Insurance Question for Elder Cruisers

[Bucky3]

For no particular reason other than we are in our mid 70's, we feel we need to take out a more comprehensive insurance policy than Princess offers. Something that would cover pre-existing conditions and a policy with higher medical amounts. I have been doing some research on this and so far have come up with CSA as a possibility as we need a policy that can be purchased at final payment time. Any advice/experience from elder cruisers who have used CSA or any other company would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

[cherylandtk]

CSA is one of the more reputable and popular insurance policies available.

 

In general, many pax move towards the cruiseline insurance as they get older. The third party policies are less costly for younger travelers, but more costly for older travelers. The cruiseline policies are not priced on age, so become more competitive in price as pax age out of the cheaper rates. But I understand why you would prefer more coverage than the limits of the cruiseline policies.

[Bucky3]

chery - Thanks for your reply. We have always purchased the cruiseline insurance up until now, but we have a very long trip planned this time, and it will be far from home, so at our age we are looking for more coverage now! It looks like CSA is our only choice unless anyone else has a suggestion for us. Any other comments most welcome and thank you all.

[happycruizer]

chery - Thanks for your reply. We have always purchased the cruiseline insurance up until now, but we have a very long trip planned this time, and it will be far from home, so at our age we are looking for more coverage now! It looks like CSA is our only choice unless anyone else has a suggestion for us. Any other comments most welcome and thank you all.

Hi Bucky3: We are kind of in the "same boat" as I am also researching coverage for our upcoming Euro River Cruise. We are in our mid-sixties and are on Medicare. Our Medigap policy will cover 80% of medical expenses but that is secondary coverage so I will need to find a "primary" policy, which somewhat limits my choices. We are almost at our final payment date so I need to make a choice soon. I have been looking at options at www.insuremytrip.com and www.tripinsurancestore.com. These are very helpful in helping with any questions I may have. Good luck. Are you still in the "pre- existing condition" time frame?

[Bobblsc]

For no particular reason other than we are in our mid 70's, we feel we need to take out a more comprehensive insurance policy than Princess offers. Something that would cover pre-existing conditions and a policy with higher medical amounts. I have been doing some research on this and so far have come up with CSA as a possibility as we need a policy that can be purchased at final payment time. Any advice/experience from elder cruisers who have used CSA or any other company would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

We are even a bit older than you. I have always looked at www.insuremytrip.com first, then compared policies. I used to buy HTH, which has the same "purchase within 24 hours of final payment" for coverage of pre-existing conditions as CSA. For various reasons, I had decided it was economical to delay insurance purchase until final payment.

 

However, when I looked a couple of months ago, I found this time that the rates had increased substantially, particularly for HTH, but also for CSA. This is for our HAL cruise this month.

 

Since it was well past initial payment, I looked at other policies which would not impact us for pre-existing conditions. I noted that some policies have a 120 day pre-existing condition clause, but others have only a 60 day clause. It then seemed only logical to focus on the 60 day policies. I determined that we had no pre-existing conditions within the last 60 days. You have to be careful about this. There can be no changes in any medications during that 60 days.

 

If we had had pre-existing conditions within 60 days before I bought the insurance, I would have waited until during the then previous 60 days we no longer had pe-existing conditions.

 

The policy I settled on is Travelex. It has 60 days, and is primary for payment. It has a good amount for medical coverage and this can be increased for a few dollars more. It has an excellent BBB rating.

 

A final note. I looked at HAL insurance and found that the policy does not cover anything except the final day, if you travel more than two days after a cruise. I do not know about other cruise insurance, but it should be checked before purchasing.

 

I hope I have been helpful. If so, please let me know.

 

Bob :cool: