CruiseCare - Medical Evacuation

[cruisewiththekids]

I am sailing on a Norway Fjords cruise with my elderly grandmother. She is in good health, but still am concerned about medical evacuation coverage. She wants to purchase the CruiseCare thinking that she'll be covered, but the coverage is only $25,000, and then $25,000 for repatriation, heaven forbid. That seems awfully low. But at her age, private travel insurance is so very expensive. And I'm not sure if the coverage will just take her to a hospital in Norway, or if it will pay to bring her home. If anyone can shed some light on what to do, it would be appreciated.

[Clarea]

Not sure if these sites will help you, but in case they do:

 

www.insuremytrip.com

 

www.squaremouth.com

 

www.quotewright.com

 

http://www.tripinsurancestore.com

[zombiehunter]

Hrmmm...how much preventative medicine does she use in the States? Lots of docs will do a stress test to check for possible blockages in the heart as a preventative similar to a mammogram. She'll have to walk/jog on a treadmill...but hey. Everything has its limitations mind you but it could be something to look into. Just drink plenty of water.

[krev]

I'd call the insurance company and get the answers directly from them. Ask opinions here and you'll get a lot of them! $25,000 does not sound like much if she gets seriously I'll or has an accident

 

 

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[cruisewiththekids]

I'd call the insurance company and get the answers directly from them. Ask opinions here and you'll get a lot of them! $25,000 does not sound like much if she gets seriously I'll or has an accident

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

I doubt anyone could tell me how much it would cost for evacuation, but that just doesn't seem like much. And only $10,000 for medical too. My understanding is Medicare won't pay outside the US, so that's something to consider as well. I think we'll probably just have to pay for the more expensive private policy just to be safe. I wish RCCL would offer something a little better, maybe even a tier of options so those who need more coverage could get it through them.

[Fetchpeople]

By all means, do not try to make a decision on your own about what policy to take. Deal with the professionals.

 

Check with one or more of the sellers listed in the e-mail above (I'm sure they all have 800 #). Describe to them what your needs are and what you want to insure for. You do NOT need to insure the trip itself, unless you want to.

 

You can get medical evacuation coverage to the closest suitable facility (insurer's choice) or to where you want to be taken, after being stabilized (your choice, but more expensive). Either way, you should, in my opinion, have at least $250,000 in coverage. Not that expensive.

[britty1]

We use travel guard, if you have costco it is really not that expensive also if you purchase before final payment pre existing conditions are covered.

[Steph123]

I received an email from insure my trip .com this week about travel insurance for seniors. I would give them a call, they are very knowledgeable about trip ins. I always buy ins thru them. Have a wonderful trip with your Grandmother. Also If possible buy it within 10 days of deposit to have the most choices as far as covering preexcisting (sp) conditions.

[DrD]

Hrmmm...how much preventative medicine does she use in the States? Lots of docs will do a stress test to check for possible blockages in the heart as a preventative similar to a mammogram. She'll have to walk/jog on a treadmill...but hey. Everything has its limitations mind you but it could be something to look into. Just drink plenty of water.

 

Cardiac stress testing for the screening of asymptomatic patients is generally NOT indicated or appropriate. Rare exceptions include patients at very high risk due based on risk factors, or certain high-risk occupations such as airline pilots. (paraphrased from udtodate.com)

 

The test is far more likely to lead to additional, unnecessary and invasive testing than it is to help.

[Pam]

Look into MedJet. A friend had to use them, and was incredibly impressed.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

We use travel guard, if you have costco it is really not that expensive also if you purchase before final payment pre existing conditions are covered.

 

The Travel Guard plan you mention above provides great coverage but can only be purchased if your cruise is booked through their travel agency.

[Mom.to.2]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that CruiseCare (what RCL pushes) covers only $10,000 in medical and $25,00 evacuation. While I don't have firsthand knowledge, my guess is you could sneeze and surpass those limits.

 

Based on widespread advice (here on CC & from my travel agent) I've always purchased travel insurance separately. The past several times, I've used the first link Clarea listed above and called their 1-800 number to discuss my specific needs with a person.

 

I agree with the advice to call your own medical insurance stateside first. You may have coverage outside of the US and not know it.

 

For example, my US health insurance covers 90% of costs incurred for emergency medical treatment abroad. I would be responsible for (and should have trip insurance to cover) the other 10%. Even knowing that, I personally wouldn't bother buying a travel plan that has a $10,000 medical limit. I can self-insure $10,000. What I can't self insure would be catastrophic illness or evacuation. I choose limits closer to $250,000 medical and $50,000+ evacuation.

 

I'm sure many people look at insurance differently, and buy coverage for more likely events (minor illness/injury) than catastrophic illness. Perhaps $10,000 coverage sounds like a lot to some people. It's all in your perspective I suppose.

