Trip Insurance Vs Medical Ins

[snoopy5386]

We are going on a cruise to the Northeast and Canada in a couple of weeks and I am looking at purchasing insurance for this trip. We will drive to the port we are just a few hours away, so no airfare, no hotels, no rental cars to worry about. Pricing plans on insuremytrip and seeing that a full trip insurance policy is around $200-300 for my family. However if I search just a "medical" policy the cost drops to $30-50. All the plans include medical, dental and evacuation coverage which is what I am most concerned with and some still offer trip interruption and baggage coverage. In this situation, what's the advantage of spending $200 more dollars for the bigger policy?

[klfrodo]

The advantage?  

The full comprehensive policy covers you from the time you lock the front door until you return and unlock your front door.

Maybe you get involved in a car wreck and miss the cruise. I was just involved with a 6 hour highway completely shut down due to an earlier accident.

 

However, even though I fly to my cruise ports, I still self insure the comprehensive portion. Since the price of my policy is the same whether I choose a cruise price of $1 or $500, I insure for $500 and get the medical, evac, & repatriation coverage.

[Luckiestmanonearth]

Sometimes it just comes down to how much of a financial blow you can sustain.

Of course the biggest blow would be medical costs in a foreign nation that would cripple most people.

But if you paid $2,000 for a cruise for example, probably not life changing money (so how much would it be worth to protect that investment)

 

In my case, I would worry more about the medical versus the cost of the trip

Edited July 6, 2019 by Luckiestmanonearth

[terry&mike]

I agree with the last post, people need to insure what is important to them. We've always lived by the code that "insurance is only to be used for the things you can't recover yourself from". We don't insure costs of trip or cancelling the trip, as that is money we can afford to be out, or we wouldn't be taking the trip in the first place. We insure things where the numbers can skyrocket, such as medical and evacuation. But I think everyone needs to make their own decisions in this regard. 

[snoopy5386]

Thanks all - here's the rub - we didn't pay for the cruise at all, a dear friend did. So I'm not even sure how trip insurance would work in that case if say we missed the boat. Would he get reimbursed?

From a personal standpoint I'm more concerned with medical coverage first, and then trip interruption (in case we miss the ship initially or later down the line, but also realize this is a very very small chance) and baggage coverage (again small chance our bags fall into the ocean or something). Can we afford the extra $200? Sure. But how much benefit would it be to us personally in this case?

We always get trip insurance and I have had to use it once (cruised during Hurricane Matthew) so I am a believer in insurance. Just this trip seems very low risk (our drive to port is 4 hours or so) compared to others we have taken.

[Hlitner]

Keep in mind that most "Trip Insurance" policies include provisions for a full or partial refund of unused cruise fare due to cancellation or trip interruption.  Most medical policies do not include cancellation/interruption benefits..but focus strictly on medical (and possibly evacuation) expenses.

 

Hank

[cherylandtk]

On 7/6/2019 at 10:27 AM, snoopy5386 said:

From a personal standpoint I'm more concerned with medical coverage first, and then trip interruption (in case we miss the ship initially or later down the line, but also realize this is a very very small chance) and baggage coverage (again small chance our bags fall into the ocean or something). Can we afford the extra $200? Sure. But how much benefit would it be to us personally in this case?

Well, medical is cheap to purchase, as you have noted, but invaluable if needed.

 

Trip interruption is ending the trip early for the same reasons as a covered cancelation before you start.  Usually medical or death.  The examples you gave, missing the ship, are trip delays or missed connection, not interruption.  Depends on the policy as to what delays they cover, but  it is usually limited in both hours of delay and what they reimburse.  Read carefully, most policies won’t pay much and thus are of limited value.

 

Baggage coverage is also limited in policy definitions to stated dollar limits.

 

Since 2 out of the 3 things you mention are limited coverage in comprehensive policies, you are probably better off just purchasing medical coverage.  If you will list the policy and your state of residence, one of us can tell you exactly what those limits are for your $200.