April 21,2008 Author: A. Subrahmanian

For the past several years there is a large surge in the number of students travelling abroad for higher studies. Many of them are flying across the border to get quality education in the form of graduate and post graduate programs. As the world has become a village quality education has become accessible to those who aspire for the same. Out of many countries which welcomes foreign students for education United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and Russia some of the all time favorites.

Do you have plans to travel abroad for studies? You might have selected your university, You might have selected your stream of study. You definitly have thought of and arranged your accomodation, your food, your clothes and how to call back home etc. Have your ever thought that what will be situation if disater strikes on your health or you loose your belongings like passport or other valid documents while you are in a foreign country. Keep in mind that your friends and relatives are not with you to ask for help. I am sure that one will feel like he is in a no mans land. While in a foreign country you should be secured enough to handle these type of tragic situations. A student medical insurance or a student travel insurance will be a precious asset to be secured. Consider buying a International Student Medical insurance policy while going abroad for your higher studies and be good at your studies.To more about student insurance policy get a Free student insurance quote , visit the website www.mnui.com.

March 3, 2008 - Author: J.Seay

In the US, we live in fear everyday, we live and breath in the day of insurance :). We have life insurance, term insurance, house insurance, car insurance, health insurance , computer gadget insurance, malpractice insurance, and I carry my student malpractice insurance all the time. We say we are a nation who believes in freedom but I think we are a nation that is slaved to fear :). But, having say that, it is still the best nation on earth and how do you make the most out of this scenario ? Well, to me, having insurance give me a piece of mind. I know when I bang my car into someone else, I know it will be taken care of and I sure will not walk around without my student insurance, would you ? If you do, I am sure you are a Spider man incarnate 

Study abroad is one of the most popular trends now among students these days. A lot of colleges offer a College Study Abroad Program. If you do sign up for such program, bear in mind that you will need to protect themselves should a medical emergency occur during an international stay, especially if it requires an emergency medical evacuation and/or transportation services. . Your parent’s policy probably will NOT cover you when outside of you home country. It would be cheaper to consider buying an International Student Medical Insurance policy or Student Travel Insurance for their next semester away from home. You might be interested to find out the Free Quote for Student Insurance

February 22, 2008 - Author: English Advantage

One of the biggest mistakes you can make coming to the US is to come without health insurance. As a student you are going to need insurance anyway, because universities require students to have insurance policies before they can enroll. And you need it. Last year when I had a wart on my back, I went to my doctor for 15 minutes just for him to tell me it wasn't serious. That 15 minutes cost me $200! Without insurance there's no way I could have paid that.

You don't want to do what some international students do either, which is not go to the doctor because they can't afford it. If you have something wrong, you want to be able to get it checked out.

Now if you're an American planning to study abroad you may think you have it made. Healthcare is so much cheaper abroad, right? But when you're sick or seriously injured you need to not worry about medical care. In a different culture, a different system, you want to be able to go to a proper doctor and have costs taken care of. When I got sick for the first time in Kazakhstan, my friends sent me to a local doctor because it was so cheap. This guy told me to drink yogurt twice a day and put mustard on my back to stop my cough. No wonder it was cheap. I could really have used some insurance so I could just go to a proper hospital and get normal medical advice.

So check out this site for a Free Student Insurance Quote with Multinational Underwriters. Or call them up on their hotline and talk to someone. Find out how much student travel insurance will cost; probably it's cheaper than you think. And unlike your existing policy, which may not even cover you outside your home country, these policies are designed with staying in a foreign country in mind! Many policies even include Acts of Terrorism coverage and Emergency Med Evacs! You won't regret it.

January 18, 2008 - Author: R. Davis

Mount Kinabalu is not a technical climb, means that you don’t have to bring any special equipments or apparatus to help on your climbing. It’s a straight forward climbing, and some climbers considered it as a hiking activity.

There’s always risk on any climbing activities. As long as you are moving up or down (against or towards the gravity), you will definitely exposed to danger of falling, which may leads to injuries. Depending on your condition, falling down can be really trivial but sometimes can be dead serious.

I will write about fall at the end of this article, but let’s get through 8 most common injuries on climbers, in which I have divided it into 2 main groups:

1. 4 Injuries from the climbing activities itself,
2. 4 Injuries from the exposure of our body to the environment.

4 Injuries from the climbing activities

1. Foot
The most common minor injuries to your foot during the climb is blisters. It can be caused by unsuitable shoes, as wearing a pair of shoe that is not your size will increase friction of your feet with the padding of the shoes. This friction can leads to annoying blisters which could really spoil your trip.

Wearing unsuitable socks can also be one of the causes, as nylon & polyester material will not absorb your sweat properly and they usually are not thick enough to do it. Thick socks from wool material is the most suitable, as it could absorb sweat, isolate heat (which will help you warm your feet at the peak) and protect your feet from friction with the inside padding of the shoes (which could leads to blister formation). Cotton socks is unsuitable as you are at risk of hypothermia as it retains water.

