Don’t Risk It, Get the Protection and Security You Need With Travel Insurance
Let’s face it, getting travel insurance can be a very overwhelming and tedious process, making it easy to put off and even forget entirely. But before you head off on your international adventure, you might want to consider getting coverage through some travel insurance, just to be on the safe side.With some luck, you’ll be glad it’s something you have and won’t need to use. But we all know that in life things happen, so it’s a good idea to find a travel insurance policy that fits your individual needs, travel agenda, and budget. Many travel agents and private companies offer travel insurance, and they have a wide variety of types and options to choice from.What does Travel Insurance cover?Basic coverage of travel insurance includes some financial losses while traveling, as well as limited medical expenses, including medical evacuation. The most common type of travel insurance is trip cancellation or trip delay insurance. This type of policy covers you and your travel companions in case you need to cancel, interrupt or delay your trip. However, the acceptable reasons for canceling or interrupting your trip will depend on the insurance policy, but most likely you’ll be covered for the following reasons:o Sudden business conflicts
o Change of mind
o Delay in processing your visa or passport
o Illness or injury
o Weather related issuesIn case your flight is canceled or delayed, travel insurance companies may provide additional coverage such as expenses that the airlines won’t cover, like taxi fares to the hotel or meals during your wait at the airport.It’s also a good idea to have a plan with medical coverage of up to $1,000,000 in the case you become ill, need medical assistance, or have a flight accident occur. It’s also good to review the amount deductible by your insurance plan (this is the amount you’ll need to come up with before the insurance company picks of the rest). Make sure it covers repatriation (evacuation to your home country, rather than the nearest regional medical facility); make sure that does not mean you will be sent to the country where you purchased your travel insurance plan either, but your home country. If you’re planning a visit to multiple countries, make sure all the countries are included in the region covered by your insurance policy.To learn more about these types of coverage and more specialized coverage, read The Basics of Travel Insurance.To invest or not? How to make travel insurance work for me.Purchasing travel insurance is great for insuring your money, should any unforeseen events pop-up, especially if you invest large sums of money on extravagant travel packages. To determine whether you want to invest in travel insurance your not, ask yourself these questions:o Did you invest a lot of money into your travel plans?
o Are you traveling overseas?
o Which regions or countries are you visiting and for how long?
o Are you planning on participating in any extreme sports?
o Can you afford the cost of your trip back home if any emergency arises?
o Will you be able to afford medical care if you or someone you are with gets sick and needs immediate medical attention?
o How old are you and how is your overall health?
o Do you have any pre-existing conditions that need regular, special attention?You can purchase your travel insurance for a single trip, multi-trip, or with an annual policy, all depending on how frequently you travel and the length of your trip. Comprehensive travel insurance can cost anywhere from 4% to 8% of the cost of your trip, depending on type of coverage, the length of the trip, the destination, and the age of the travelers. It is best to purchase your travel insurance between 7 to 21 days of purchasing your travel itinerary. Usually the maximum coverage period for insurance providers is for one year abroad.Go through the fine print on your policy and check whether you will have to pay on the spot and redeem the money later for any medical expenses, or will the insurance company pay providers directly. If you have to claim it later on, you will want to hang on to all documents.If you have a pre-existing medical condition, get an insurance policy that will specifically cover it. Also examine which adventure sports and activities the plan does and does not cover (rarely does it include scuba diving and hang gliding). Lastly, for your benefit, a policy that is flexible and can be extended while you’re already away is recommended. You never know whom you’ll meet, and you just might want to extend your trip.Another good tip would be to get in touch with your credit card issuer before investing in travel insurance. At http://www.creditcards.com/, a credit card information site, suggests calling your credit card issuer to see if you have any free travel benefits that you may not be aware of, for example, insurance on lost or damaged luggage. However, according to USTIA, canceling a trip at the last minute and being reimbursed by your credit card company is the most common misconceptions among travelers. And sometimes credit card companies have limitations on only cover up to 3 months of travel. It’s worth investigating.Lastly, if you have existing health coverage, it would be wise to get in touch with them before hand, especially if you will need vaccinations and other medicine for your trip. Depending on your health insurance plan, ask for a ‘travel packet’ and they will send you important information regarding your coverage, if any, while abroad. It might turn out you might already be covered for somethings, but not for others.Where can I purchase Travel Insurance?There are many sites and companies offering travel insurance online. Among them are leading companies such as World Nomads, Travel Guard, and InsureMyTrip, just to name a few. A new online resource called Squaremouth, helps travelers easily and instantly compare all the major travel insurance plans at one site. You’ll be able to get immediate quotes from several major, reputable travel insurance providers and compare policies and their prices. It’s a good starting point and one that you can trust.Helpful Tips for once you’ve purchased your Travel Insurance:o Scan your insurance policy electronically and save it somewhere securely online
o Make one copy for yourself to bring on your trip
o Make another copy for a trusted family member to keep at home
o Have the emergency hotline number accessible during your trip, but make sure you try it out before leaving home to ensure its operating and correct
o List out any medications you are taking (including vaccinations for your trip), and a list of allergies you have; keep this with your insurance emergency number
o Keep all receipts at home
o Review all the fine print in your insurance policy and determine which adventures you will be taking and which risks might not be worth itFinally, get ready for a trip of a lifetime! Hopefully you’ll avoid ever using your insurance plan, but it will give you and your loved ones more security knowing you’re protected.
