Travel insurance?

[Arwen]

We have taken 16 cruises and will be going on a Caribbean B2B the first week of February. We always have purchased travel/cruise insurance in the past.

 

Okay..so now all of a sudden hubby is shy on getting it this time around as we have never used it. Yes, yes, I have pointed out all the reasons why it is important to purchase it.

 

We have top notch medical coverage through my husband's employer and our agent said we would be covered but would pay out of pocket first (of course). Still, I do not want to deal with all the headaches of paperwork should one of us need to go to a hospital.

 

My question is: For those of you who have had the unfortunate opportunity to use your travel/cruise insurance for a hospital visit or stay...how was the billing done? Were you required to pay out of pocket first and get reimbursed later, or did you just show your travel insurance card and number and the rest is taken care of by the agent. We will be purchasing TravelGuard.

 

I know....what if...what if one of us becomes ill, a family member dies, or some other crazy circumstance.....I agree with all that...but my very stubborn hubby is willing to 'lose' the cruise money +flight costs on a sudden cancellation. Thanks in Advance

Edited November 18, 2013 by Arwen
grammar correction.

[Ineke]

Our only experience was minor, thank goodness, but this is what occurred. DH developed a nasty infection in his elbow. We called our family doctor who suggested to go see the ship doctor, wise call. So we did, and ended having to pay up front for the visit, lab work and prescription, etc., about $900.00 if I recall correctly. However, we would not have had to do that if we had taken the time to call our travel insurance company and got a file opened. Lesson learned. However, we did not have any problem with having the claim paid out once we got back. And when we got the lab results we were very thankful, as it could have turned out very badly. Wouldn't ever travel without adequate coverage.

[Arwen]

Our only experience was minor, thank goodness, but this is what occurred. DH developed a nasty infection in his elbow. We called our family doctor who suggested to go see the ship doctor, wise call. So we did, and ended having to pay up front for the visit, lab work and prescription, etc., about $900.00 if I recall correctly. However, we would not have had to do that if we had taken the time to call our travel insurance company and got a file opened. Lesson learned. However, we did not have any problem with having the claim paid out once we got back. And when we got the lab results we were very thankful, as it could have turned out very badly. Wouldn't ever travel without adequate coverage.

 

 

Thanks for your response and your experience. Glad that your DH didn't encounter anything super serious and proper and prompt care given!

 

Two cruises ago, I had to make a visit to the ship's clinic for a skin infection. Paid for that on credit card and like a dummy did not bother with calling our travel insurance because I knew our own insurance would cover it. Well, I submitted the invoice a month after we returned with the ship's medical invoice stamped as 'paid', the medical code, MD's signature...and submitted it. Our insurance rejected it because of their clueless rep. Later on followed up and discovered it definitely should have been paid, but I was missing the proof or method of payment. Our insurance company was not at all familiar with how ships/cruises do their billing!

 

I stupidly had thrown out the ship's final billing statement that would have been the info that my insurance wanted to see.

 

So...note to self...always keep the ship's final billing statements until I am certain it is not needed any longer. Fortunately I was only out for $120.

 

Thanks for the info about calling travel insurance to start a file to avoid paying up front. That was what I needed to know.

[take us away]

Had a table mate earlier this year who had to spend 3 days in a Turkish hospital but had luckily purchased travel insurance. All he had to do was show the travel insurance card for the medical care - HA had contacted the insurance company for him before he left the ship. He did have to pay for his meals as the family feeds their own who are patients in Turkey - who knew. The insurance also paid his airfare and 1 night in a hotel to rejoin the ship.

 

As we get older, there is less and less discussion about whether to buy travel insurance. It is somewhat for the fare reimbursement for cancellation or interruption but more importantly for the possibility of a medical issue. The sight of an ambulance or a hearse along side the ship or watching a helicopter medical evacuation of someone while in the middle of the ocean obliterates any questions we may ever have!

 

If you travel a lot, understand you can buy annual policies for overseas insurance.