2. Hands
Hand injuries usually happened at your second stage of your climb, where you use it almost all the time to hold the guide rope on the Summit Trail. As the trail is more than 13,000 feet above sea level, low temperature and strong wind will almost definitely make your hands cramp and numb, unless you use one, or even 2 pairs of gloves to protect it.

It depends on your preferences, some climbers like to wear water-proof gloves, but I opted with some normal cotton wool gloves that is usually use by local construction workers. And I wear 2 pair of those.

3. Upper body (trunk)
Most climbers will climb Mount Kinabalu with less than 10kg of backpack. Unless you need to spend more than 1 night, it is really not necessary for you to bring more loads, as excessive loads could injure your upper back muscle, especially if you don’t have enough training.

Shoulders, upper back and spine, and even your lower back muscle is the most affected, as moving your body uphill with the loads actually increases your potential energy, which means you need more energy to do the work. By this, it is more prone to get injury.

4. Legs and lower limbs
The body part that is primarily used for Mount Kinabalu climbing. Can easily get injured at almost every part - the bone, muscle, tendon and ligament - unless you have a good workout and training for this kind of activities.

Your muscle will be used to the limit when you climb uphill, but it is your joints that is working during your downhill climb. As climbing down releases potential energy, you joints works to absorb more shock with every footstep to stop motion instantaneously.

4 Injuries from the exposure of body to environment (or some medical professional describe it as illness).

1. Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which your body temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and bodily functions. This condition could happen while you are on the bare rocks of Kinabalu, 13,500 feet above sea level. The temperature can drop to below 5 degree Celsius, and prolong exposure to this environment can leads to hypothermia.

Most climbers will wake up at 2am in the morning to start the second phase of the climb through the cold darkness. You will be exposed to cold temperature for about 4 hours - which can be really cold if it is raining and windy. Wearing thick clothes and maybe a simple raincoat will reduce the risk of hypothermia.

*Do you know that the cause of death of Ellie was hypothermia?

2. Dehydration
Dehydration is a condition in which our body contains an insufficient volume of water for normal functioning. During the first phase of the climb, your body is exposed to fluid loss from sweating. You may exposed to dehydration if you climb uphill without consuming adequate water, especially in a hot and/or humid environment of lower zone of Kinabalu.

That is why the authority have set up huts on the Summit Trail with untreated water tanks for you to refill your water bottle on your way up and down the mountain. Drink a lot of water on the way - better still put a sachet of oral rehydration salt into your water to replenish the electrolytes that you have loss from sweating. You can easily get fatigue if you are dehydrated.

3. Altitude sickness
Altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness (AMS) or altitude illness is a pathological condition that is caused by acute exposure to low air pressure (usually outdoors at high altitudes).

It commonly occurs above 2,400 meters (approximately 8,000 feet). Bare in mind that Laban Rata is at about 11,000 feet above sea level. This condition is caused by reduced partial pressure of oxygen, while the percentage of oxygen in air remains essentially constant with altitude at 21 percent.
*I have explained about altitude sickness here.

4. Internal organ illness
Is what happened to your internal organ when exposed to all external hazard - the weather, the altitude, the heat, the food, the water, the environment… You name it… As the list go on, this is what you have to bear in mind.

You could experience just about any illness that is related to the hazard. You may have to prepare yourself with a good first aid kit to relieve the symptoms, hoping that it would not hinder yourself from conquering the highest peak of Borneo.

Fall
I could not categorize fall in either of the group above. While all the above known injuries could be prevented with a good preparation before and during the climb, falling is not. A lot of external factors that could leads to fall - as you are climbing against and towards gravity.

Wet boulders and rocks can be very slippery sometimes. Wrong judgment and misaligned foot while walking through slippery surfaces can leads to fall. It is not about the mountain all the time, but climbers can sometimes be careless and ignorant.

What could happen if you get injured from a fall?
Porters of Kinabalu have a very systematic way of lifting injured climbers down the mountain. As what Leong have wrote on his Multiply page, the only way available (at this moment of time) is to strap the injured climbers on a stretcher and bring them down carefully.

There are some issues on air lifting injured climbers down from Mount Kinabalu by helicopter, and up until now, it has not been totally resolved.

However, we have good news for climbers who are concern about their safety. Insuring your trip to Mount Kinabalu may alleviate your anxiety if anything happen. Multinational Underwriters’s travel medical insurance policies have an optional “Sports Rider” that will cover you when you do hazardous sports. They could provide airlifting for any emergency medical evacuation, and could cost over $30,000 depending on the location and rescue. Check it out.

The insurance industry continues to evolve.  New products are introduced… some succeed, some fail.  One product, however, that continues to survive the cyclical nature of the industry is short term health insurance.