Home Health Care – The Basic Guide
Home health care is now an important and very real part of life in the United States. The population is aging year by year, thus pointing to the fact that a good percentage of people will need home health care in the years to come. As people get older, their bodies degenerate and they find themselves increasingly unable to get around without help. They may even find themselves housebound after a while, or prefer to stay at home rather then be admitted to hospital. Either way, home health care can provide them with exactly what they are looking for! Personal care is just as important as medical care for the elderly and disabled, and not as expensive as hospital care.Hospital workers, whether doctors or nurses or health care assistants, are all highly skilled and well worth the money charged to you in most cases, but the majority of people only need limited care for a specific period of time. If the required care is ongoing then the bills for the bed, food and services will soon mount up. However, home health care eliminates the need for two of the charges, only leaving the care service aspect to worry about. Home health care will most definitely benefit these types of people far more and will also provide the post-hospital care that is desperately needed.The Advantages Of Home Health CareHome health care can ensure that individuals with ongoing care needs vet the treatment they need in the comfort of their own home. This environment actually encourages recovery because it is a comfortable environment to recuperate, with all of an individuals friends, family and possessions around them. The familiar definitely holds some sort of healing properties. This is one of the reasons why new mothers often choose to give birth at home or return home within hours of it. Home health care assistants and mobile midwives provide the treatment needed. Their absence from hospital also frees up more beds for those that are next in line to have a baby or for treatment so it provides a good deal for all concerned.Those with long-term illnesses are more often than not cared for at home these days because they can only be made comfortable and do not need surgery. A wide range of home health care professionals may visit them on a daily basis to make sure that there is no change in their condition and to administer ongoing care. Such home health care professionals have often reported that being at home does more for a patient’s mental state than a hospital could ever do. With these types of reports showing definite benefits to home health care, everyone should consider it as an option for recovery.
