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 26, 2008 - Author: Karlana Kulseth
As a parent, I often worry about if my children are covered anything that happens in the future. I am sure I do not stand alone in this thought.
But what about you parents who have children who are studying abroad? Especially those college students who take up semesters in different countries to expand their experiences?
Parents, you might want to look into student insurance for study abroad.
Sure, you may have insurance, but you read your policy recently to see if your children would be covered outside the country, or outlying U.S. territories? Looking into policies that are offered by MultiNational Underwriters could be a lot less expensive than purchasing an international student medical policy or travel insurance.
If you are looking for more facts and different types of coverage, visit MultiNational Underwriters at http://www.mnui.com.
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.
February 4, 2008 - Author: james_sgp
As a frequent diver and instructor, I have witnessed many accidents; from the minor ones like people falling on wet boat decks and cutting their legs, to the more serious one involving a diver being pulled into a moving boat propeller! As you can image the cost for visiting a hospital with a cut on your leg is minor compared to that of being admitted to hospital for weeks, where multiple surgeries may be necessary…
Add to that the always present possibility of a case of Decompression Sickness, needing treatment in a Recompression Chamber which easily goes into the thousands of dollars!
Yes, we all plan to dive safe; but that’s the problem with ‘accidents’ we can never predict them. I encourage divers to have some kind of travel insurance, especially something that will cover medical costs! Visit MultiNational Underwriters as they offer some international travel insurance that specifically looks after us as divers. There Hazardous Sports Rider plan covers medical emergencies while diving, from only US$1 a day!
Visit MNU for a FREE Quote
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:
- 4 Injuries from the climbing activities itself,
- 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.
As an adult male in his mid-fifties I have traveled internationally since early childhood. Beginning in the 1950’s I spent summers in French speaking Canada and I recall how exotic it was to hear people speaking in a language other than English. I am reminded of these first memories each spring when I open the very same summer cottage that I roamed as a child. How precious those first experiences continued to be as a young father as I watched with wonder as my children learned French in school and were able to converse in the local language on their summer vacations.
In the language of healthcare our two countries could not be more different. The U.S. and Canada took different forks in the road back then. Healthcare became a government service in Canada and in the U.S. it became a right bestowed by your employer. Now, because of escalating costs, U.S. healthcare has become unaffordable to many millions of people and employers are curtailing or limiting coverage for their employees. For all of its short falls, the Canadian system works for the majority of Canadians. The U.S. system is failing many more individuals then Canada.
Today it is more important to buy insurance if you are a Canadian coming to the U.S. or if you are a U.S. citizen traveling to Canada. Whether you are an international student, traveling on business or just on vacation you need travel medical insurance; MultiNational Underwriters of Indianapolis, Indiana is a leader in the travel medical insurance industry. Atlas Travel Medical Insurance has been the brand of choice since 1998. Go to www.mnui.com to learn more about the company and its products.
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.
Already have insurance? Or you're on your parent's plan? Chances are that's not going to help you when you leave the country. And being sick is much worse in a foreign country--the language may be a serious barrier, the medicines are all wrong. Don't add the stress of how you're going to pay for it. And God forbid, what if you get seriously ill and need to be evacuated?
So whether you're leaving the country for 4 years or a semester, you need a student health policy. They're often cheaper than adult policies and you won't have to worry about anything. Check out Multinational Underwriters, which covers US and non-US citizens. Plus their student plan covers all your normal medical needs and emergency evacuation, acts of terrorism, and even sports injuries. You can go here for a FREE international student medical insurance quote.
Hopefully you'll never need it, but you don't want to go anywhere without it.
Labels: concerns, health, resources, study abroad
One of the most important, yet often over-looked aspect of travelling is insurance. The last thing you want to have on your vacation is the hassle of finding a doctor when you are feeling unwell. Or worse, not being able to get medical help.
