Here’s a brief explanation why you should consider group or blanket group travel insurance….If you have a team traveling overseas. Or a tour group. Or a group of volunteers that help you every year.

You are responsible for organizing a group of people who will be traveling overseas. You have required each participant and volunteer in your program to get their own international travel insurance. Your group leader has collected the medical cards, proof of insurance, passport copies and emergency contact information from each person. You think you’re all set. You might need to think again.

Do you realize that you may be exposing your volunteers, your group travel leader and your organization to unnecessary risks and stress? Getting a group or blanket insurance plan can eliminate that risk and stress, and it can make the difference between a successful travel experience and a tragic one.

Is Group International Travel Insurance Better Than Individual Plans?

Yes, group travel insurance is better than individual plans for groups traveling together for several reasons. First, it provides critical protection during an emergency, speeds up medical treatment, makes it simpler and less stressful for team leaders and participants, and it helps reduce liability to your organization. Allow me to explain why.

Reason # 1: Critical During an Emergency

You do not want to have multiple emergency contact numbers to call if an emergency happens. Consider the consequences if your team or group was in a van, or on a bus, that was in a multiple-car accident. With multiple injuries. In another country. Dealing with another language. Trying to get everyone to the hospital or treated.

And then, to top it off, you need to connect with multiple carriers who have different toll-free claims numbers, are twelve hours ahead of time, it may be in the middle of the night in Europe or the U.S., they all have different pre-notification requirements, differing response times, and are recommending different hospitals or doctors. Your team would then be spread out all across the city or even being recommended for treatment in different cities/countries.

This is an awful scenario. But, it’s also a realistic scenario. It happens almost every year, somewhere around the globe.

What if the team leader herself is injured or needing medical care themselves? Now, someone else has to try and sort out the various coverages and plans and carriers and contact numbers. As well as trying to contact the organization back home and loved ones to update them.

It’s critical that you simplify the process by having one group travel insurance plan for all your members and one 24/7 contact number to call in case of an emergency

Reason # 2: Speeds up Medical Treatment

Because you have one contact, one set of benefits and one carrier to deal with, it speeds up medical treatment/care in any scenario. This is the main reason we recommend that team leaders and organizations select a plan ahead of time and require all travelers to use it. 

Because even if all of the travelers have domestic insurance that may cover them overseas, not all plans are alike. Some may provide coverage for certain things while others will not. Then you must contact a domestic carrier to get approval. 

Medical evacuation is almost always excluded from domestic insurance policies, or they may not have enough coverage to handle a particularly difficult evacuation. All of our international policies include emergency medical evacuation and transportation. We can help you set maximum benefit amounts depending on your destination and work.

Reason # 3: Makes it Easier for Team Leaders and Participants

Consider how much your team leader or group leader already has to be responsible for before the trip even begins. Anything you can do to simplify and help them be more effective and reduce their workload pre-trip is going to be a big help. 

Plus, keeping track of one emergency number is much easier than 12 or 20 different international insurance I.D. cards. This allows the team leader and the participants to focus on the purpose of the trip.

We offer a free service where we will create a branded “stand-alone” sign up page for your organization or group. This page will have whichever group travel insurance option(s) you choose and your colors/logo. You can easily link to the page from your website or blog so your group can easily find it and use it, making things easy for them and for you.

Reason # 4: Reduce Your Organization’s Liability

Having a single group international travel insurance plan reduces your organization’s liability. With a group international travel insurance plan, you get to select what benefits and requirements you are looking for in a group international travel insurance plan. Then we help you create a single-entry point for all your volunteers.

You know the maximums, so you can offer a few different deductibles while everything else stays the same. You know what people are covered for, and they know what they are signing up for/is covered under their policy. 

Therefore, you are eliminating confusion and taking care of your people and reducing any possible false assurance of coverage (if they choose a poor policy from a shoddy insurance company). And you have disclosure rather than leaving those actual decisions and choices to individual travelers, which is important.

Either you can sign them up, or they can sign themselves up and pay directly. You will get email notifications (as well as the individual) when they sign up. That cuts down on additional work a team leader has to be responsible for. Especially since we’ll do the work for free.

The carrier pays us the internal commission their sales staff would have made, so there is no additional cost to you. And we have specially contracted group travel plans that are cheaper per day than the carriers offer directly. We also offer you special rates for groups volunteering, doing charitable work or going on mission trips.

Use a group international travel insurance plan rather than relying on individual travel policies if you have more than one person traveling together. Or if your organization has multiple people traveling throughout the year.

1.) It is critical during an emergency.

2.) It speeds up medical treatment/care

3.) It makes things much easier for both team leaders and participants

4.) And it helps reduce liability.

What are Blanket Insurance Plans?

Blanket group travel insurance is one policy you can use for your entire organization for the entire year. You just estimate the number of travelers and days per year, and then your employees or volunteers are covered wherever and whenever they travel. You pay a flat fee for the year without having to sign up individuals or submit names, dates, ages, etc. for each trip. You can even include the estimated number of travel days for foreign nationals visiting the U.S.

Blanket policies are great for organizations with many travelers because it saves you time and energy signing everyone up. We offer blanket group travel insurance from Aetna, GeoBlue, and other well-known carriers.

What if we Exceed the Estimated Number of Travel Days Per Year on our Blanket Plan?

Your employees and volunteers will still be covered under your blanket group travel plan. Simply revise your number of travel days the following year when you renew. You can also include any of your staff who are traveling outside of their home country (who travel often) on your organization’s annual travel plan, making their coverage seamless and taking one more thing out of their already busy schedule as they prepare to travel.

When is Group International Travel Insurance Better than a Blanket Travel Plan?

One area where a blanket travel plan may not be the best choice is if your organization has a lot of different travelers with differing needs. One travel plan may not “fit” their travel plans, or particular health needs. We can help you determine the best fit for your specific organization and goals.

Our specially contracted plans are the most affordable anywhere (they are even less than those advertised by the carriers themselves or published on their websites) through specially contracted arrangements with Good Neighbor Insurance. There are also discounted rates for charitable work/non-profits and those traveling to volunteer.

Price point is another reason why organizations choose group travel plans. They are often the most affordable insurance starting at around $1.00 a day. One final reason people choose Group Travel Insurance over a blanket policy is that you may have more options of coverages to choose from (such as adventure sports coverage).

How Can Our Organization Be Sure That Coverage and Deductible Standards are Adhered to When People Sign up on Their Own?

The answer is that you can pre-select a plan with certain minimal amounts of coverage, even specific benefits that your volunteers will need to have. That way you have control of the levels of coverage people will choose.

We can then set up a unique page for you (with your logo and branding) for free, we link back to your website also. You can then send the link to your travelers.

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Email our group insurance department at Good Neighbor Insurance at [email protected] with your questions and needs and let us suggest a policy that best fits your organization. We are here to make your life easier.

Insurance is like a pair of shoes. Regardless of whether you get them at a clearance price, if they don’t fit you, if they are painful, you will not use them. Fit is everything. That is why we have 10-12 of the best, internationally-known carriers and multiple plans to fit every need.

Sometimes your insurance needs shoes to fit an organization that is running through multiple airports every day, all over the world. Other organizations need rough, solid, combat boots that will hold up under any condition, in the most remote parts of the earth. What is the makeup of your group/staff/volunteers? That will help you determine which type of travel medical insurance is the best choice for your organization. We can help.

Of course, group and blanket travel insurance plans are for trips overseas, not for expat staff that are moving or living overseas. For your long-term expat workers living overseas for more than one year, we have international group health insurance (like employer health insurance) for as few as two or three staff here, as well as individual expat plans for individuals and families.