Perceived as probably one of best values in health insurance short term medical insurance offers an affordable solution for many consumers and situations.  Some of the more common needs include college students and recent graduates, young adults who are no longer eligible on their parents’ plan, employees transitioning between jobs or waiting for group health benefits to kick in, those seeking an affordable alternative to COBRA coverage, individuals not yet eligible for Medicare coverage, and part time employees.

Recently MultiNational Underwriters, an Indianapolis based company, has created a new category that may be added to this list… new residents of the United States.  This company very recently started marketing a plan called Amigo Medical.  The design of this plan provides anyone who is legally residing in the United States to apply for coverage without providing proof of citizenship, and without restrictions on prior length of established U.S. residency.

In the past I have talked with many consumers who did not have an option for health insurance because either they had not lived in the U.S. long enough to meet the residency requirements of health providers or because they did not yet have a security number.  This innovative short term medical plan also offers a copay benefit which is virtually unheard of with short term medical plans.  Click here for a free quote and to learn more.

January 03, 2007 - Author: Steve Mcelligott

While I was traveling during the Christmas break I was offered traveler's insurance by my airline. I declined since I had insurance in Canada and the US (I'm lucky in that regard) but it made me think a little bit. Having traveled to China, Europe and other far off places, I know that the need for insurance is great, but how many people really pick up the option to get traveler's insurance when they buy their tickets?

That's why grabbing a small insurance policy, even one that's as little as $1 a day while you're away, can be a lifesaver. It can cover things like medical emergencies in a country, emergency evacuation, a doctor's visit, and etc.

Click here for a FREE Quote and check how much it is for you, I'm sure it's worth it to save yourself from the medical bills in the end.

Enjoy the new year guys, happy trails!

-Steve

December 13th, 2007 - Author: S. Lenka

Fascination to study abroad among Indian students has always been there. Over the years the fascination has grow exponentially. Bringing home a foreign degree is a matter of pride and prestige and a job becomes guaranteed. The other advantage of a foreign degree is the ample number of jobs available in the marketplace for foreign return students.

Apart from guaranteed jobs, things one learns abroad are always filled with new experiences. The focus of foreign universities is very clear: they would emphasize more on practical training and less on class-room lectures.
The cost of study in foreign universities varies widely among institutions and the cost of living varies from place to place. Apart from published costs students must prepared to cover hidden costs – which include:

• Personal expenses
• Costs when residence halls are closed,
• Health insurance
• Change in the value of currency, etc.

The students in abroad are seeking medical care during their study. Sometimes the expenses are too high, that a student may not able to continue his/her study further. So, it is wise to make International students insurance policy. The policy helps to pay the medical bills and to take the help of expert doctors during the need. When you purchase health insurance, the premium (the money you pay) is used to pay the medical bills during any health care. Your coverage remains valid only as long as you continue to pay your premiums. Once you purchase insurance, the insurance company will give you an insurance identification card for you to use when you seek care from a hospital or doctor. The insurance company will also provide written instruction for reporting and documenting medical expenses (filing a claim). The insurance company will evaluate any claim you file and make the appropriate payment under you policy. In some cases the insurance company pays the hospital or doctors directly; in other the company will reimburse you after you have paid the bills.

Wednesday, November 28,2007 - Author: zingaresca - The Expat Guide

If you’re spending thousands of dollars on your dream vacation, it makes sense to spend a few extra dollars on insurance to protect you, especially if you’re traveling outside of your home country. What would happen to you if you injured yourself on that trek through the rain forest in Belize? What would happen if you feel ill in Prague? Do you think the local doctors are covered under your regular insurance? I don’t think Blue Cross Blue Shield has that far of a reach!

I’ve seen people get sick on trips and end up paying BIG bucks for medical care they received. There was the guy on our cruise who had heart issues while snorkling, and the family member who fell ill in Panama. Getting sick in another
country equals big bills for you - can you imagine the bills if your insurance company only covered 50% of your claim…or nothing at all?

Travel medical insurance can cost you as little as $1 a day, and the cost is well worth the coverage you’ll get. Maybe nothing will happen on your trip…but peace of mind is worth the money. For a FREE Quote, click here, and let your next trip only cost you the cash for airfare, hotel, and food - not a hospital bed.

 Whether on a cruise, hiking in the mountains, or just relaxing by the poolside, you never know when a medical emergency
may occur. Just to be airlifted to the nearest hospital could cost you from $25,000 to well over $100,000 depending on the
type of evacuation/transportation and hospital location. 

Then, many travelers find out, when it’s too late, that their current medical insurance provider may NOT cover them when outside of their Home Country. Others may find out that their current insurance company could only cover 50%
of the claim. It would have been cheaper to just purchase a travel medical insurance policy for as little as $1 a day, which would include emergency medical evacuation coverage. 

 I think you’ll agree… 

 Why put your assets at risk when you can get the piece-of-mind for just dollars a day? 

MultiNational Underwriters® is very popular among travelers when choosing a travel medical insurance policy.  Consumers usually add the price of the insurance to their vacation package when planning their trip. You can get a FREE quote for cheap travel medical insurance HERE!