Medjet Assist age 75-84

[knittinggirl]

One of use will be over 75 at the next renewal, the other not.  Can we still get the regular policy for both of us?   I think it's cheaper with the family plan.

[GeezerCouple]

49 minutes ago, knittinggirl said:

One of use will be over 75 at the next renewal, the other not.  Can we still get the regular policy for both of us?   I think it's cheaper with the family plan.

 

MedJetAssist is priced per person, by age.

If there is a "family plan", it would just be based upon the ages of each person.

 

We are in the process of dealing with the "age 75+" issue.

We got this most recent annual coverage just before DH's 75th birthday, so we have that one year before we need to deal with the medical underwriting.

(I'll still have the "regular" policy for a few more years.)

 

Here is the problem, however:

We usually start reservations waaaay in advance... sometimes up to 2 years in advance, to get the suite that we want on the sailing that we want.  (Much easier if a land stay with hotels.)

Also, we travel on premium (F or J) air with awards, so we try to grab those as soon as they open, usually about 1 year in advance.

Okay... so... that means that when we are starting to make the plans, we do NOT yet know if DH will be approved by MJA!  And we may not know until just before the trip, depending upon when the cruise starts, which could be a few days/weeks or months of when we'd need to start a new MJA policy.  For certain areas of the globe, the travel isn't possible "any week of the year".

 

We have NOT yet figured out how to deal with this.

If anyone has any hints, please post them here or send them to us at our personal email below (in signature section).

 

Many thanks!
 

GC

 

 

[knittinggirl]

We're in the same situation.  I'm going to extend our coverage w/ the 3-year renewal on the family plan.  We're also getting trip insurance, w/ pre-existing medical.  That way, we  can cancel a trip if the medical underwriting with medjet  gets annoying.  I hope they don't decide to put riders on coverage based on pre-existing problems.

Edited January 10, 2019 by knittinggirl

[GeezerCouple]

2 minutes ago, knittinggirl said:

We're in the same situation.  I'm going to extend our coverage w/ the 3-year renewal on the family plan.  We're also getting trip insurance, w/ pre-existing medical.  That way, we  can cancel a trip if the medical underwriting with medjet  gets annoying.  I hope they don't decide to put riders on coverage based on pre-existing problems.

 

What do you mean "We're also getting trip insurance, w/ pre-existing medical.  That way, we  can cancel a trip if the medical underwriting with medjet  gets annoying."

 

This is one of our concerns, especially once "cancellation penalties" start applying.

Would a regular travel policy pay IF the reason for cancelling was that MJA wouldn't issue a policy!??

 

I spoke with MJA very briefly, and they sent me the form to submit to one's physician.

My understanding is that there aren't "riders", but it's a "yes/no" decision about whether they will cover the person after the 75th birthday, once they've received the medical information.  But I could be mistaken, obviously.

 

I'd love to find out what some reasons were for MJA to reject someone.

I'm sort of assuming that "well controlled blood pressure" isn't going to be an exclusion, or they'd reject most older applicants, in which case, why would they bother with all of the medical underwriting expenses (which they don't charge for).

By age 75, most of us have had "this or that" in terms of medical histories.

 

So we are trying to figure out how to work things if we want to take a (pricey) trip in, say, January 2020.

We'd be in full penalty before we could get an answer from MJA.

 

We couldn't get a multi-year policy if it had more than the first year "past" DH's 75th b-day.  We got that one final year, just before his 75th.

Did you get other information about that?

 

Thanks!

 

GC

 

 

[Ep010835]

On 1/9/2019 at 7:14 PM, GeezerCouple said:

 

What do you mean "We're also getting trip insurance, w/ pre-existing medical.  That way, we  can cancel a trip if the medical underwriting with medjet  gets annoying."

 

This is one of our concerns, especially once "cancellation penalties" start applying.

Would a regular travel policy pay IF the reason for cancelling was that MJA wouldn't issue a policy!??

 

I spoke with MJA very briefly, and they sent me the form to submit to one's physician.

My understanding is that there aren't "riders", but it's a "yes/no" decision about whether they will cover the person after the 75th birthday, once they've received the medical information.  But I could be mistaken, obviously.

 

I'd love to find out what some reasons were for MJA to reject someone.

I'm sort of assuming that "well controlled blood pressure" isn't going to be an exclusion, or they'd reject most older applicants, in which case, why would they bother with all of the medical underwriting expenses (which they don't charge for).