Edited November 18, 2013 by take us away

[catl331]

... but my very stubborn hubby is willing to 'lose' the cruise money +flight costs on a sudden cancellation.

Will your medical insurance cover the possible huge cost of a helicopter medi-vac? Edited November 18, 2013 by catl331

[Typhoon1]

If you can afford the loss. Fine. Otherwise, don't leave home without it.

[Tampa Girl]

Try the TravelGuard Med-Evac insurance - costs only about $125 and will cover 100% of the costs. However, if you are looking a trip cancellation insurance, that is entirely different. HAL's Platinum policy does that, but it will cost dearly, and it does not provide a good med-evac coverage. It all depends on what is most important to you. The med-evac will cost considerably more than a forfeited cruise payment.

[trev71]

Health insurance is a must.. I know this isnt a cruise story. But my mother went to Ireland a few months ago and to make a long story short she had to get a pacemaker installed. which cost alot of money and before she got a pacemaker installed they said the hospital stay was 1300$ EUROS a day. So after all the flight change and extra meals.. My Mom would have had to pay over 85,000$euros. But luckly she bought 45$ travel health insurance.. Honnestly its not worth the risk...

[slk230red]

If you travel a lot, understand you can buy annual policies for overseas insurance.

 

We purchase yearly travel insurance policies.....wouldn't travel without travel insurance.

[Davidson Duo]

I think it would help if your husband clarified which travel insurance he did not want to purchase. In our case, we do - and don't purchase insurance.

 

Every year we purchase a yearly policy for travel medical insurance. It allows us up to 30 days out of country each trip. If our trip will be longer than the 30 days, we purchase coverage for the extra days. We would never travel out of country without it. We know too many stories about minor issues that have added up to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars that we aren't willing to take a chance on.

 

Trip cancellation or interruption insurance is another issue. This, we do not purchase. For us, we are willing to self insure. We do not book suites, so our cruise fares are on the lower price scale. We also do not fly executive class, so again, lower fare scale. We travel a lot, and rarely have issues with cancellations/interruptions. For us, we have saved more by not purchasing this form of insurance than the cost of our last trip, so it makes sense for us. Others have had different experiences, and if you are paying higher fare scales than us, then it may be a different choice.

 

I think only you and your husband can decide what is best for you. Trip cancellation/interruption insurance is an option in my opinion. But I feel everyone should purchase full travel medical insurance, and for cruises, ensuring that you have air evacuation coverage. We have never cruised where someone did not have to be medivaced off the ship. This coverage is a requirement in my books.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy your cruise, free of any complications! :)

[tangerinebunny]

Emergency evacuations from the ship are covered (according to lengthy discussions here) but getting home isn't.

 

Thanks for the reminder to call your company before seeing the ship's doctor (if you have that luxury). One of us saw the doctor using HAL's coverage year before last. It was added to our ship's account, but paid at home later.

[catl331]

We have never cruised where someone did not have to be medivaced off the ship.

Wow, you really must be a bad luck charm! :eek: I've seen one in 20 cruises.

[Davidson Duo]

:) We really do have a reputation! One cruise across the Pacific the ship turned around to head back for a patient medivac. Patient improved, resumed cruise without disembarking him. A couple of hours later, turned back again to meet medivac helicopter for ANOTHER patient, so 1st patient was also removed! That was quite the cruise for events. We were in Hawaii when the Japanese earthquake happened. We were delayed leaving one island as the crew were assisting in prep and evacuation for the expected tsunami. We headed out to sea for the night, then were delayed about 4 hours before we could dock at the next port as they were still under tsunami watch.

 

Without going into detail, let's just say that after driving through every one of the United States during a 2 year period, and dodging killer tornadoes, snowstorms, devastating floods, and wildfires, our family teases us that we seem to leave a path of death and destruction in our wake! Trust me. After seeing some of the mishaps that can unexpectedly happen, travel medical insurance is a must!