Mindsets and Sociological Components of Online Higher Education
There are multiple hurdles to be overcome in order for society to fully embrace the concept of online higher education. There is natural resistance to the concept because in many people’s minds there are significant questions that are unanswered. How will students be assessed? Who will be admitted? How can we be sure that students are honest? Will online degrees be of the same quality of the traditional degrees? How will top universities react to this trend? Time will eventually answer these and other questions regarding online education. What is certain is that demand for online education is beginning to boom and traditional universities will have to develop their own propositions or miss out on the opportunity to maintain their leadership in the education and development arena.Universities and Society have much at stake when it comes to higher education. Enabled by the technological developments in communications, IT and networking, societies around the world are becoming ever more dynamic and competitive. Expectation for timescales are constantly being reduced and demand for immediacy in most areas drives many changes in our world today. As these changes happen, and as society begins to embrace these new technologies to satisfy traditional demand for goods and services, it is important that educational institutions develop the ability and systems to keep up.Online education should be one of the most viable applications of the web. Only the appropriate systems, accreditations and assessments would need to be developed in order to achieve the quality standards that the traditional universities are renowned for. However, traditional universities tend to be conservative in their approach; they have lagged behind other for-profit organizations like the University of Phoenix that currently captures over $300 million in annual revenue. It is this type of organizations that has taken the lead in delivering online education, in spite of its questionable academic rigor and accreditation.Demand is growing for education amongst many people that traditionally had little access to higher education. The “Baby Boomer” generation has been a big market driver for online education. Also the upcoming generations of young people see online delivery of products and services as something natural, so online education for them does not seem alien.So far, online education has been steadily growing at rates that most studies show at 30 or 40 percent, which is 15 to 20 times faster than traditional university education growth.Trends in Online Offerings
The uptake of more traditional degrees like BA/BS in Arts and Sciences has been less than enthusiastic. The reason for this is that most of the students willing to undertake a BA or BS level degree will probably be of an age more suitable for traditional education, and this lack of demand reflects the lack of offerings in this area. Another issue to be considered has to do with the practicalities of coordinating the different disciplines and departments required for these courses, which are difficult enough off-line. Successful online propositions for these courses will have to be extremely committed to resolving these issues and have the support of what could be considered the most tradition-bound faculty.Admission Criteria
Universities will have to address the stigma that often accompanies admission opportunities for individuals. The online experience allows non-traditional students to learn at different paces and have different background than what it would be required for a classroom lecture. The web provides an exceptional opportunity to deliver higher education to all qualified students opening up an untapped market of intelligent people that do not have the access through the normal admission channels.Name and Reputation
In a survey delivered to HR professionals, more than 50% preferred selecting a candidate with an online degree from a traditional institution over one with a degree from a less reputable school. Current data suggests that the real explosion in demand and market growth will occur once top name universities start supplying online education opportunities. These institutions have a trust factor built into their brand names that new coming institutions lack. The latter universities and online education propositions do not have a recognized expertise of having educated millions of students. Their programs can be perceived as lacking academic rigor and taught by faculty of questionable accreditation.Some experts argue that name and reputation are even more important than the medium of delivery. Universities that wish to maintain their reputation will have to make sure that the standards that apply for normal students are also applied to online students, to the extent that the final result is undistinguishable. This is a significant challenge and there is still debate around this issue. One can question if the online proposition can really deliver the same results as the traditional approach does.The requirement for quality and the backing of the name of a reputable university create new challenges for online education providers. These institutions that can provide high quality online education will need to implement methods to achieve a consistency between the online proposition and the traditional one.Accreditation and Certification
The new paradigm creates great opportunities for both educators and learners in terms of accessibility, flexibility, and in some cases, cost. However, it also creates significant challenges for quality assurance and accreditation. A survey amongst online learners revealed that 44 percent value quality and accreditation when choosing an online education provider. Another 22 percent deemed rich student experience as paramount importance. Interestingly most people do not know what “accreditation” really is. Different accreditation agencies like the AACSB offer membership and also accreditation status. Membership is open to all institutions and sometimes this is illegitimately “confused” with accreditation. Accrediting bodies have the challenge to educate about their standards to the different involved parties like government, corporations and the general public in order to minimize this confusion.Online education is two-way and delivered via mentoring and direct assessment. This is why traditional classroom standards need to be modified to fit with the new delivery method and be consistent with the bidirectional approach online education delivers. Once accreditation agencies develop credible methodologies to certify online education courses, there would be strong incentives to improve the quality of the programs.Learning Styles and Assessment
Without proper examinations and student assessments, there would be no way to certify that the learning outcomes have been properly delivered to the students. The online approach gives the exceptional opportunity to assess many different types of learning styles and motivation levels. The online experience allows setting up automatic diagnostic tools that would seamlessly reinforce weak areas until the student is deemed to be competent in the subjects. Taken to an extreme, the online delivery could integrate the learning and the examination simultaneously.Interaction with Faculty and Fellow Students
Often students rate the possibility of interacting with peers or faculty as an important part of the learning experience. Universities must make sure that their online proposition encourages and facilitates student-student and student-faculty interaction in order to maximize the network benefit. There are no technological impediments for this too, as instant messaging and web cams are easily accessible. This issue places constraints in the sizes of the online student body if the university is to maintain its quality standards in the education delivery.