By age 75, most of us have had "this or that" in terms of medical histories.

 

So we are trying to figure out how to work things if we want to take a (pricey) trip in, say, January 2020.

We'd be in full penalty before we could get an answer from MJA.

 

We couldn't get a multi-year policy if it had more than the first year "past" DH's 75th b-day.  We got that one final year, just before his 75th.

Did you get other information about that?

 

Thanks!

 

GC

 

 

 

Hi GC,  it sounds as though being able to purchase a MJA policy is a prerequisite for you in order to book a trip. If this is in fact the case and I’m not misunderstanding what I’m reading, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the reasoning behind this decision.

 

The reason I ask is that we have historically purchased a policy through Steve  for each of our trips that includes emergency evacuation but it’s clearly not a MJA policy. 

[GeezerCouple]

11 minutes ago, Ep010835 said:

 

Hi GC,  it sounds as though being able to purchase a MJA policy is a prerequisite for you in order to book a trip. If this is in fact the case and I’m not misunderstanding what I’m reading, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the reasoning behind this decision.

 

The reason I ask is that we have historically purchased a policy through Steve  for each of our trips that includes emergency evacuation but it’s clearly not a MJA policy. 

 

First, I'm still curious about what knittinggirl meant...

 

About MJA for us... yes, all of our regular travel insurance policies (also through Trip Insurance Store, always) do include "medevac".  However, those will get us - and this IS obviously important, no question - to what would probably be the nearest hospital that was "suitable" to care for the condition.  It needn't be "the best", or even "one of the best".

 

So with MJA, not only could we decide we want "better care", but we could decide... take us to OUR major teaching hospital, where all of our records are, the specialists know us, etc.  Plus, then the healthy spouse would be "home" rather than stuck in some foreign hotel alone.

 

Finally, MJA covers any hospitalization more than 150 miles from home, so it also covers us just in case there is some accident/illness during a business trip or to visit friends/family, right here in the USA, a trip we do NOT get insured...  We have quite a few of those business trips each year, and our regular health insurance will pick up any medical costs, and if emergency, it would be "in network" coverage, etc.  But... we'd still prefer to get "home".

So these trips get sort of "freebie" MJA coverage, given that we get the annual policy because of our vacations.

 

ETA:  We aren't definite about NOT going without MJA if it came to that, but it would be a factor.  And we are also checking with some of the MJA competition...

 

GC

Edited January 29, 2019 by GeezerCouple

[Ep010835]

3 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

First, I'm still curious about what knittinggirl meant...

 

About MJA for us... yes, all of our regular travel insurance policies (also through Trip Insurance Store, always) do include "medevac".  However, those will get us - and this IS obviously important, no question - to what would probably be the nearest hospital that was "suitable" to care for the condition.  It needn't be "the best", or even "one of the best".

 

So with MJA, not only could we decide we want "better care", but we could decide... take us to OUR major teaching hospital, where all of our records are, the specialists know us, etc.  Plus, then the healthy spouse would be "home" rather than stuck in some foreign hotel alone.

 

Finally, MJA covers any hospitalization more than 150 miles from home, so it also covers us just in case there is some accident/illness during a business trip or to visit friends/family, right here in the USA, a trip we do NOT get insured...  We have quite a few of those business trips each year, and our regular health insurance will pick up any medical costs, and if emergency, it would be "in network" coverage, etc.  But... we'd still prefer to get "home".

So these trips get sort of "freebie" MJA coverage, given that we get the annual policy because of our vacations.

 

ETA:  We aren't definite about NOT going without MJA if it came to that, but it would be a factor.  And we are also checking with some of the MJA competition...

 

GC

 

Very much as I was thinking about your reasoning. Solid. Makes perfect sense to me. I too have looked at the evacuation coverage within the Travel Insured policies we buy through Steve as being adequate but far from desirable. I drove around on the MJA website earlier today and even called to ask a question. You post was incredibly timely and helped me advance my thinking!

 

We are leaving next week on a short 10 day "Mexican Riviera" cruise so I'm thinking we'll be OK with our existing policy with Steve. In the spring however, we are off on a much longer Volga River cruise followed in a couple of months by a Mediterranean cruise. I'm thinking of timing our 3 year MJA renewal to coincide with the beginning of the Russian cruise. 

 

Many thanks. You've helped me justify spending the $ on a MJA renewal. The nice lady on the phone reminded me that they offer an AARP discount. Hoping that this also applies to a purchase through Steve. 

