Why You Need a Health Plan prior to leaving your home

by: Susan SherRen For Couture Trips
Published: 5/10/21 4:45 PM CST

Super Alert ID

We all look forward to that well planned and well-deserved vacation. However, it can be a daunting task to get out the door. Travel these days has become even more complicated due to the pandemic. Therefore, your travel checklist, in addition to a packing list and well-planned itinerary, should include what to do if you, unfortunately, became ill or have an accident while your away. 

At Couture Trips, we encourage our clients to purchase travel insurance. While some of you might balk at another expense, travel insurance can give you some peace of mind in case of lost luggage, cancelled flights, an emergency back home, or other unforeseen scenarios. For example, one of our clients experienced a surprise when they realized their passport would expire during their trip to Germany, and they were unable to renew their passport in less than 24 hours. Fortunately, they had purchased travel insurance, and 80% of their cancelled travel expenses were covered.

Beyond travel insurance, a well-planned itinerary and a perfect packing list- how would you handle a situation where you experienced a health emergency. How would you notify your family or significant others? How would health care providers access your health information if you were not able to provide the information yourself? 
We encourage all of our client's to develop a  detailed travel health plan prior to leaving home. So how do you accomplish this? What should a health plan include? We have a few tips to share with our trusted travelers.

1. Leave your detailed itinerary plan with a friend, family member or significant other. This information should include your dates of travel, location/accommodations and flight itineraries. In addition, if you feel comfortable, leave this trusted individual a brief summary of your primary health information. For example, do you have life-threatening allergies? Have you had major surgery recently? Do you have an implantable medical device, such as an implantable defibrillator? Have you been vaccinated against COVID-19? There have been unfortunate scenarios where a couples split up for the day during a trip and one of them became ill and incapacitated and the other spent some distress hours trying to find out the location of their loved one.
 Consider this, even if you store your health history  and contact information in your cell phone, a first responder would not be able to access the information if you were unconscious. Always plan ahead and be prepped for the worse case scenario. 

2. Purchase Super Alert ID if you have health conditions such as severe allergies, diabetes, heart conditions,  or a prior illness. The ID card and tag allow first responders the ability to access a detailed emergency profile online via a smartphone, tablet, or computer in seconds. Super Alert ID could prove life-saving in the event of an emergency. You can decide what information to place in your health Super Alert ID profile. 

3. If you're a solo traveller, consider how important it would be to have your significant other or family informed of an emergency situation if you were incapacitated. You will feel more confident as you roam the globe, knowing you've left some critical and detailed information behind, especially if you have a potentially life-threatening health condition. There have been mid-air emergencies where an individual is travelling alone and becomes unresponsive. Consider how easy it would be for the airline attendants or first responders to scan your health tag, notify your significant others back home and make the appropriate decisions quickly and without delay. 

A well planned trip will give you peace of mind! You can't discount the benefits of leaving a health plan behind or purchasing a Super Alert ID. If you have decided to beginning traveling once again, consider some of the points presented before you head out the door. 
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*Couture Trips has not received any reimbursement or compensation for discussing the benefits of Super Alert ID. We only discuss and highlight products that we deem valuable to our clients. Please discuss any health concerns you may have with your healthcare provider. 

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