<p>Our son will be studying in England in the fall. His college sent the usual checklist regarding health insurance. We have always been able to qualify for a waiver of university health insurance because our family insurance provides adequate coverage.</p>
<p>There is a requirement, though, for students studying outside the country: evacuation and repatriation insurance (in addition to medical coverage overseas). Our health insurance does not cover evacuation and repatriation coverage.</p>
<p>I saw some organizations on line that offer this coverage. Any advice, experience that you care to share?</p>
<p>We had son buy it prior for him going to India for 4 months. Cost was minor. .The cost was also a deductible expense. His exact status for this internship was not exactly clear, and I wanted to have some control over the small chance of Evacuation and Repatriation. Son spent his last month in western Europe without the insurance. </p>
<p>Others in his peer group did not purchase it. It is insurance. Some people see the need for type of asset insurance, some not. For your case, the school wants you to have repatriation insurance for the body remains. Sorry, can not say it in any nice terms.</p>
<p>You can purchase this easily online – just look up “travel insurance”. It is very important to have for some countries – I wouldn’t let my d. go to China for a week without it, though others in her group passed on it… but I wouldn’t think it is particularly necessary for England or other Western European countries. The idea is that it can cost a LOT of money to get a sick or injured westerner transported to a place where he can get minimally acceptable medical care – but the reality is that if your kid gets sick or hurt in England he’s probably better off staying there. However, as noted, its not expensive; you can also get a policy that covers for other contingencies, like lost luggage, so it can be worth having even if there is never a medical emergency.</p>
<p>No, I’m not particularly concerned that he would require evacuation from London of all places, but it is a requirement for all students at his school who are studying abroad.</p>
<p>I’ve found sites online; several offer the same coverage for $98, so I am assuming that it is underwritten by the same company. I just don’t know anything about the product, so I don’t know if the companies are reputable or the rate is reasonable. Basically clueless here!</p>
<p>LongPrime, my daughter is in India right now and I would think the insurance is absolutely essential there. For one thing, I’ve reconciled myself that my daughter will get sick, if ony a bad case of the runs, she is there 10 weeks and sooner or later she is going to eat something that doesn’t agree with her. Maybe sooner, because this morning I got a call from her asking if it is safe to cook & eat eggs that had not been refrigerated for more than 24 hours (I told her no, throw them out - turns out the frig had been broken). </p>
<p>Mafool – you can see who is underwriting the policy usually by looking at the terms of the policy itself. I always buy International Medical Group – at one time or another I ran through and compared coverages and at the time felt they best met my needs. At the time, it might have been because of a desire to have coverage for acts of terrorism included in the policy – sometimes that’s an exclusion. That was a bigger issue for some of the places my daughter has traveled (the first time I bought from IMG my daughter was headed off to Russia). </p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about rates, assuming its a rate that you can afford – try buying 4 months of health care coverage for the US for $98! It is important to figure out what the actual cost of medical evacuation could end up being to make sure you buy enough coverage, but that would not be an issue or problem for London. (It can be an issue when someone is traveling to a an area that is not near a major airport, especially in 3d world countries.) So, as noted, for London I’d just go with whatever was cheap and also offered good coverage for lost luggage, because even though that’s a minor issue, statistically speaking that’s the problem your kid is far more likely to run into. (If you pay $98 and then your kid has a $200 claim under the “travel baggage delay” option, you’ve gotten your money’s worth).</p>
<p>Actually, calmom, I was wondering if $98 was too low, indicating something wrong! thanks for the guidance about examining the policy terms. </p>
<p>Most of the evacuation insurance that I have found so far is combination health insurance/travel insurance. We have excellent health insurance coverage for overseas travel (for which I am grateful) so we only need the travel portion.</p>
<p>Eggs are safe to eat unrefrigerated. We had eggs as kid out for over a week at room temps. Higher temps maybe more questionable. We never refrig’d eggs. </p>
