Elderly parents Sickness/Death???

[rogerpart]

My wife and I have just booked for a 18 day TA trip/cruise for October. We both have elderly parents that we are concerned about. I have been reading up on travel insurance policies. I am still unclear about the following---

 

Do travel insurance policies cover these scenarios:

1) parent sickness or death prior to trip leading us to cancel trip (I see cancel for any reason clause may cover this if canceled at least 48h prior to departure.

 

2) parent sickness or death during trip that causes us to abandon the trip to return home.

------reimbursement for unused portion of trip???

------reimbursement for emergency travel plans back home???

 

thanks

[cherylandtk]

Both of those are often part of standard travel policies, but you have to read the specific coverages (DOC) of the policy you are considering, as they do vary.

 

First, if your parent's potential illness is something they already have that may worsen, it is usually better to have pre-exisiting condition waiver coverage so you don't have to go through the mess of showing it was a stable condition now, but worsened and the worsening was enough to require you to cancel. You can get this waiver by a) purchasing a third party policy within 14 days of your deposit, or b)purchasing a CSA or HTH policy prior to final payment.

 

You are correct that many ship policies have any-reason coverage which you could rely on. I believe most of these have a lookback period, meaning you cannot waive pre-existing conditions, but the any reason credit is a backup if this comes into play.

 

To find out if the policy you are considering will cover you, look under cancellation for medical reasons and make sure immediate family is listed. For abandoning the trip, look under trip interruption benefits.

 

Most third party policies cover the same medical reasons for both cancellation and trip interruption. Many limit the amount of costs for the airfare back home to the lowest available coach fare, but should this happen, you call the insurance company for assistance in booking your flights back. Some cover the unused days of the trip, some have specific limits on how many days or what percentage of time must be left on the trip.

[cherylandtk]

I see you booked on HAL, here is their coverage with respect to your concerns:

-no pre-existing exclusion (that's good, and I think, new)

-90% cruise refund for any-reason cancellation for platinum plan, 80% standard. Not 100%, but not future credit either.

-Since they cover any-reason as a refund, they do not have a separate list of covered cancellation medical reasons.

-Trip interruption is the standard 150% of cruise cost. That covers unused days on the cruise and airfare home.

 

Would need to check into this more, but it appears that they cover cruise air, probably not self purchased air.

 

I had not seen this plan before, and it is dated 4/10. My first impression is that it is pretty good when compared with the third party policies. Not sure what the price is, but I like the 90% any reason back as cash. Hard to beat that one.

[sirwired]

That HAL plan certainly does look decent, but you can probably save a bit of money by getting a 3rd-party plan with a pre-ex waiver.

 

With the pre-ex waiver in place, most plans cover the two scenarios you mentioned. I usually go with TravelGuard Gold ProtectAssist, but there are plenty of plans out there that are just as good. If you have to cancel for covered reasons, you get a 100% refund of your trip costs (and they will cover 150% of trip cost to get you home, on top of the unused day refund.)

 

I've also had good luck with their associated travel agency that works emergency travel situations.

 

SirWired

[cruiseco]

My wife and I have just booked for a 18 day TA trip/cruise for October. We both have elderly parents that we are concerned about. I have been reading up on travel insurance policies. I am still unclear about the following---

 

Do travel insurance policies cover these scenarios:

1) parent sickness or death prior to trip leading us to cancel trip (I see cancel for any reason clause may cover this if canceled at least 48h prior to departure.

 

2) parent sickness or death during trip that causes us to abandon the trip to return home.

------reimbursement for unused portion of trip???

------reimbursement for emergency travel plans back home???

 

thanks

 

You need to read the fine print for any plan you're looking at to see what's covered and how it's covered. For exaple, here's one plan from TravelSafe:

 

"Trip Cancellation: Benefits will be paid, up to the Maximum

Benefit Amount shown in the Schedule of Benefits, to cover You for the unused non-refundable prepaid expenses for Travel Arrangements, including up to $150 for the cost of airline imposed fees to rebank frequent flyer miles for air flights to join Your Trip when You are prevented from taking Your Trip due to:

 

1. Death involving You or Your Traveling Companion or Your or Your Traveling Companion's Business Partner or Your Family Member;

2. A covered Sickness or Injury involving You, Your Traveling Companion or Business Partner, or Your Family Member which necessitates Medical Treatment at the time of cancellation and results in medically imposed restrictions, as certified by a Legally Qualified Physician, which prevents Your participation in the Trip;"

 

Here's their trip interruption coverage:

 

"Trip Interruption: Benefits will be paid, up to the Maximum

Benefit Amount, for the non-refundable, unused portion of the prepaid expenses for Travel Arrangements and/or the Additional Transportation Cost paid to return home or rejoin the Trip, when You are prevented from completing Your Trip due to:

 

1. Death involving You or Your Traveling Companion or Your or Your Traveling Companion's Business Partner or Your Family Member;

 

2. A covered Sickness or Injury involving You, Your Traveling Companion or Business Partner, or Your Family Member which necessitates Medical Treatment at the time of interruption and results in medically imposed restrictions, as certified by a Legally Qualified Physician, which prevents Your continued participation in the Trip;"

 

Then find the plan's definition of "family member":

 

""Family Member" means any of the following who resides in the United States, Canada, or Mexico: Your or Your Traveling Companion's: legal spouse (or common-law spouse where legal), legal guardian, son or daughter (adopted, foster, step or in-law), brother or sister (includes step or in-law), parent (includes step or in-law), grandparent (includes in-law), grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, Domestic Partner, an employed caregiver who lives with You, or a person for whom You are the primary caregiver with whom You have lived for 12 continuous months prior to the effective date of Your Plan, whether or not they travel with You."

 

That should answer all of your questions for this plan, Do the same for any plan you're looking at.

[cruiseco]

(and they will cover 150% of trip cost to get you home, on top of the unused day refund.)

 

SirWired

 

Actually, no. For trip interruption they will cover a maximum benefit amount no greater than 150% of the trip cost insured to cover the total of the unused pre-paid trip arrangements and the cost to get you home. The return airfare cost is not on top of the refund of the unused trip arrangements.

[rogerpart]

Thank you all for your responses. We have USAA insurance and I spoke with the rep and got the Wordlwide Trip Protector Gold plan. In comparison it offered better benefits and was a bit less expensive. The rep I spoke with explained that the standard policy which has a pre-exlclusion waiver would cover the scenarios I was concerned about.

 

One other thing I came across in my research was to make sure the medical illness coverage part was PRIMARY coverage which is much better than the secondary coverage most seem to have. Most US health insurances have significant limitations when you get down to the nitty gritty of what is medically necessary etc.:)