 

Wow, you really must be a bad luck charm! :eek: I've seen one in 20 cruises.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Davidson Duo

[Cancun01]

I will tell you our story and you can be the judge whether you require the insurance. In August 2012, I decided that maybe we should try sailing on Oceania after several friends' recommendations. I booked a BCN-RIO cruise directly with Oceania scheduled for November 2013. The agent mentioned insurance but that it could be paid at final payment. I recently found out that she marked the file "insurance declined" which is not so. We were enticed with an additional 10 day add on cruise at a terrific price. No mention of insurance. As Canadians we have provincial health insurance plus we have additional out of province/Canada health insurance which covers air evacuation, repatriation and 5 million dollars medical coverage which is supposedly paid directly to a service provider with a phone call. There is also small credit card coverage. At the time of final payment, we were preoccupied with elderly parent issues so I called Oceania and told them to put the balance on the CC that was on file. The issue of insurance escaped me because of the family issues - we were healthy and had medical coverage whilst away so it was not at the top of agenda. The agent says she never mentioned insurance because of the earlier notation on the file in August 2012, one year before final payment.

At the end of September my husband was rushed to hospital with what turned out to be ulcers from preventative low dose aspirin. He left hospital a week later with a 14 day prescription for the antibiotic Flagyl and clearance to travel. On October 15 he was again rushed to hospital with stroke-like symptoms - fortunately it was not a stroke but flagyl-toxicity caused by the antibiotic from which it is expected that he will have a full recovery however it could take a few months. He is still recovering from the horrific symptoms and we were not able to travel. Because of the lack of cancellation insurance, we are out $15,000. I wrote to Oceania twice and put forth a proposal to mitigate our loss at the same time recognizing that they have a sold stateroom to protect. I received a flawed form letter that indicated that they had not read my letter but they hoped that we would sail with them in the future. The second letter has not been responded to nor have my emails. All correspondence from me was polite and not rude. My sources tell me that the stateroom was resold. For a company in the service industry Oceania's response has been rather surprising especially considering that they have sold the stateroom twice. I have no idea how Holland America would react but I am not chancing it with our future cruise. I now have cancellation insurance including that for "any cause" and I do not want anything to do with Oceania mainly because of the way I was treated after the fact.

Hope that this helps you with your decision - we would have never guessed on labor day weekend that we would have missed this cruise.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Cancun01

[pbnjrockette]

We always get trip insurance.. used to buy it from the carrier (Holland America, Vantage, etc) but have recently changed to Allianz. We have needed to use insurance 3 times... once for a cancellation (my mother was very ill) and we received complete repayment of trip cost...once to repay doctor's bill and extra hotel stay when my husband got sick in Africa... and once for a cancelled flight when a family member died. We have had no problems with dealing with TripMate or Allianz. So cancellation insurance has been useful for us.

 

But we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers for the next rivercruise as we did not buy the insurance within 14 days of payment and are not eligible for "pre-existing" conditions. My husband recently has had flare-ups of previous conditions and if we have to cancel we may be out of luck!

[igraf]

Health insurance is a must, but it does not have to be in the form of travel insurance. Our regular health insurance will cover our emergency medical expenses while traveling, so it would be redundant to purchase travel medical insurance.

 

Worse than redundant, one might find themselves in a situation where the regular and the travel insurance companies demand that the other pay. Alternatives to "missing the boat" insurance is to stay in port hotels prior to a cruise and to book nonstop flights.

 

OP: You husband is right. Everybody is glad that they bought travel insurance when they miss the boat, but people often overlook the fact that they have essentially lost a cruise by paying for premiums over the years. We have not bought insurance for any of our previous cruises, so if we were to miss out on our next cruise then we would just be breaking even. There would be no loss (not talking about big medical bills here, read the first paragraph for that topic).

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health insurance is a must.. I know this isnt a cruise story. But my mother went to Ireland a few months ago and to make a long story short she had to get a pacemaker installed. which cost alot of money and before she got a pacemaker installed they said the hospital stay was 1300$ EUROS a day. So after all the flight change and extra meals.. My Mom would have had to pay over 85,000$euros. But luckly she bought 45$ travel health insurance.. Honnestly its not worth the risk...