[GeezerCouple]

3 minutes ago, Ep010835 said:

 

Very much as I was thinking about your reasoning. Solid. Makes perfect sense to me. I too have looked at the evacuation coverage within the Travel Insured policies we buy through Steve as being adequate but far from desirable. I drove around on the MJA website earlier today and even called to ask a question. You post was incredibly timely and helped me advance my thinking!

 

We are leaving next week on a short 10 day "Mexican Riviera" cruise so I'm thinking we'll be OK with our existing policy with Steve. In the spring however, we are off on a much longer Volga River cruise followed in a couple of months by a Mediterranean cruise. I'm thinking of timing our 3 year MJA renewal to coincide with the beginning of the Russian cruise. 

 

Many thanks. You've helped me justify spending the $ on a MJA renewal. The nice lady on the phone reminded me that they offer an AARP discount. Hoping that this also applies to a purchase through Steve. 

 

That would be a "yes" about the AARP discount for MJA.

That's one (additional!) great thing about Steve and his team... they'll ASK if we have AARP (after all, they know our ages, right?), and so they tell us about the discount.  They don't make us guess, or "only if we already know or have the secret passcode" (just kidding!).

There was even one time when Steve started asking a few questions when I was calling to insure another trip.  By then, he knew us fairly well, from previous policies and also knowledge about some claims, and thus additional info - WE shared that with, btw.  Anyway, he suddenly said something like, "Do you really NEED travel insurance for this trip?  Don't you have regular insurance that would cover you for this?  He knows we also want coverage for trip costs.  Almost all of our claims have been for trip costs, due to medical events.  Very few claims have been for "medical costs" thus far.  (The one overseas hospital refused payment, even though we tried; they just had NO mechanism to collect money!  Meanwhile, we had unexpected week at a top hotel where were were stranded, DH while I was in hospital, and then a few days before I was cleared to travel.  Also, we came VERY close, that time, to calling MJA, but I'm glad we didn't, as we did get to do the final week of our trip, although I was too weak to do much other than soak in the beautiful scenery!)

My point was... Steve talked himself out of a sale, and that type of service is always noticed!

 

We are more timid than you.  We'd either start the MJA for that Mexican trip, or at least take out a one-trip policy.  But we tend to do that...  (This is the first year we aren't "ahead" in terms of travel insurance premiums paid, and claims received.  We'd love to continue "behind", of course...!)

 

GC

[Ep010835]

38 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

That would be a "yes" about the AARP discount for MJA.

That's one (additional!) great thing about Steve and his team... they'll ASK if we have AARP (after all, they know our ages, right?), and so they tell us about the discount.  They don't make us guess, or "only if we already know or have the secret passcode" (just kidding!).

There was even one time when Steve started asking a few questions when I was calling to insure another trip.  By then, he knew us fairly well, from previous policies and also knowledge about some claims, and thus additional info - WE shared that with, btw.  Anyway, he suddenly said something like, "Do you really NEED travel insurance for this trip?  Don't you have regular insurance that would cover you for this?  He knows we also want coverage for trip costs.  Almost all of our claims have been for trip costs, due to medical events.  Very few claims have been for "medical costs" thus far.  (The one overseas hospital refused payment, even though we tried; they just had NO mechanism to collect money!  Meanwhile, we had unexpected week at a top hotel where were were stranded, DH while I was in hospital, and then a few days before I was cleared to travel.  Also, we came VERY close, that time, to calling MJA, but I'm glad we didn't, as we did get to do the final week of our trip, although I was too weak to do much other than soak in the beautiful scenery!)

My point was... Steve talked himself out of a sale, and that type of service is always noticed!

 

We are more timid than you.  We'd either start the MJA for that Mexican trip, or at least take out a one-trip policy.  But we tend to do that...  (This is the first year we aren't "ahead" in terms of travel insurance premiums paid, and claims received.  We'd love to continue "behind", of course...!)

 

GC

 

Y'all are great! Love being here on the board with with you!!

 

Steve is my hero. 

 

I'm still wrestling with the timing of the MJA renewal. Whether or not to include next month's Mexico trip. I'm going to renew for 5 years so I'm wondering what trips the late winter/early spring of 2024 might include. Do I want coverage to expire in 2/2024 or 5/2024? Then again for this upcoming trip, the thought of being confined in a Mexican hospital with limited options for being transferred back to UTSW in Dallas. ..............Decisions, decisions....................😀