Best low cost no frills health insurance

[COcruise]

Hi! I’m looking for recommendations for a low cost no frills health insurance for our two week cruise next month. We don’t need trip insurance (our credit card includes that along with many other items). I literally just want health coverage for a serious illness abroad (maybe up to a few hundred thousand) and medivac (maybe 500k). We’re super healthy in our 20s but have seen friends have injuries abroad resulting in a medivac. any recommendations? I hate to pay for everything when I don’t need it and can’t find a place I can build my own plan. Thanks in advance!

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, COcruise said:

Hi! I’m looking for recommendations for a low cost no frills health insurance for our two week cruise next month. We don’t need trip insurance (our credit card includes that along with many other items). I literally just want health coverage for a serious illness abroad (maybe up to a few hundred thousand) and medivac (maybe 500k). We’re super healthy in our 20s but have seen friends have injuries abroad resulting in a medivac. any recommendations? I hate to pay for everything when I don’t need it and can’t find a place I can build my own plan. Thanks in advance!

 

Try calling a travel insurance broker such as 

 

www.TripInsuranceStore.com

 

but CALL them, don't just read the online summaries.  Insurance is a place where the fine print matters.

 

They'll explain a choice of policies for your needs.

Chances are you won't be able to cover pre-existing conditions, but hopefully at your ages, you don't have any yet.

Next time, for best choice of policies and probably lowest costs, get the insurance within a *few* days of the *first/initial* deposit, or at the least, within 24 hours of final payment (defined narrowly).

 

GC

[klfrodo]

If you use the above advice,, all you’ll have to do is insert the “Trip Cost” as $499.00. (There is no difference in cost of insurance whether you say $1 or $500. The next price jump is $501 tp $1000)

So, anyway, your total cancellation or trip delay or anything else is maxed out at 100% Trip Cost,, while you’re medical and evacuation coverage stays the same amount for the policy you’ve chosen. ($250000/$500000)

[Hlitner]

You might try looking at GeoBlue's single trip coverage.  How does about $30 for a one week policy that gives you 1 million or medical (no deductables) and $500.000 of emergency evac.   This is just one example of how inexpensive some medical policies can be...especially for those who are young and healthy.  It is only when you start adding various other things like cancellation and delay that the premiums soar.  You can buy their policies directly online or through various brokers.

 

Hank

[RJ2002]

Another travel insurance broker site for shopping and contact is insuremytrip.com.  They maintain longer business hours for phone/chat availability, particularly on the weekend.  Tripinsurancestore is only open 5 hours on Saturdays and 2 hours on Sundays, whereas insuremytrip is open 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday.  Just FYI.  

[buggins0402]

4 hours ago, RJ2002 said:

Another travel insurance broker site for shopping and contact is insuremytrip.com.  They maintain longer business hours for phone/chat availability, particularly on the weekend.  Tripinsurancestore is only open 5 hours on Saturdays and 2 hours on Sundays, whereas insuremytrip is open 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday.  Just FYI.  

But, because TripInsurance Store is a small shop, there is more quality control regarding the answers given by the person on the other end of the line.  

 

I recently decided to buy a comprehensive policy for a higher cost trip. I didn’t want to cover the whole trip cost, just enough to ease the hurt if we had to cancel.  But, we were well past initial payment. All the policies that have a pre existing exclusion, purchased for final payment, require that all prepaid costs be insured.  The solution was to cover just me  (who has no pre existings). A cancellation would still be covered (just my trip expenses) if it was due to my husband (has pre-existing condition) being unable to travel. The medical limit on the policy was too low to insure my husband. But, for me it’s fine, because my regular health insurance would cover the high end (but, not the low end because it has a high deductible).  We will buy a separate health only policy for my husband.  If I have a health issue that causes cancellation, we are fully covered...by either this policy or the Chase Reserve Card. 

 

I would not have trusted a call center person from the other broker to tell me if this would work.

[RJ2002]

32 minutes ago, buggins0402 said:

But, because TripInsurance Store is a small shop, there is more quality control regarding the answers given by the person on the other end of the line.  

 

I recently decided to buy a comprehensive policy for a higher cost trip. I didn’t want to cover the whole trip cost, just enough to ease the hurt if we had to cancel.  But, we were well past initial payment. All the policies that have a pre existing exclusion, purchased for final payment, require that all prepaid costs be insured.  The solution was to cover just me  (who has no pre existings). A cancellation would still be covered (just my trip expenses) if it was due to my husband (has pre-existing condition) being unable to travel. The medical limit on the policy was too low to insure my husband. But, for me it’s fine, because my regular health insurance would cover the high end (but, not the low end because it has a high deductible).  We will buy a separate health only policy for my husband.  If I have a health issue that causes cancellation, we are fully covered...by either this policy or the Chase Reserve Card. 

 

I would not have trusted a call center person from the other broker to tell me if this would work.

 

IMO, the size of a business does not necessarily correlate with quality control.  And, per insuremytrip's website, all of their licensed representatives are located at their office in Warwick RI.

 

Bottom line though,  we are all fortunate to have various resources to turn to for travel insurance needs - big or small. 🙂

 

And, we also value all the great benefits of our Chase Reserve card.  Good choice!  👍