Visitors Insurance - Choosing the Deductible

Visitors insurance plans typically allow you to choose from multiple deductible choices. Therefore, customers usually wonder what the most suitable deductible is.

Visitors Insurance Deductible

A deductible is the amount you will have to pay first before the insurance company will pay any eligible medical expenses.

In visitors insurance plans, there is no concept of copay. (Exception: Some plans waive the deductible and you pay only the copay for urgent care visits.) Therefore, you must pay the deductible first before the insurance company will pay anything, even for minor illnesses.

Choices

If the plan has the deductible per incident, you will have to pay the deductible for every incident whether for sickness or injury. It is not for every office visit. Such plans typically have a low deductible ranging from $0 to $100 or sometimes $200. It is advisable to choose a deductible in the middle range, such as $50, in such cases.

If the deductible is per policy period or per year, the choices usually range from $0 to $2,500 or even $5,000. The price difference is usually 10 percent of the premium for every level except the $0 deductible, which may be higher than 10 percent. In such plans, you are advised not to choose a deductible higher than $1,000 or lower than $250.

Typically, the premium is very comparable for $50,000 coverage with $250 deductible, and $100,000 coverage with $500 deductible. In such cases, it is advisable to choose $100,000 coverage with $500 deductible. Even though you would end up paying a little more for minor illnesses, in the case of major issues, you will get double the coverage. It is worthwhile to consider a higher policy maximum, as the cost of health care is very high in the United States.

Similarly, it is not advisable to choose a deductible higher than $1,000, because if you get sick or injured, you will end up paying $1,500 more out of pocket.

Recommendation

The deductible you choose really depends upon your comfort level.

• The lower the deductible, the higher the premium.
• The higher the deductible, the lower the premium.

If you would like to pay the higher premium and start getting covered early even for minor expenses, you should choose the lower deductible.

However, if you would like to pay the lower premium, and take the chance of paying out of your pocket for minor expenses, you should choose the higher deductible.

Our recommendation would be to choose a deductible in the middle range of the deductible's offered for a given insurance plan.