The USA is a country that begs to be explored and experienced. Each region offers something a little different. In Yellowstone National Park, you can experience the natural beauty of the South Central Rockies and maybe do a spot of hiking. Venture west for a few hours and you could be dressed to the nines and playing baccarat inside the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.
Thousands of people make the trip to the USA each year. In fact, more than 1,000,000 Australians visited the USA in 2019-20 alone. 1 While it’s typically a safe place to visit, you may want to protect yourself from a broad range of things that could go wrong. Theft, injury, cancellations, emergency medical attention and delays due to natural disasters are just some of the things that can put a damper on your trip.
Because of these reasons, international travel insurance should be a key part of planning your trip to the USA.
You never know when something might go wrong in your day-to-day life, let alone when you’re on holiday, relaxing and enjoying your break that’s why travel insurance is a great idea. The Australian Government’s Smartraveller website suggests comprehensive travel insurance as an appropriate level of cover for your trip to the Americas.2
Here are just a few ways comprehensive travel insurance plans can help you during your visit to the USA.
Petty theft and pickpocketing are ongoing issues in the USA. It’s important to be careful with your personal effects and travel documents.
In 2019-2020, there were 422 cases of lost or stolen passports in the USA.1 Don’t become a statistic; keep a close eye on the most precious items in your luggage!
While the USA has a reputable healthcare system, it can be incredibly expensive to receive treatment. Australia and the USA don’t have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement either, so travel insurance may help to cover the cost of medical bills for hospital stays. Travel insurance coverage may even provide a small cash allowance for things like inpatient food and phone calls.
If you plan on driving across America, you’ll need a valid Australian or international driver’s licence.
The USA is a great place to explore, with the American Midwest offering stunning mountain ranges while the east coast sports seaside vistas and beaches. If you’ve hired a rental vehicle to cruise around in, you need to be careful to observe the road rules of whatever state you’re in. A travel policy may help you pay the rental car insurance excess in the event of an accident (provided you’ve added this cover to your policy).
Oh, and don’t forget to drive on the right side of the road (literally)!
Flights that don’t arrive on time are a common reason for travel delays and cancellations.
Even though you hope flight delays won’t impact your trip, you never know when it could happen to you. Appropriate travel insurance could mean the difference between getting reimbursed for travel delays and swallowing the cost of missing an important activity in your itinerary. In many cases like these, you’ll be reimbursed by your airline and your insurer may ask you to seek compensation from them prior to assessing your claim for trip cancellation.
It can pay to get travel insurance ahead of time so you’ll be covered for events which could disrupt your travel plans. For example, volcanic eruptions and ash clouds are events that can cause chaos and force flights to be delayed or cancelled.
Travel insurance covers you once you take out a policy, so if you’ve purchased a policy and then, say, an eruption occurs a week before you were meant to fly, you could be insured for costs involved in cancelling or rescheduling your trip.
Like any type of insurance, there are some things that travel insurance can’t cover. Specific exclusions in your travel insurance waiver may vary from insurer to insurer, which is why it’s important to always read a policy’s Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before purchasing.
Here’s a list of some common exclusions you might find in your USA travel insurance policy:
You can find a longer list of what may and may not be covered in our travel insurance FAQs.
As we mentioned above, medical care is expensive in the USA, so you should consider including medical cover in your travel insurance policy, even if you don’t think you’ll get sick or injured.
It’s also a good idea to make sure you’re adequately covered for the luggage or belongings you bring with you; just think how expensive it would be to replace your suitcase and its entire contents should it be stolen!
If you’re also planning to get active during your visit to the USA, consider adding cover for extreme and winter sports as an optional extra, as insurers may not automatically cover these activities.
The USA is a big place, so hiring a car to get around it all would seem like a logical way to go. If this is your plan, make sure to get a policy that includes cover (whether as standard or optional extra) for your rental vehicle excess should something go awry. You should also look into whether you need an international driving permit, and make sure to learn the road rules!
Security screenings are intensive when entering the USA. Because of this, you should leave plenty of time when travelling to ensure you aren’t late for anything. If you’re worried about how long you’ll be waiting, check the airport wait times from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website for the location you’re travelling to.
If you’re an Australian citizen carrying a passport and visiting for 90 days or less, you may not need a visa to enter the USA. You will instead need an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA). If you fail to apply for it early enough and are denied entry into the country, you won’t be able to make any claims on your travel insurance policy. Be sure to check entry and visa requirements well before you leave.
Learn more about how travel insurance can help out with a working holiday.
Hurricane season lasts from June to November and can bring land and mudslides, as well as severe flooding.2 If you plan to visit the USA during hurricane season, make sure you stay up to date with weather warnings through the National Hurricane Center.
Wondering where to find a great travel insurance policy for your upcoming trip to the USA? You can start searching right here and now with our travel insurance comparison service.
Are you planning a trip elsewhere? Check out travel insurance for other popular destinations.
1 Australian Government: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – Consular State of Play, 2019-2020. Accessed November 2021
2 Smartraveller – United States of America. Last updated November 2021. Accessed November 2021
