Medical travel insurance

Hi everyone!

I am curious what happens if you have travel insurance including PRIMARY medical and you fall ill or become injured and taken to a hospital and that hospital demands immediate payment and you do not have the funds to pay. Does the travel medical coverage then step in to pay or are you on your own? If you are on your own what happens with respect to any treatment you need. I hope I am being clear. Thank you.

Deck Chair

Hi everyone!

 

I am curious what happens if you have travel insurance including PRIMARY medical and you fall ill or become injured and taken to a hospital and that hospital demands immediate payment and you do not have the funds to pay. Does the travel medical coverage then step in to pay or are you on your own? If you are on your own what happens with respect to any treatment you need. I hope I am being clear. Thank you.

 

Deck Chair

As we have registered our insurance provider on the VP, the ship has details and contact number. I believe the Protocol is the ship contacts your insurer and between them they take over the situation, authorise and allocate the medical care provider. Your insurers will only authorise their approved provider. You change you pay.

Ensure your policy includes "Heli-Vac" etc.

Goodness, this surely depends on where you are and where you are from. Two examples: if you show up at Emergency in the U.S. they are reqired by law to treat you and argue about it afterwards. (This doesn't mean they will keep treating you for the next six months.) Don't know if that is Federal or just Minnesota law. My dear M-in-L had a major accident in Ft. Lauderdale and got wonderful care in Broward intensive care right away. On the second day they gently raised the subject of whether she had any insurance. She did. OTOH, we had an elderly visitor from England who had to go to Emergency in Canada. This system that we are so proud of would not touch her until she produced her visa card. No, no, she said, I have insurance. Never mind that, they said, we want your visa. Having seen off Hitler, she was not about to give in to this nonsense and didn't.

It likely depends on many factors but when my wife had an ER visit in St. Lucia the hospital wanted a credit card up front, both in the ER, for any diagnostic screens & blood work and ahead of admission. Everything was reimbursed by insurance but the local facility wasn't equipped to deal with foreign insurance.

In the US, everyone must be treated in an emergency by law, regardless of ability to pay. This is the case in all 50 states. Most hospitals will attempt to bill insurance before billing the patient. You will never be asked for payment up front here.

In the US, everyone must be treated in an emergency by law, regardless of ability to pay. This is the case in all 50 states. Most hospitals will attempt to bill insurance before billing the patient. You will never be asked for payment up front here.

Thanks for the clarification. On re-reading my earlier post, that didn't come out quite right. Yes, I'm fully aware that Ft. Lauderdale is not in Minnesota. I was making two separate points. We have a family member who works in a Minnesota hospital so that's where I was getting my information. Thank you, Stella.

There is a lovely lady named Lynn, (jimsgirl) who in the past has posted here. Lynn had a medical emergency in Belgium. She had purchased CunardCare and she reported they took excellent care of her, including flying her back to Florida with a companion to make sure she got there safely. I have always purchased Cunard Care, but then I am an old geezer at an age when anything can happen so it's best to be prepared.

As we have registered our insurance provider on the VP, the ship has details and contact number. I believe the Protocol is the ship contacts your insurer and between them they take over the situation, authorise and allocate the medical care provider. Your insurers will only authorise their approved provider. You change you pay.

Ensure your policy includes "Heli-Vac" etc.

Others have more experience than I with travel insurance. But I would not step outside my door without my annual MedJet Emergency Medical coverage. In 2015 my husband was injured our first night in Paris and and needed surgery. MedJet saved my sanity, they had answers for anything. I know lots of travel insurance has this kind of coverage included, but the additional guidance and comfort MedJet gave me means I'll never be without them.

As long as you carefully read and understand the exclusions. In the case of MedJetAssist I'm always a little concerned about the exclusion for "the use or abuse of alcohol or drugs (illicit or prescription)." I'd hate to learn that the policy I've trusted excludes an injury because I or a traveling companion had a little too much to drink or suffers a reaction to a medication.