What many people do not know is that general travel insurance might not be enough to cover for medical needs while travelling. Usually, there will be some kind of provision, but you might be required to pay 50% of the bill, or they restrict you only to hospitals and so on. For your peace of mind, you can get full medical coverage while on vacation for as little as $1 a day! Just take a look at this site where you can do this immediately. Click here for a FREE Quote.
This is not just a travel tip, it is also a tip to help you save money. Medical bills can get really hefty when you are in a foreign country. For example, in the USA, a visitor without proper insurance will struggle to find a medical practice willing to treat them! Or it could be really expensive and payment is expected up-front. This was a personal experience when I travelled and my son had an asthma attack - I had to pay up-front before they would even allow me to register to see the doctor!
Make your vacation an enjoyable one, make sure you have the appropriate insurance.
| I was talking with a friend who was making plans to travel to Mexico. She said she was going to check with her insurance provider to see if she would be covered if anything happened while she was on vacation. I never even thought of something like that! It is important to find out if your health insurance covers you if you get sick and have to get medical care in a foreign country. For a FREE quote click here and see how reasonable it can be to have coverage. Get peace of mind knowing you are covered. |
November 29th, 2007 - Author: R.David
Coming to Sabah and climbing Mount Kinabalu sounds really fun, but what would you do when “worst case scenario” happen?
Lets say while travelling with a public transport from Kota Kinabalu to Kinabalu Park, you involved in an unfortunate event - a landslide happened a few kilometers away from Kinabalu Park entrance, and the bus that you take fall into a 30 feet ravine. The stretch from Tamparuli to Kinabalu Park is well known to have intermittent landslide, especially so during wet season.
The question here is: Are you well prepared for that event? We know that the risk of you getting into such position is very small, but what if you are one of the survivors?
For foreign tourist and travellers, the event can actually cost you a lot, unless you are prepared. It is an emergency situation, and you may need immediate medical care that could save your life.
Generally, what you need during the events are:
- Emergency ground and/or air ambulance. As most of the time in Malaysia, emergency medical services are operated by government body, you may have to use the resources that they have. Frankly speaking, ambulance services in Tamparuli-Kundasang-Ranau stretch are provided by Hospital Ranau, and the services can sometimes be dissappointing.
- Hospital in patient care and medication. Depending on the severity of your injury, intensive care management can be really expensive, especially if you are treated in a private hospital in Kota Kinabalu. It is not that government hospital is bad, you will get more attention in private center.
- Outpatient services for less serious emergencies. If you are lucky to survive the event with just a minor injuries, outpatient treatment can always be obtained from any clinic around, but Malaysian government may give you a special attention in the emergency department of the hospital.
- Doctor’s fee. Private practice and government medical center have a very different fee schedule. You may want to spend a bit more to get a better services from most of private center here.
- Emergency related travel expenses. If your injuries are severe, and need a special attention and treatment from more specialize center, you may have to fork out your own money for the travel related expenses. The most frequent example that I encounter is decompression sickness (for SCUBA divers). Patient have to pay for the transport and ferry to Labuan to get to the decompression chamber for treatment.
You may be fit and healthy before the climbing trip, but you may not be ready if thing goes wrong along the way.
You may need to consider having a travel medical insurance to ease the burden of these kind of travel medical expenses, especially so if you are travelling from abroad. Having medical problems and accidents outside your country can really be devastating, and most of the time will disrupt your travel plan.
I know that shopping for travel medical insurance can be really difficult, but just consider these few points before you sign on the dotted line:
- Try to compare various policies of the travel medical insurance packages available.
- Know the limits of your coverage for your medical emergencies and treatments.
- Make sure you know what are the definitions for important terms like pre-existing condition, medically necessary, stable and controlled condition, or re-occurring condition.
- Know the exclusion or exemption of the policies. *As climbing can be categorized risky activities, accidents or injuries during your climbing process may not be covered by the policy. Check with your insurance provider about the possibility of including it. Bare in mind that insurance provider could have a different clauses for the inclusion, and you may have to pay extra for it.
- You may want to consult a licensed insurance agent or broker about the types of travel health insurance products available to you.
