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It’s required to purchase travel emergency medical insurance to cover you during your ILP semester. This policy must fulfill certain requirements and recommendations, and cover the entirety of  your semester abroad. If you currently have an insurance policy at home, this does not meet the requirements or recommendations, which is why you'll need to purchase an insurance plan for your ILP semester. 

We're talking about this now for a couple of reasons: 

  • 1. You're interested in buying trip cancellation insurance. 

  • As a reminder, ILP does not refund all or a part of your program fee in the very rare case that there is a natural disaster, political unrest, or some other unexpected or catastrophic conditions that make the program shorter than the scheduled length. If you would like a refund in this rare circumstance, you will need to purchase trip cancellation/interruption insurance.
  •  
  • This is a separate policy from your travel emergency medical insurance policy that's required by ILP: trip cancellation is a personal preference and is not required. 

    Many insurance companies require that you pay for the coverage at the same time or within a very short time after paying your deposit. If you are interested in being covered for that type of refund, you should look into and purchase a policy right away (which is why we've talking about insurance things now, in Orientation). 

  • 2. We wanted to give you a heads up about what's coming.

    Once you are assigned, you'll fill out a separate set of documents (Travel Documents) where you will get more information about things needed before you can depart for your ILP semester. One of those requirements is purchasing travel medical insurance. We'll send along the requirements your policy must meet, and recommendations from ILP alumni to help you choose a policy for your semester.

    If you aren't interested in purchasing a policy with trip cancellation, you're free to just wait until you're filling out your Travel Docs to pick an insurance policy. That's done a few months before departure. 

Policies To Research 

Again, you only need to look into insurance options now if you're interested in purchasing a trip cancellation policy (which can have tighter time parameters than the requirement to purchase travel emergency medical insurance for your ILP semester). 

If you are interested in a trip cancellation policy, it may be cost effective to purchase it from the same insurance company you will be purchasing your travel emergency medical insurance from. 

While ILP does not contract or is at all incentivized by any insurance company, our focus is always on safety. These are travel emergency medical insurance policies that come recommended from past volunteers, (GeoBlue, in particular, is the number one choice by far). They may have trip cancellations policies available to purchase in conjunction with policies which fulfill the travel emergency medical insurance requirement. 

We have received negative information from the following policies — Generali, Trawick, Worldtrip, AIG, Cigna, and Allianz. ILP does NOT recommend you travel with these policies. If you do, make sure you understand you will in all likelihood, be required to pay upfront and file a claim to be reimbursed. Claims can take up to a year and may be disputed. They may work for trip cancellation, but are not recommended to fulfill your travel emergency medical insurance requirement. 

Your at-home health insurance policies (Select Health, Blue Cross, or any other insurance not purchased for travel) will NOT fulfill the ILP insurance requirements and or the recommendations. 

Double Checking Things 

This is only for volunteers who wish to purchase a trip cancellation policy with a policy that will also fulfill their travel emergency medical insurance requirement. If that's you, we'll want to make sure your travel emergency medical insurance fits the requirements and guidelines:  

Please email support@ilp.org to receive an early copy of this section of your Travel Docs. 

You have access to this once you are assigned, but since this is still in the early stages of Orientation, we can send along the insurance requirements found in your Travel Docs.
There, you'll find information and a form that outlines in more detail what policies must be covered by your chosen insurance, as well as any particulars that may be required by the country you're volunteering in. This is also where you will submit your chosen policy. 

If you're just interested in purchasing a policy for trip cancellation and then would like to wait until you are assigned (and have access to your Travel Docs) you're free to research a policy that meets your requirements for trip cancellation. Then, keep an eye out for your Travel Docs before choosing and submitting your travel emergency medical insurance policy. 

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