<p>Kid did get sick with a couple of his cohorts while visiting the TajMahal. The doctor made a house call, US$10. and the bed and breakfast place was very accommodating (retired general). His problem is that he has led a sheltered life and has not eaten raw and unwashed fruits and vegs as we had done as kids. He only had one bout while in India.</p>
<p>^^^please keep in mind that, when most of us were children, chickens and eggs were not infected with salmonella. This is a nasty thing that reproduces extremely well at room temperature. Now, I do not know if salmonella has made its way to chickens in India, but it’s good to keep this in mind. (Also one of the reasons that our mothers’ habits of stuffing that turkey the night before thanksgiving and leaving it in the sort-of-cold garage never made us sick, but the same practice would not be good today.)</p>
<p>I checked on line and the health sites said that eggs shouldn’t been eaten if it they had been unrefrigerated more than 2 hours – and it turned out that my d. had bought them the day before from a street vendor, so no telling how long it had been since they emerged from the chicken. Her frig had broken down - and we are talking about New Delhi in June, so it’s pretty warm. Anyway, d. has tossed the eggs & isn’t going to buy more that way – I know it is probably a huge temptation to buy food from the street vendors, but I don’t think its worth the risk. Anyway, if she calls her mom to ask, then she’s going to get a play-it-safe answer! (She also asked if it was safe to drink the water if she boiled it first, and I told her yes on that! I guess she has been drinking bottled water so far).</p>
<p>I would be surprised if you could buy eggs in India that were refrigerated before you brought them home. I have never seen eggs refrigerated in grocery stores in other parts of Asia. We buy them as fresh as possible, soak them in a bleach solution before refrigerating, and most important, we’re sure to cook them thoroughly.</p>
<p>Cooking properly kills the Salmonella and also Avian Influenza virus.<br>
Do not eat runny eggs, or raw cookie dough (my kids hate that rule!).</p>
<p>So maybe its wimpy advice, but if my d. is going to call me up & ask my opinion then I’m playing it safe. She’s living on her own in a strange city and I don’t want to have to field a call from a sick kid 8,000 miles away. Maybe after she’s been there a little longer she’ll get different advice from the locals.</p>
<p>Lived in London five years and I would not hesitate to use the NHS for minor/routine issues. Need to register with a local doctor there (they call them surgeries) but they are regular Doctors. Easy to get an appt. and free (both visits and prescription meds)…but you must register when you arrive in country.<br>
For evac/repatriation insurance check on some of the larger university Travel Abroad websites…they likely make some recommendations. Oldest daughter will spend a year in Australia and she has the e/r insurance through her university. It isn’t expensive and well worth the $ if ever needed!</p>
<p>I think that this requirement is fairly standard for UK universities. Everyone we know who has had kids go to Oxford, Trinity, or to study abroad there has been required to get this type of coverage. I remember one couple grousing about it and about a month after their D started classes, they visited her. While there, her dad was in a very bad car accident and, after several weeks of being in the hospital there, had to make use of evacuation and repatriation services, which, coincidentally was part of his own travel health insurance. This insurance isn’t simply to get the sick or injured person to adequate medical care, but it is also important in a catastrophic injury situation to get them home.</p>
<p>“Should You Wash Eggs before Storage?
No. When the egg is laid, a protective coating is put on the outside by the hen.”</p>
<p>LOL, the hen also puts some other coatings on the egg that I don’t care to have in my refrigerator. Now that I know it is wrong, I’ll feel guilty, but I’m going to continue my practice of washing the poop off before I put them in the fridge.</p>
<p>We live overseas and the most common expat insurance is International SOS, [International</a> SOS - Medical and Security Solutions, Products and Assistance](<a href=“http://www.internationalsos.com%5DInternational”>http://www.internationalsos.com)</p>
<p>When DS was in London for study abroad, he got an International Student Identification Card. You can google that for info. I believe it included the insurance you are needing…I don’t recall the cost but my recollection was that it wasn’t too costly.</p>
Well if your going to the UK then you better get used to room temperature eggs ;-). They store eggs at room temp. If you go into the supermarket you won’t find eggs in the refrigerated section but just out on normal room temp shelves like everything else.</p>