I have one of those things they always refer to as ” A preexisting condition ” which could require medical help regardless of where I am and what I am doing.This means that when I travel to a country that does not have a reciprocal health care treatment agreement with the U.K.( they will treat ours and we theirs for no charge.” I really should have good travel healthy insurance. In my case this is weighted because of preexisting and I usually have to pay about half again as much as other people. I usually purchase it direct from an insurance company rather that through my travel agent and this means that it considerably cheaper than many others do and that my policy is good for three months rather than a few days (always a worry if your return is delayed)..and because I make the purchase direct, the initial cost is much less than from a travel agent who would be paid commission for selling it.

You do not have to have any other form of insurance to buy this one and your can travel widely without it..but if you then become ill or suffer an accident during your holiday you can very easily run up bills that you have no means of paying..and be kept in hospital or denied departure from the country until payment of some sort is made.Even if the country you are in will provide free health care because of some agreement with your home country’s government, it will certainly not be as good as if you were paying for it and will not offer you the chance of being air-lifted home instead of staying in a local hospital whee you may not even speak the language in order to make your symptoms properly understood.

Buy it, ask the seller what you do if you need to make use of it, keep it safe with your passport and leave photocopies of it at home in case you lose it..and then forget about it unless you need to use it.

For international travel, you can get very good plans at lower rates than you can get for domestic plans. Plans like the Atlas Travel Insurance plan offer protection like lost luggage, emergency evacuation, repatriation, and ad&d benefits in addition to the medical insurance benefits.

I am mainly a medical insurance agent so that’s why I offer the plans, but you can get them online in minutes and get your card emailed to you instantly. You only need your passport number and the dates of your trip, and you can pay with a credit card.

Specifically to answer your question, you don’t have to have any other insurance to get this, but this insurance won’t cover pre-existing conditions.

I hope this helps.