Edited November 18, 2013 by igraf

[Arwen]

Will your medical insurance cover the possible huge cost of a helicopter medi-vac?

 

Hi...Doubt that our insurance would cover the medi-vac...but...the Travelguard does of course cover any flight that is needed to get you to the...nearest...hospital....Maybe I am wrong, and someone please correct me, but even Travelguard is not obligated to fly you to the hospital of your choice, just the closest hospital wherever.

 

I believe Medi-vac will go the distance to get you where you need to go to get the care that you want.

 

The Medi-Vac can be purchased separately and if one travels a lot...you can purchase a policy for the year or pay a high one time fee. If we were to do more cruising and traveling, I would be tempted to buy a one year membership with them.

[Arwen]

I will tell you our story and you can be the judge whether you require the insurance. In August 2012, I decided that maybe we should try sailing on Oceania after several friends' recommendations. I booked a BCN-RIO cruise directly with Oceania scheduled for November 2013. The agent mentioned insurance but that it could be paid at final payment. I recently found out that she marked the file "insurance declined" which is not so. We were enticed with an additional 10 day add on cruise at a terrific price. No mention of insurance. As Canadians we have provincial health insurance plus we have additional out of province/Canada health insurance which covers air evacuation, repatriation and 5 million dollars medical coverage which is supposedly paid directly to a service provider with a phone call. There is also small credit card coverage. At the time of final payment, we were preoccupied with elderly parent issues so I called Oceania and told them to put the balance on the CC that was on file. The issue of insurance escaped me because of the family issues - we were healthy and had medical coverage whilst away so it was not at the top of agenda. The agent says she never mentioned insurance because of the earlier notation on the file in August 2012, one year before final payment.

At the end of September my husband was rushed to hospital with what turned out to be ulcers from preventative low dose aspirin. He left hospital a week later with a 14 day prescription for the antibiotic Flagyl and clearance to travel. On October 15 he was again rushed to hospital with stroke-like symptoms - fortunately it was not a stroke but flagyl-toxicity caused by the antibiotic from which it is expected that he will have a full recovery however it could take a few months. He is still recovering from the horrific symptoms and we were not able to travel. Because of the lack of cancellation insurance, we are out $15,000. I wrote to Oceania twice and put forth a proposal to mitigate our loss at the same time recognizing that they have a sold stateroom to protect. I received a flawed form letter that indicated that they had not read my letter but they hoped that we would sail with them in the future. The second letter has not been responded to nor have my emails. All correspondence from me was polite and not rude. My sources tell me that the stateroom was resold. For a company in the service industry Oceania's response has been rather surprising especially considering that they have sold the stateroom twice. I have no idea how Holland America would react but I am not chancing it with our future cruise. I now have cancellation insurance including that for "any cause" and I do not want anything to do with Oceania mainly because of the way I was treated after the fact.

Hope that this helps you with your decision - we would have never guessed on labor day weekend that we would have missed this cruise.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience! That is awful..but glad your hubby is on the mend. You know, we have always purchased the insurance and not needed it, but I know the one time we don't (17th cruise) will be the end of our run and could be the time we need it.

 

Without much convincing tonight, hubby has happily agreed to purchasing the insurance. I do think it is worth the peace of mind. Who needs all the hassles when on a vacation and then one gets ill and has to deal with paperwork, foreign country, and all the endless worrisome details!

[Arwen]

:) We really do have a reputation! One cruise across the Pacific the ship turned around to head back for a patient medivac. Patient improved, resumed cruise without disembarking him. A couple of hours later, turned back again to meet medivac helicopter for ANOTHER patient, so 1st patient was also removed! That was quite the cruise for events. We were in Hawaii when the Japanese earthquake happened. We were delayed leaving one island as the crew were assisting in prep and evacuation for the expected tsunami. We headed out to sea for the night, then were delayed about 4 hours before we could dock at the next port as they were still under tsunami watch.

