Death of family member over 85

[austinhoops]

I've read a few threads here about people who were denied travel insurance benefits when they had to cancel their trip due to the death of a family member who was over the age of 85.

 

The primary reason we purchased travel insurance was because my parents are 86 and 88, and I have to be realistic that their time left here is limited. I have a Travel Guard policy with pre-existing condition coverage. Having read through the policy, I can't find any disclaimer about the age upon death. Therefore, I assumed that I am covered if one of my parents were to die just before or during our trip.

 

However, can anyone confirm this? I'm wondering which policies deny based on the age of the deceased. I was really shocked to read that this could happen-- I'll plan to call Travel Guard as well, but would appreciate any insight from those on the board.

[sirwired]

I'm pretty sure that was an Australian; they may have different laws and/or standard policies. I'm not aware of any US insurance plan with such a limitation.

 

That said, I'd absolutely selected a plan that either does not count non-traveling family members as part of a pre-ex exclusion, or provides a pre-ex exclusion waiver, which you have.

[austinhoops]

I'm pretty sure that was an Australian; they may have different laws and/or standard policies. I'm not aware of any US insurance plan with such a limitation.

 

That said, I'd absolutely selected a plan that either does not count non-traveling family members as part of a pre-ex exclusion, or provides a pre-ex exclusion waiver, which you have.

 

ok- thanks!

 

So death---if caused by something that was pre-existing--say, a heart condition, would still be considered a "pre-existing condition?" I had assumed that applied to hospitalization, not death.

 

Glad I got the pre-existing coverage.

[sirwired]

Yes, pre-ex exclusions are applicable to death claims, in addition to illness claims.

[GeezerCouple]

ok- thanks!

 

So death---if caused by something that was pre-existing--say, a heart condition, would still be considered a "pre-existing condition?" I had assumed that applied to hospitalization, not death.

 

Glad I got the pre-existing coverage.

 

You should REALLY check with either the Insurance vendor OR the broker (like TripInsuranceStore.com or InsureMyTrip.com) to get the answers to these kinds of questions, and not rely upon the information on a public web forum. The experiences of others may have little relevance for your particular circumstances and times.

 

And get the answers in writing, to be safer in case there is a "different answer" later.

 

One of the advantages we've found with TripInsuranceStore.com (which we recently started using) is that they were very proactive, and asked about things like whether there were non-traveling relatives we'd want "covered" in case of illness., or if there might be interference from work responsibilities, etc., so we could get the coverage that best fit our needs.

 

There is also the extra-cost "Cancel For Any Reason", which doesn't cover 100% (it can vary from 50%, to 75%, or 90%). That could help with an exclusion for an elderly relative IF that was a coverage problem.

 

This next bit is about a different question asked, about adding airfare, etc., later.

We wanted to be able to add non-refundable airfare later, as it would be quite expensive, but we wanted to wait until much closer to the cruise to purchase the airfare.

We therefore got a policy that did allow us to "add on" additional costs as they were incurred, rather than try to estimate far in advance (and thus risk underestimating and having that horrible situation of losing coverage - unfair or not, that's how the policies are often written).

 

There IS another type of coverage that is capped at $2,500 or $5,000 annually, and you do NOT need to insure the entire amount. But that coverage had other features that didn't quite suit our purposes if there were several trips in a year. (Mostly, it was that IF the coverage was used on Trip A, then an already-booked Trip B would not be eligible for a new, different policy that covered pre-existing conditions. For a single trip per year, it looked like a reasonable way to "insure part of the costs" if one wanted to do that. It was approximately the same percentage cost, but one did not need to specify in advance "which trip" during the coverage year was to be insured.)

 

We also decided that in the unfortunate event of a serious illness (or worse) of our sole remaining elderly relative, the lost cost of the trip would be the least of our concerns, IF that happened to occur to interfere with a major trip.

(Also, we are mostly concerned with medical coverage out of country, etc., and medevac coverage to a hospital of *our* choice, not just the nearest local hospital "wherever"...)

 

GeezerCouple

[austinhoops]

You should REALLY check with either the Insurance vendor OR the broker (like TripInsuranceStore.com or InsureMyTrip.com) to get the answers to these kinds of questions, and not rely upon the information on a public web forum. The experiences of others may have little relevance for your particular circumstances and times.

 

And get the answers in writing, to be safer in case there is a "different answer" later.

 

 

I agree- I have the policy in writing and have read every word of it, but just wondered how widespread this practice is.

 

Have also called the insurance vendor to confirm, but the person I spoke with had to ask his colleague to get an answer, so my confidence in his answer was not the best. I thought it would be helpful to have some perspective from someone who may have been in a similar situation.