Insurance Question - Pre-Existing Conditions

[handbellplayer]

I am past the period for buying insurance within X days of initial deposit. All of the travel insurance policies I've looked at say that pre-existing conditions will not be covered. Does this mean that if my father-in-law, who has had heart trouble for years has a serious heart-related issue and we choose to cancel our cruise, that nothing will be covered? (He is not a passenger on the cruise.)

[monica1963]

I do insurance type work and would need to see your policy to answer that. If it is a concern, I would call the insurance company and let them tell you what is actually excluded from coverage

[xxoocruiser]

I am past the period for buying insurance within X days of initial deposit. All of the travel insurance policies I've looked at say that pre-existing conditions will not be covered. Does this mean that if my father-in-law, who has had heart trouble for years has a serious heart-related issue and we choose to cancel our cruise, that nothing will be covered? (He is not a passenger on the cruise.)

 

The Pre-Existing clause in Travel Insurance generally applies to the name of the Insured. Meaning if you, as the insured, had a heart condition and did not purchase the insurance within the specified time to have the pre-existing conditions claused waved, than you would not be insured if you had to cancel due to anything pertaining to YOUR Heart. Not your Father-in-law's heart as he is not the one insured.

 

However you need to fully understand all cancelations terms of your policy. Though travel insurance plans are often similar from company to company there can be significant variances. So you need to fully read and understand the conditions that would allow to terms of the terms of cancelation in order to collect on the policy. Perhaps this warrants a call to the the Customer service Department of the insurance company. None of us on this forum can answer that part of the question as we do not have access to your policy.

[The Viking]

Some time ago I helped a friend purchase insurance which covered pre-existing conditions.

 

We search the internet and found one which she accepted. I just did another search and found quite a few options.

 

Good luck and hopefully it will be wasted money if you know what I mean.

[iluvcruzin]

Pre-existing does apply to the insured which was mentioned above. What you are looking for is "Cancel for any reason" coverage. Some policies offer this for an extra fee.

[cruiseco]

The Pre-Existing clause in Travel Insurance generally applies to the name of the Insured. Meaning if you, as the insured, had a heart condition and did not purchase the insurance within the specified time to have the pre-existing conditions claused waved, than you would not be insured if you had to cancel due to anything pertaining to YOUR Heart. Not your Father-in-law's heart as he is not the one insured.

 

Policies are pretty much split on whether or not a non-traveling family member is also subject to the pre-existing condition exclusion. For example Travel Guard (the largest US-based insurer) does apply this exclusion to non-traveling family members.

 

The quickest way to be sure is to call the insurer directly. If you like to read the fine print here's what to look for :

 

Find the plan's definition of a pre-existing condition. From a Travel Guard policy:

 

PRE-EXISTING MEDICAL condition exclusion:

The Insurer will not pay for any Loss or expense incurred as the result of an Injury, Sickness or other condition of an Insured, Traveling Companion, Business Partner, or Family Member . . ."

 

Here's from a Travelex plan:

 

"Pre-Existing Condition: means any injury, sickness or condition of You, or Your Traveling Companion for which within the sixty (60) day period prior to the Effective Date of Trip Cancellation coverage under the Policy (a) first manifested itself or exhibited symptoms which would have caused one to seek diagnosis, care or treatment; . . ."

 

Note that with the Travelex plan Family Members (unless they also qualify as a "Traveling Companion") do not fall under this exclusion.

 

The Seven Corners Roundtrip plan spells it out the best:

 

"Pre-Existing Condition: means any injury, sickness or condition of You, or Your Traveling Companion, Your Family Member booked to travel with You for which within the sixty (60) day period prior to the Effective Date of Trip Cancellation coverage under the Policy (a) first . . ."

 

So in this case a family member who is NOT booked to travel with you would not be a subject of the exclusion.

 

Then be sure to check the plan's definition of "Family Member" to see if the person you're concerned about is even listed. Perhaps you're worried about the health of a close cousin who's like a brother to you. If cousins aren't listed under the plan's "Family Member" definition you can't cancel and be covered due to a medical emergency with that person even if it's not a pre-existing condition. There are some lesser-known plans out there that have a very limited definition of "Family Member' that doesn't even extend to your Grandparents or your Grand Children -- it's pretty much spouse, siblings, parents, and children. OK for some, not good for most.

 

Be sure to check each and every time you buy a policy. It's fairly common for an insurer to switch underwriters and the new underwriter may have a different way of dealing with pre-existing conditions. So just because you buy a policy for one cruise from a given insurer it doesn't mean that the same rules will apply when you buy a policy from the same insurer for the next cruise.

[39august]

Most policies describe under what parameters a medical issue is NOT considered a pre-existing condition. For instance, a person with a long-standing health issue for which he is being treated medically is not excluded if his treatment has not been changed in the past 180 days. (Different time periods for different policies) So, if the person has been taking the same medication and dosage for more than 180 days prior to the trip, this is NOT considered a "pre-existing" condition. Sounds like your FIL would probably fall into this catagory. Again, call your insurer and ask.

[izzy10]

There is one company that covers pre-existing condidtions if the policy is purchased within 24 hrs of final payment. We always purchase travel insurance. It's from CSA

 

Izzy

[cruiseco]

There is one company that covers pre-existing condidtions if the policy is purchased within 24 hrs of final payment. We always purchase travel insurance. It's from CSA

 

Izzy

 

Just be sure you're buying the right CSA policy. Not all will do that. People have made that mistake in the past.

[sbhdmh]

I spent a good part of today finalizing insurance for our upcoming cruise. After looking through the insuremytrip site trying to figure out the best option I finally just called and explained our situation. The rep was able to quickly filter through all the policies they offer and find the one that met our needs. It would have taken me days to try to figure it out and I doubt I would have come to the right conclusion in the end anyway. A quick phone call is probably your best bet.

 

Have a great trip. I hope your FIL stays healthy!

[dirtgirl]

With the policy that I am most familiar with, if your non-traveling family member is near death, and you know it, you won't be covered. If they have a lot of medical issues, but you have no belief that they will imminently die or fall gravely ill, then you would be ok.

 

Basically, they know that no one would be able to travel if they have elderly parents, if they are real sticklers about this. It's all in how ill they are when you purchase the insurance.

[handbellplayer]

Thank you everyone for your advice. SBHDMH, did you call insuremytrip or the individual insurance companies?

[sbhdmh]

I called insuremytrip's toll free number and spoke to their rep. They represent more than a dozen companies each with their own rules. Some may cover somthing for a resident of one state but not for another, etc. In a 15-20 minute phone call the rep was able to find the one policy that would cover pre-existing conditions and provide choice of hospitals to residents of both states our family is traveling from. I never would have been able to figure it all out from the website alone. I definately recommend a phone call.

 

As an aside, about 2 hours after we bought our insurance our dog started to experience stroke like symptoms. Apparently it is not a stroke but may not be something the teenager next door can deal with while we are away. Since I'm pretty sure my dog doesn't count as an immediate family member we now have to see if we can still add the "cancel for any reason" coverage just in case. I thought planning the trip last minute would make things easier...