 

Without going into detail, let's just say that after driving through every one of the United States during a 2 year period, and dodging killer tornadoes, snowstorms, devastating floods, and wildfires, our family teases us that we seem to leave a path of death and destruction in our wake! Trust me. After seeing some of the mishaps that can unexpectedly happen, travel medical insurance is a must!

 

Wow...you have seen it all! Going with Travelguard for sure!

[2specialkidsforme]

I was on the NCL Epic in early October and fell while walking on a ship sponsored excursion to Pisa. I caught myself with my arm extended and knew I had really hurt my wrist and elbow. I iced it when I got back to ship and tolerated the pain for a few days - but my elbow area turned black (worst bruise I have ever had). Finally when to ship doctor and found out I did not have to pay for the medical visit because fall happened on NCL sponsored excursion. Ship doctor did xrays and said no breaks, gave me a sling, offered pain meds. My arm was useless - I'm right handed and I could not even turn a door knob, tie shoes, etc. terrible pain. Ship doctor said it was a bad bruise so would take time to heal. After a few days of being home and my pain worsening, I went to an orthopedic specialist and brought my disk of xrays from the ship. Doctor immediately saw that I fractured my radial head and did additional xrays and found I also fractured my scaphoid. My insurance is covering my bills less my co-pays and my percent due per my plan. My travel insurance through NCL (berkley care) is paying everything my plan doesn't. My co pats, 15.00 per cast to get waterproof ( Aetna does not cover that). Everything first is submitted to my insurance and then I have to send each EOB to berkley for reimbursement. I'm also now doing PT three times a week and Berkley will pay the 20-% my insurance will not. One simple fall resulted in 2 breaks, 2 casts already, multiple xrays and now PT. and I still might need surgery. I paid $89 for my travel insurance - so glad I did. One thing I did not do but will in future - I forgot to buy insurance for the 5 days I was in Rome prior to boarding the Epic. Just another way to think about the decision - what if anything would you have to pay out of pocket that your plan would not cover.

[ScriptOhio]

FWIW, This topic has come up previously on Cruise Critic. I do have the Travel Guard's MedEvac Annual Plan; however, someone else did post information on another company's annual plan (that apparently is a little cheaper): GeoBlue (in cooperation with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield) Multi Trip Travel Medical Insurance

 

Just sayin': I'm not endorsing either company; but price comparisons and/or competition is always a good thing.

[PSR]

We always get trip insurance.. used to buy it from the carrier (Holland America, Vantage, etc) but have recently changed to Allianz. We have needed to use insurance 3 times... once for a cancellation (my mother was very ill) and we received complete repayment of trip cost...once to repay doctor's bill and extra hotel stay when my husband got sick in Africa... and once for a cancelled flight when a family member died. We have had no problems with dealing with TripMate or Allianz. So cancellation insurance has been useful for us.

 

But we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers for the next rivercruise as we did not buy the insurance within 14 days of payment and are not eligible for "pre-existing" conditions. My husband recently has had flare-ups of previous conditions and if we have to cancel we may be out of luck!

 

Check CSA travel insurance. You can purchase it up to right before final payment and it is supposed to cover pre-existing conditions. Not sure if it will be right for you, but it won't hurt to check their website details.

[igraf]

Maybe you need better health insurance. I can easily argue that you could have hurt yourself any day of the year, cruise or no cruise.

