Do not, I repeat do not, try to save money by cutting back on travel insurance — it is the most essential item you pack.

Anytime you leave Canada — even for a few hours — without travel medical insurance, you're taking a big risk.

When you travel outside Canada, you leave up to 90 per cent of your government health insurance plan behind.

Government health insurance plans also typically cover only a limited portion of medical costs once you leave your home province or territory, even if you are still in Canada.

A few days in a hospital in the U. S. could cost you your house, if you don’t have insurance.

I have never travelled without insurance and when my husband died in the airport in Vancouver, it was the first time I’d ever used it.

I didn’t know insurance may be null and void from the time we bought it. I assumed because we paid for it and got a receipt, we were covered.

Najma M. Rashid is a lawyer with Howard Yegendorf and Associates in Ottawa. She has explained it in easy-to-understand terms.

“The insurance company may deny a claim because the policy is full of exclusions and situations (a) your emergency medical care was related to a pre-existing (i. e. pre-departure medical condition, (b) there is another exclusion in the policy that negates coverage, or (c) you made a material misrepresentation when you completed the application form.”

Travel insurance is a form of retroactive underwriting. Approval for coverage only means that the policy is now in place. It is only after you have become ill, or died while on vacation and later submit your medical bills to the insurer, that the insurance company does its investigation into whether you are entitled to be reimbursed.

The application forms are one or two pages of broad questions about your prior medical health.

If you provide information to an insurance company when you apply, and the company learns later the information was wrong or incorrect, the insurance company can declare the policy null and void. The forms ask about your past medical history. This is where most misrepresentations occur. If you later make a claim for expenses, the insurance company will seek to obtain your pre-travel medical records and review them.

You may have forgot you had a mild heart attack and not mention it, or you might not have understood the medical terminology. A misrepresentation or failure to disclose is a valid basis for denying insurance coverage.”

Rashid says to read the application form and policy booklet carefully before paying the premium.

Go through the medical questionnaire with your doctor, especially if you are over age 65 and/or have a history of medical problems.

Do not buy a policy online and do not shop around for the cheapest premium. Get a copy of the policy and study it before buying.

Exclusions relating to preexisting medical conditions cause the most difficulty.

For example:

• expenses incurred directly or indirectly related to a medical condition for which you have seen a doctor, have had treatment or been prescribed medication, in the last 12 months.

• expenses incurred for a medical condition for which you sought treatment for a related condition in the 12 months before your departure date.

• health care costs incurred as a result of a reasonably anticipated medical 728-condition.

• expenses for a medical condition for which symptoms occurred, or which required medical consultation, treatment or prescription medication 120 days preceding departure date.

“These exclusions are so broad they allow the insurance company to interoperate them. Indirectly related medical conditions can catch any pre-existing medical condition. Who decides what constitutes a ‘related’ condition? Will a brief visit to a drop-in health clinic for a minor ailment be considered a ‘medical consultation’ so as to exclude coverage? Would someone who has had high blood pressure for many years, but is otherwise in perfect health, be denied coverage for medical expenses incurred as a result of a heart attack in Florida, on the basis that the high blood pressure is indirectly related to a heart condition?

If you see similar wording ask the insurance company, and your doctor, for clarification.”

I read my policy carefully before I buy it now, and so should you.

Oops, I got the phone number for Honduras Shores Plantation wrong two weeks ago. It should be 905-728-0806.

—Sam Ion can be reached at sion10@cogeco.ca .