Medical Travel Insurance for Africa

[Bullard4075]

I'm going to South Africa come February on my first hunting trip there. North East SA , Limpopo to be precise. Airline tickets -Billings-Seattle-London-Johannesburg have been secured (by myself) and most everything else is in comfortable mind . The cell phone situation is still a bit murky but under study. Medical Travel Insurance has been mentioned by two friends who went a couple years previous with faded memory of who they used. To the world travelers on this board suggestions would be appreciated. Who I might use and whom to stay away from and any insurance scams or pitfalls to watch out for? A Duckduckgo.com search was less than satisfying. I would much prefer a first hand account. I am assuming such insurance might need to be secured 30,60,90 days in advance? Thanks for any help.

[JimT]

My wife and I lived in Mozambique for 6 years and traveled back and forth quite a bit. We used Seven Corners travel insurance for about 5 years. https://www.sevencorners.com/
We had Medical coverage and medical flight coverage because the nearest real hospital was Johannesburg about 2500 miles away.
When I turned 70 they contacted me and discontinued my coverage and we had to find another insurance, so if you are over 70 you want to be sure about all that.

You should be able to get International calling on your cell phone. It's expensive but normally you don't use it much because you are busy hunting. If your PH has internet available in the main camp you can use that. Any of the guys on here who have hunted there recently can tell you more. The last time I hunted the Limpopo was 2007.

[vancelw]

If you have a phone/carrier capable of wi-fi calling (AT&T et. al. ) you can make phones calls wherever you have an internet connection. Actual cell service is spotty in RSA and lots of locals use Whatsapp or similar.

I was fortunate enough to be young and employed so I had medical insurance (they wouldn't pay up front but would reimburse after claim) so we just used MedJet in case we needed medical transportation back home.
My wife said I was being paranoid but I figured it was better to pay and not need it than deal with the catastrophic results of needing it and not having it.

[JimT]

My wife said I was being paranoid but I figured it was better to pay and not need it than deal with the catastrophic results of needing it and not having it.

Yes!! A friend's Dad came and visited her while we were living in Mozambique. He did not get medical insurance or coverage to transport a body home in case of death. While swimming in the ocean he drowned. They want to repatriate his body but found out it would have cost upwards of $20,000.00 to do so. He was buried in Mozambique.

My wife had a stroke in 2016. The med-evac flight cost $40,000.00! Thankfully the insurance paid it.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I used to travel a lot when I was younger and the one thing I always did was get a phone on the British Telecom network. The Brits have deals with just about everyone and that phone worked everywhere I went. I wound up in rural Ukraine one time and the locals phones had no signal but my BT phone worked just fine. It's probably just one step below having a satellite phone.

[Bullard4075]

Thanks everyone.

[JRD]

I did my first trip to SA, also Limpopo province in 2021 as things reopened from Covid.

I purchased a two week plan from Global Rescue that covered the duration of my trip. Global Rescue was good to deal with an wasn't that expensive in the grand scheme of my trip. I had no health issues or accidents on the trip, but it was reassuring knowing I had professionals ready to act if anything happened. Don't be too concerned about getting trampled by an elephant and needing medical care. The risk of getting in a car wreck getting driven to and from the airport is much greater.

I shut off the data plan on my phone when I left the US, and used WhatsApp WIFI based messaging to contact home on the WIFI at the lodge. Everyone in SA seemingly communicates through WhatsApp and they also have WIFI based voice calling. Ironically the only time I actually talked to my wife while in Africa was through the Ring doorbell. I was sitting at the one place at the lodge that had WIFI and my phone alerted saying someone was on the front porch. It was my wife watering her flowers. We chatted for a few minutes... until power failed and the lights went out in camp. Get prepared for that too: called "load sharing" as in they shut off parts of the grid when there isn't enough electricity to go around.

I'm by no means a world traveler, but my trip to South Africa made me love the United States even more than before. The hunting trip was awesome, but it was eye opening to see how people live in other parts of the world.

[Streetstar]

I used to travel a lot when I was younger and the one thing I always did was get a phone on the British Telecom network. The Brits have deals with just about everyone and that phone worked everywhere I went. I wound up in rural Ukraine one time and the locals phones had no signal but my BT phone worked just fine. It's probably just one step below having a satellite phone.

Great advice !