[warbar]

Only thing I can say for sure is it will cost way more than 25k incase of a medi flight. For a 100 mile flight from the sticks of Oklahoma to OU medical center it was 37k last summer.

[krev]

Cardiac stress testing for the screening of asymptomatic patients is generally NOT indicated or appropriate. Rare exceptions include patients at very high risk due based on risk factors, or certain high-risk occupations such as airline pilots. (paraphrased from udtodate.com)

 

 

 

The test is far more likely to lead to additional, unnecessary and invasive testing than it is to help.

 

 

My husband is an airline pilot for one of the largest Canadian carriers and they don't have cardiac stress tests, just an ECG

 

 

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[stretchcruz]

Normally, if you don't buy the insurance within 2 weeks of initial deposit, preexisting conditions are NOT covered, even with the cruise line insurance. We always go with insure my trip dot com, and we look within the 2 weeks, we compare policies and what we need, and purchase what we feel is necessary. 2 years ago I had to cancel a river cruise 6 days before because of emergency gallbladder surgery and admittance to the hospital, we got back everything...cruise fares...we had booked FF miles and they charged us $150 each to put the miles back into our accounts, we got that back, we got back our Priceline hotes...everything. So check it all, the cruise line insurance may not cover Priceline hotels or FF miles or cancelled independent tours...

[Don Pedro]

The advantage of purchasing cruise care through RCCL is that the price of the insurance is based on the cost of the cruise. Most, if not all, of the other companies mentioned base their prices on the age of the applicant. The older you are the more you pay and I don't mean just a little more. Some of the costs are almost prohibitive.

[Mom.to.2]

My husband is an airline pilot for one of the largest Canadian carriers and they don't have cardiac stress tests, just an ECG

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

DH is a cardiologist and he agrees with DrD;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Erik101]

Hrmmm...how much preventative medicine does she use in the States? Lots of docs will do a stress test to check for possible blockages in the heart as a preventative similar to a mammogram. She'll have to walk/jog on a treadmill...but hey. Everything has its limitations mind you but it could be something to look into. Just drink plenty of water.

 

What the.....??? This response doesn't even come close to answering the OP's inquiry!

[Photofinish4]

I am sailing on a Norway Fjords cruise with my elderly grandmother. She is in good health, but still am concerned about medical evacuation coverage. She wants to purchase the CruiseCare thinking that she'll be covered, but the coverage is only $25,000, and then $25,000 for repatriation, heaven forbid. That seems awfully low. But at her age, private travel insurance is so very expensive. And I'm not sure if the coverage will just take her to a hospital in Norway, or if it will pay to bring her home. If anyone can shed some light on what to do, it would be appreciated.

 

O replied to this thread and entered but I do not see it anywhere??? It was quite lengthy so Ill send this to see if it posts be fore I respond again

[Photofinish4]

I am sailing on a Norway Fjords cruise with my elderly grandmother. She is in good health, but still am concerned about medical evacuation coverage. She wants to purchase the CruiseCare thinking that she'll be covered, but the coverage is only $25,000, and then $25,000 for repatriation, heaven forbid. That seems awfully low. But at her age, private travel insurance is so very expensive. And I'm not sure if the coverage will just take her to a hospital in Norway, or if it will pay to bring her home. If anyone can shed some light on what to do, it would be appreciated.

 

I have some personal experience with this topic. We booked a family cruise in 2011 to sail in Oct 2012. My mother in law died on that cruise and we learned a lot about insurance coverage. My mother in law was 85 and in fair health when we booked. In Sept she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She decided not to treat it as the cemo would have been to hard on her. The Dr. told her that many people choose to go on a family trip and spend as much quality time with family. We already had this cruise booked and Dr. advised that she should be fine as the cancer was in early stages. We took the trip and she was fine through the 5th day. Formal night and Family pictures and show. When she laid down for the night she was having difficulty breathing so we took her to the infirmary on board. They advised thagt her lungs were filling with fluid and she would have to get off the ship as soon as we docked in Halifax Nova Scotia in the morning. Ambulance was waiting at the pier. There were seven of us and we all got off. She was admitted to Hospital and I started working on Med Evac. We used the Cruise lines travel insurance RCCL Berekely Care. I quickly learnd that Med Evac did not apply as she was already at a treating facility. (READ tHE FINE PRINT) So I started working other angles to get her home. The hospital advised that Angel Flight just flew someone in and if we were interested we could get a discounted rate because they were already in town and we would not have to pay for them getting here. The discounted rate was $36,000 From Halifax to Southern Calif. We had a family meeting and decided to go for it. (It’s had to make those big decisions in a time of turmoil). It turned out that she refused to fly without a family member. They were going to pull the nurse and put my wife in that seat. The doctors were fine with that. I said that if you pull the nurse its no longer a Med Flight and why couldn”t we charter a private Jet so we could all fly together. They advised that they would sign off on that. I arranged for was able to locate a plane but before final arrangements the Dr advise that she could not fly at all as her lungs would not handle any flight. We then arranged for a motorhome to drive all of us home. Hurricane Sandy put a stop to that plan and the Dr was not real comfortable with it anyway as she would probably die in the middle of the trip and we would be held up in an unwitnessed death investigation. We decided to rent an apartment and wait it out. She died the day we moved into the apartment. That’s the story now for the coverage. We had trip interruption through RCCL Berkely Care. I already covered the MED EVAC issue.

