I go back and forth on the question of medical insurance. Over the past 7.5+ years of travel I've not had medical insurance for the majority of my travels though I admit I have been lucky enough that my injuries and illnesses were not major. At most, one night in the hospital.

Ignore catastrophic injuries for a moment. For routine health issues, I find medical insurance and medical care in the majority of the world has generally fallen into one of these two categories:

1. Insurance with a low deductible covers a portion of the bill but is so expensive that medical care + insurance costs significantly more than the total medical bill with no insurance.
2. Insurance with a high deductible does not cover anything because medical care is so inexpensive, even including hospital stays and surgery.

End result: For anything up to minor surgery, insurance costs me more money than it saves, though at times I might be flying to a different country for my medical care (which I have found often is a good idea). I have found the above to be true even in the EU, where I had surgery in Germany

This leaves the rare cases of major surgery on up through life changing catastrophic events. This is where the medical bills can add up fast in a way other people on this thread are describing. For these types of scenarios, I have seen that it is all too often insufficient to have only evacuation insurance with good after-care. Others in this thread (above) have given sufficient examples of how this can be problematic so I won't belabor the point further other than to say that my own experience confirms what they are saying.

All this has left me with a simple philosophy: while I continue to travel, I will never buy medical insurance for anything up through minor surgery. If I consider my risk of major injury is significant (such as in motorcycle travel), I will buy the highest deductible plan I can find with good evacuation coverage and after-care. This keeps my medical insurance costs to a few hundred dollars a year maximum and overall has saved me a lot of money. When I am not traveling on a motorcycle I often do not have any medical insurance at all.

msamsen, I see you live in the USA. You might look into HCC Atlas Travel Insurance. You can get a high deductible plan at a reasonable price that covers motorcycle travel, includes evacuation insurance and covers the costs incurred before you can evac as well as followup care afterwords.

Good luck and enjoy your travels!

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Traveling The World Since: 2011
Blog: The Seductive Life (General Travel)

Thanks!! It’s only the second company that I’ve found that will insure someone over 70 years old, though with a 250,000 USD benefit max. Better than nothing, for sure!!!!

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Mike
Stamford, CT
www.happycameladv.com

Current Rides
- 2018 Ural Gear Up (the Happy Camel)
- 2017 KTM 350 EXC-F (the Cougar)
- 2014 BMW F800GS (the Goat)

Regarding health insurance, I have the same philosophy as Othalan.

You buy insurance for major care/ major accidents. So you select the policy that has the highest deductable. This way you save a lot of money and you are still covered in case of a big accident.

Do you need insurance for central and south america? It is a personal decision about how much financial risk you are willing to accept. I did not take any. I only visited hospitals in Argentina and Brasil. It was almost free.

Regarding road safety, I have not seen your ural but It could be a good idea to add an additional headlight as much to right as possible on the side car to make it look like a car for on coming traffic. You'll reduce the risk of head on collision.


Patrick

Thanks! Good suggestion.

It has both a spotlight and two fog lights on the sidecar, plus the bike headlamp, of course. They are all LED.

Mike

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Mike
Stamford, CT
www.happycameladv.com

Current Rides
- 2018 Ural Gear Up (the Happy Camel)
- 2017 KTM 350 EXC-F (the Cougar)
- 2014 BMW F800GS (the Goat)

If you want to do a bit more philosophy about travel insurance, here is the way is see this:

There are two types of travel insurances:

1) the passive travel insurance: the insurance policy that you will be buy

2 ) the active travel insurance: what you can do to avoid an accident/getting injuered. Here are a few items:
- driving behavior: it is obvious, no need to add more
- bike setup:
1) bike handling: set your bike suspension to handle well with the extra load when making a sudden move, rough roads, bumpy downhill,...
2)tire selections for road / offroad conditions and how often you replace them: As an example I met a guy in Africa who was happy to have a K60 front tire because they last. Then he had a crash offroad and now he needs knee surgery. Was it worth it to save paying for an extra front tire to cover the same mileage.
3) A steering damper: very usefull offroad. May save you from a crash that could end your trip.
4) etc...

The above list applies more to two wheels bikes. You got three wheels, you can't fall. I know nothing about Ural. I can't comment on how to set them.

You may already have one but I would recommend that you add a good steering damper. You shared your age above. Physical shape, endurance at 71yo is not the same as at 41yo. It is a fact of life and it is what it is. With the damper, the ural will be more stable, you'll feel less the impacts from the on/off road on the front wheel. The riding will be less tiring on you. As a consequence, you will be more alert, will be able to react faster to a situation and at the end of the day you will have more energy to enjoy your evening!

Steering dampers are not all the same, some dampens only away front the center, some dampens in both directions, some have more adjustability. Pick what is best for you.

Have a good trip,
Patrick

Thanks Patrick. Yes, I’m a fan of dampers. All my bikes have them. I put Scott’s on my KTM and BMW. The Ural has one from the factory, similar to the setup on an R1200GS.

Re: age. You’re correct, of course. But I strength train three days a week and do cardio the other days. Just got back from a gnarly power line and single track ride with some 30 somethings on my KTM. I don’t ride as fast as they, but I do complete the ride.

__________________
Mike
Stamford, CT
www.happycameladv.com

Current Rides
- 2018 Ural Gear Up (the Happy Camel)
- 2017 KTM 350 EXC-F (the Cougar)
- 2014 BMW F800GS (the Goat)

There are decent clinics here in Honduras, especially here in Tegucigalpa and also in San Pedro Sula. But, the overall quality of the medical care in this country is not on par with those in the USA. A fellow teacher here went to 3 clinics for her bad knee. All three suggested surgery. She went back to the USA for another opinion and they had her do PT. She's back to kickboxing and exercising regularly just a few months later...no surgery. That's just one of many many examples of over zealous Honduran doctors that I've heard stories about while living here for the past 5 years.

If I needed any serious medical care, I wouldn't have it done here.

The problem is that you don't choose the situation for which you need care. If it's a broken leg then you'll need initial care and treatment (which is indeed paid for by the local taxpayers hence "free" to you), and you can then fly home.

However if you both end up in a coma for 6 months,that's a completely different story.

So, it's a risk assessment - what's the probability of the range of events which will put you into medical care, and what are the consequences of each event in the range? Lots will fall into the "unlikely and not expensive" category, but if you identify even only one which falls into the "possible and very expensive" category you should seek insurance.

We always travel with insurance - a combination of annual policies which include medical repatriation and travel policies for the length of the trip (anything up to a year) and which also include repatriation coverage. Not "cheap" but definitely "valuable".

I second Othalan - I think...

Being Norwegian where health care is free, and a country where travek health insurance is cheap, it is difficult for me to relate to you.

But I think, if I was in the same situation - I would get an insurance plan with a very high deductible, and great extraction coverage, and be self insurer for all the small to medium stuff.

I always carry a bottle of scotch and feel as though that can cure just about anything.

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