Travel insurance as a product is designed to cover financial and other losses and medical expenses incurred while traveling, either locally or internationally. To elaborate, travel insurance coverage includes risks of accidents, illness (medical expenses), missed flights, trip cancellation or interruption, baggage delay or misplaced baggage, emergency evacuation, hijacking, and even expatriating cost of body or remains of body in case of accidental death or mishaps.
It is an affordable way of being covered or protected for unforeseen costs and events associated with and arising in course of travel.

In Australia, Travel Insurance can be of two types, Temporary and Permanent. Temporary travel insurance is usually arranged at the time of booking of the trip and as the name suggests, has limited risk coverage. Permanent or more extensive travel insurance is usually a blanket protection package and covers all of the above risks associated with travel, described earlier.

Just like any other insurance product, there are a considerable number of travel insurance providers in Australian market, who offer extremely competitive packages and the decision to select the best amongst them should be a carefully undertaken process. Points to be considered could be one or more of the following:

1. Extent of actual coverage- The most common risks that are covered by travel insurance packages are – medical expenses, emergency evacuation/repatriation, overseas funeral and/or cremation  expenses in case of mishap leading to accidental death, injury or disablement benefit, cancellation and curtailment of tour, delayed departure etc. An Australian traveler should be careful and attentive enough to go through the insurance offer document and check for the list of events that are covered. Many a times a person might be under the impression that all of these are covered and sign up for the insurance without knowing the actual coverage. This eventually lands him/her up in a sorry state when he/she is in actual need of insurance support.
2. List of Exclusions- Common exclusions in Travel Insurance products available in Australian market, are pre-existing medical conditions, damages arising out of acts of war, civil war, riots and/or terrorism, injury or illness caused by alcohol or drug use while on travel etc. Again, the Australian traveler has to exercise due diligence in understanding the extent of exclusions, else he might find himself in an unfavorable position. As a rule of thumb, list of exclusions should not be more than the parameters specified above. A traveler must also be very careful about any hidden clauses included in the travel insurance product, before he/she signs up for the same.
3. Amount of paperwork and other formalities- This is another important parameter which needs to be given adequate consideration while selecting a travel insurance plan. Insurance companies which involve substantial amount of paperwork and a complicated process of signing up should be preferably avoided.
4. Percentage of the total travel cost- Last but certainly not the least is a detailed cost comparison. As a rule of thumb, travel insurance cost, as a percentage of total travel cost should not exceed 5-7 per cent. Since there is hardly any real difference in the kind of inclusions that different travel insurance companies have to offer, it makes sense to compare and negotiate extremely hard with respect to the insurance premium amounts. After all, it must be kept in mind that every penny saved in terms of travel insurance cost could actually be added to pamper the traveler, while he/she is actually on the move.

Broadly speaking, these are some of the key criteria or parameters which an Australian citizen should carefully assess, before selecting an available travel insurance product.

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