RCCL sent a local rep to the Hospital to ensure that I had all contact numbers that I needed and a local contact if needed. All their offices on east coast were closed due to Hurricane Sandy so they gave me the Care Team contact in London. I must say that all my phone contacts with Berekely Care and RCCL were professional and supportive. Berkeley Care advised that they were a secondary policy and all medical claims needed to be submitted to her primary insurance first and anything they did not cover would be covered by them. They told me to keep track of our expenses for the trip interruption claim.

The bills were as follows. Ship infirmary $5,000 for treatment from 1am to 7am. We were not aware of this until we got home and canceled her credit cards. RCCL simply billed the card on file and did not let us know they did that. $1,200 for ambulance ride from pier to Hospital about 4 miles, $25,000 for the Hospital stay. Her primary insurance covered all of that 100% so we did not have to submit any of that to Berkeley Care. Upon her death Berkeley advised us to pick a local mortuary and they would handle to rest. We picked one and they covered all transportation from hospital to our mortuary of choice back home. This included body prep, embalming and a casket or shipping container. That all went very smoothly with no problems. The problems arose on the trip interruption portion. It turns out that Berkely Care limits the interruption payout to 1 and ½ times your original airfare. Well needless to say that was nearly maxed out with our return flights so they covered our return airfares, and a small portion of food, lodging, and car rental. We were able to get a voucher from the airlines for our missed return flights. After all of this my point is if we would have taken out a MEDJET Plan for Med Evac. I could have made one call. Chose a hospital of our choice back home and we would not have had to go through all of this, and she would have died at home. Needless to say we are taking out a Med Jet plan on our upcoming cruise. (http://www.medjet.com)

Hope this helps, John and Lynnea

[bouhunter]

Hrmmm...how much preventative medicine does she use in the States? Lots of docs will do a stress test to check for possible blockages in the heart as a preventative similar to a mammogram. She'll have to walk/jog on a treadmill...but hey. Everything has its limitations mind you but it could be something to look into. Just drink plenty of water.

 

The OP question was about INSURANCE:rolleyes:

[zombiehunter]

Cardiac stress testing for the screening of asymptomatic patients is generally NOT indicated or appropriate. Rare exceptions include patients at very high risk due based on risk factors, or certain high-risk occupations such as airline pilots. (paraphrased from udtodate.com)

 

The test is far more likely to lead to additional, unnecessary and invasive testing than it is to help.

 

I agree, but the OP made it sound like she's sick enough to warrant the thought or discussion. I'm not a doctor, I'm a gun on the internet using the handle zombiehunter...that should tell you a little bit about my qualifications ;)

[Coralc]

I have some personal experience with this topic. We booked a family cruise in 2011 to sail in Oct 2012. My mother in law died on that cruise and we learned a lot about insurance coverage. John and Lynnea

 

What an interesting and informative post, J&L. I'm sorry about your MIL, but I really appreciate the information that you shared. Thank you.

 

The cost for elderly family members is prohibitively expensive, unless we use the Cruise Care insurance. There are better plans on the 3rd party market, but they are based on age. The other downside, is that if you are sharing a cabin with elderly family member, everyone has to take Cruise Care.

 

We are looking at Medjet for ourselves. Mom has reached an age where she won't be going on any more cruises with us. :)

[Photofinish4]

What an interesting and informative post, J&L. I'm sorry about your MIL, but I really appreciate the information that you shared. Thank you.

 

The cost for elderly family members is prohibitively expensive, unless we use the Cruise Care insurance. There are better plans on the 3rd party market, but they are based on age. The other downside, is that if you are sharing a cabin with elderly family member, everyone has to take Cruise Care.

 

We are looking at Medjet for ourselves. Mom has reached an age where she won't be going on any more cruises with us. :)

I had not looked at the age requirement good point. We were considering insuring just trip by trip but for only 100 more we got year round coverage 395 for family plan year round. Thanks for the feed back

[jelayne]

So sorry for the loss of your loved one. What a difficult time yo experienced.

 

I strongly agree with you on MedJet. The peace of mind is well worth the cost and since it is a annual plan, not just coverage for a specific trip, you are covered for the 12 month period if you are more than 150 miles from home.