The United States has no public healthcare for foreign visitors, and the European Health Insurance Card is not valid there: every treatment is paid for on the spot. The single trip travel insurance policy with Columbus on this page, one of the travel services in our catalogue, starts at $30.00, comes with no cap on medical expenses abroad and gives you a 24-hour emergency helpline.
USA travel health insurance at a glance
- Price: from $30.00 per person for a single trip policy.
- Medical expenses: no cap abroad.
- Baggage: compensation up to €2,000.00 per person.
- Assistance: emergency helpline open 24/7, with Italian-speaking operators.
- Covers: medical expenses for injury or illness while travelling, and baggage problems.
- Where you buy it: on the provider’s external platform, which also handles support.
- Cancellation: according to the provider’s terms shown on the platform at purchase, not the standard tour window.
- Compulsory: no, not to enter the USA, but without cover every cost falls on you.
Below you will find what medical care really costs in the United States, what this policy covers, why credit card cover is rarely enough and what to check before you buy.
What the Policy Costs and What Skipping It Costs
The policy starts at $30.00 per person for a single trip: the final amount is shown on the provider’s platform at checkout. What matters is the comparison with what it saves you from. American healthcare is entirely private, emergencies included, no European public health service will advance or refund what you spend on US soil, and the figures quoted across the insurance industry give a clear order of magnitude:
- Emergency room visit: from several hundred to several thousand dollars for a single visit, depending on the tests involved.
- Hospital stay: a few thousand dollars per day, with bills reaching tens of thousands within days.
- Ambulance: between $500 and well over $2,000, billed separately from the hospital.
- Medication and diagnostics: invoiced as separate line items.
How the Purchase Works
Many US hospitals and clinics ask for a credit card or proof of insurance at admission: emergencies are treated regardless, but access to non-urgent care can be slowed down, and the bill arrives either way. One thing should be clear: this policy is a third-party service and is not managed by Il Mio Viaggio a New York. The purchase is completed on the provider’s platform, the final amount is shown at payment, and all assistance on the policy, before and after purchase, goes through the platform itself, as explained in the note below.
What the Columbus Policy Covers
- Assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the whole duration of your trip.
- Medical expenses abroad with no cap.
- Baggage compensation up to €2,000.00 per person for baggage-related issues.
- Emergency operations centre reachable at any time; please note the dedicated assistance is provided in Italian.
Full terms, detailed limits, excesses and exclusions are set out in the provider’s policy documents, which you should read before completing the purchase: those are the terms that apply if you need to claim.
Why Credit Card Cover Is Rarely Enough
This is the most common mistake among travellers heading to the United States. Premium cards do include travel cover, but it is designed for Europe and the medical limit usually stops at around €150,000. In the USA a few days in hospital can exceed that ceiling, and everything above it comes out of your own pocket.
That is exactly why a travel health insurance policy built for the United States is chosen on its medical limit rather than its price: what matters is how much it covers, not how little it costs. If you are still putting the trip together, you will find the rest on our New York tours pages.
Everything we do run directly, from live-guided tours to attraction tickets, is on Il Mio Viaggio a New York, with the support of our office near Times Square.
What to Check Before You Buy
- It is not compulsory to enter the United States: neither ESTA nor a tourist visa requires proof of insurance. The choice is yours, and so is the financial risk.
- Buy it before you leave. Travel policies are taken out before departure: once the trip has begun they can no longer be activated.
- Check the dates: cover must span the whole stay, arrival and return days included.
- Check pre-existing conditions: this is the clause that causes the most disputes at claim stage.
- Keep every document: invoices, medical reports and receipts are what you will need to claim.
- Call the helpline first where the situation allows, before receiving treatment: it makes the claim far simpler to handle.
Please Note
The purchase is completed on a resale platform outside our website. For any assistance with the policy, with a claim or with refunds you need to contact the provider’s platform directly. Limits, excesses and exclusions may vary: the contractual terms shown in the policy documents at the time of purchase are the ones that apply.
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