Before you travel, read your travel health insurance policy to see whether you are covered in foreign countries.

Your Social Security Medicare doesn't cover hospital or medical services outside the US. Some Medicare supplement plans provide cover for foreign medical care as long as that care would be eligible for Medicare at home. Such plans often have a dollar ceiling, per trip. They are usually reimbursement plans -- you have to be able to pay the bills and submit receipts for compensation later.

When looking into travel health insurance, keep in mind that:

• ordinary travel insurance plans, often packaged with tours, may have an age limit,
• conventional travel health insurance policies aren't likely to cover you for pre-existing conditions. Such cover can be arranged but you have to read the fine print.

As a rule, few policies packaged with tours and tickets, will cover pre-existing conditions.

Medical Assistance Programs

Even if you have adequate health insurance cover, you should consider signing up with a Medical Assistance Program. These programs:

• help you find hospitals, doctors and appropriate medical attention in foreign countries,
• conduct telephone consultations, with you or with foreign doctors,
• arrange interpreters for you in the event of a medical emergency,
• arrange and cover the cost of escorted medical evacuations,
• arrange for remains to be returned home in the event of death.

Medical Assistance Programs are relatively inexpensive and, considering the potentially astronomical cost of an escorted medical evacuation, they are well worth it for the peace of mind they give.