If you are a college or university student and you are planning to travel and study abroad during an upcoming semester, you should be thinking about purchasing overseas student health insurance. This type of insurance can be reasonably priced and may even be cheap, especially if you compare the cost to the medical costs you would have to pay out of your own pocket if you were to get sick or injured while studying in another country.

The overseas student health insurance can be tailored to provide cover from one week up to one year, depending on the company from which it is purchased. There is also long-term overseas student health insurance available if you plan to study in another country for more than one year.

So if you are planning to study abroad remember that you can usually purchase travel insurance from an insurance company that specializes in travel insurance. When you are looking for affordable overseas student health insurance, be ready to provide specific information about your destination, your trip, yourself and anyone else in your family or group that has to be insured. The questions that will be asked by the insurance companies will vary from one company to another, but they will all want to know the answers to the following:

o The country or countries that you plan to visit or study in.
o Your planned dates of departure and return.
o Your age and the age of any other family member to be covered, such as your spouse and your children.

You must take certain steps when shopping for an overseas student health insurance policy, just as you would when purchasing any other insurance policy. First of all ask your state’s department of insurance for all the information they can provide about the company. Check the ratings of the insurance companies you are considering. Be sure to get the ratings for both the financial security of the insurance company, as well as the operating stability. You do not want to be stranded in a foreign country without insurance because your insurance company went bust.

All the relevant information will be available from your state’s department of insurance, or from independent research companies.