 

I am only obligated to pay $1000 out of pocket for all medical deductibles per year under my plan. This is why I am not too concerned about getting extra medical insurance for traveling.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

I was on the NCL Epic in early October and fell while walking on a ship sponsored excursion to Pisa. I caught myself with my arm extended and knew I had really hurt my wrist and elbow. I iced it when I got back to ship and tolerated the pain for a few days - but my elbow area turned black (worst bruise I have ever had). Finally when to ship doctor and found out I did not have to pay for the medical visit because fall happened on NCL sponsored excursion. Ship doctor did xrays and said no breaks, gave me a sling, offered pain meds. My arm was useless - I'm right handed and I could not even turn a door knob, tie shoes, etc. terrible pain. Ship doctor said it was a bad bruise so would take time to heal. After a few days of being home and my pain worsening, I went to an orthopedic specialist and brought my disk of xrays from the ship. Doctor immediately saw that I fractured my radial head and did additional xrays and found I also fractured my scaphoid. My insurance is covering my bills less my co-pays and my percent due per my plan. My travel insurance through NCL (berkley care) is paying everything my plan doesn't. My co pats, 15.00 per cast to get waterproof ( Aetna does not cover that). Everything first is submitted to my insurance and then I have to send each EOB to berkley for reimbursement. I'm also now doing PT three times a week and Berkley will pay the 20-% my insurance will not. One simple fall resulted in 2 breaks, 2 casts already, multiple xrays and now PT. and I still might need surgery. I paid $89 for my travel insurance - so glad I did. One thing I did not do but will in future - I forgot to buy insurance for the 5 days I was in Rome prior to boarding the Epic. Just another way to think about the decision - what if anything would you have to pay out of pocket that your plan would not cover.

[agabbymama]

Maybe you need better health insurance. I can easily argue that you could have hurt yourself any day of the year, cruise or no cruise.

 

I am only obligated to pay $1000 out of pocket for all medical deductibles per year under my plan. This is why I am not too concerned about getting extra medical insurance for traveling.

 

igraf

 

Not sure where you are igraf but most U.S. Standard Medical Insurance carriers do not cover outside of the U.S. It is very rare coverage if it does.

 

I am on Medicare and was told it definitely WOULD NOT cover outside the U.S. but that my HMO Caremore might pay a portion if something were to happen while on Travel.

 

Car Insurance doesn't usually cover outside the U.S. either.

 

So I feel better paying for the Travel/Trip Cancellation/Evacuation/Medical policy, even if I never use it. I used to buy from cruiseline until a few years ago, when a major cruiseline went belly up and left folks stranded in Singapore (I think it was). One family was out $100,000 and stuck in Singapore:eek: Insurance didn't cover. Now I go to insure my trip dot com and see which policy fits my needs best.

 

I can't afford to self-insure a $6000 Med cruise or even a $2000 Pacific Northwest cruise. Now the $1100 12 day land trip around the U.S. I was willing to self-insure. Each circumstance is different and not all people are the same. We all have to do what we feel comfortable with.

[igraf]

Not true. I checked with Aetna and they will cover me while I travel. Worst case is I pay up front and then am reimbursed. In fact, my employer has medical coverage specifically tailored for employees stationed outside the USA.

 

Here is a bit from an Aetna web page:

 

What emergency coverage do I have while I am traveling?

We cover emergency care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – anywhere in the world. Generally speaking, an emergency is a situation when you could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate medical attention would result in serious jeopardy to your health, or if you are a pregnant woman, to the health of your unborn child. This definition may vary based on state regulations.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure where you are igraf but most U.S. Standard Medical Insurance carriers do not cover outside of the U.S. It is very rare coverage if it does.

 

I am on Medicare and was told it definitely WOULD NOT cover outside the U.S. but that my HMO Caremore might pay a portion if something were to happen while on Travel.

 

Car Insurance doesn't usually cover outside the U.S. either.

 

So I feel better paying for the Travel/Trip Cancellation/Evacuation/Medical policy, even if I never use it. I used to buy from cruiseline until a few years ago, when a major cruiseline went belly up and left folks stranded in Singapore (I think it was). One family was out $100,000 and stuck in Singapore:eek: Insurance didn't cover. Now I go to insure my trip dot com and see which policy fits my needs best.

 

I can't afford to self-insure a $6000 Med cruise or even a $2000 Pacific Northwest cruise. Now the $1100 12 day land trip around the U.S. I was willing to self-insure. Each circumstance is different and not all people are the same. We all have to do what we feel comfortable with.