go to New York to accompany you and be with you, insurance usually offers a limit of $100 – $150 per person per day in accommodation.

In New York, this amount falls a bit short, especially if you have to book at the last minute since the hotels are very expensive (in fact, that is the price per night of these cheap hotels in Manhattan ). In this case, we have not found better alternatives, but keep this in mind so as not to be surprised.