Do I need travel insurance if I have Medicare?
The short answer: Yes. According to Medicare.gov, health care you get while traveling outside the U.S. isn't covered. There are a few rare exceptions. If, for instance, you're traveling through Canada to get to Alaska when a medical emergency occurs, and a Canadian hospital is the nearest facility, Medicare may cover your treatment.

You can purchase a Medigap policy to cover emergency care received outside the United States. This policy pays 80 percent of the billed charges for certain medically necessary emergency care outside the U.S. after you meet a $250 yearly deductible. Medigap coverage has a lifetime limit of $50,000.

The OneTrip Prime Plan from Allianz Global Assistance, on the other hand, has no deductible and offers benefits for 100 percent of losses due to covered medical emergencies, up to $25,000 per trip.

Three things to know about travel insurance vs. overseas health insurance
Travel insurance isn't the same thing as health insurance.
Travel insurance with emergency medical benefits offers just that — benefits for losses due to covered medical and dental emergencies. It doesn't cover preventive, routine or elective medical care. Appendicitis in Amsterdam? Probably covered. Rhinoplasty in Rio? Not covered.
Travel insurance includes some major benefits that health insurance plans don't offer.
When you buy international travel insurance from Allianz Global Assistance, you're not just getting benefits to cover emergency medical expenses. You also get emergency medical transportation benefits, up to $1 million (depending on the plan you choose) to travel to the nearest appropriate medical facility or to return home. This is huge. If you need to be airlifted to a hospital, or you need a nurse to escort you home, the costs will be exorbitant without travel insurance.

Travel insurance also includes trip cancellation and interruption protection to reimburse you for non-refundable trip payments, in case you have to cancel your travel because of covered illness, injury or another covered reason.