cruise insurance

[lvnc327]

Interested in knowing what type/company do you use for travel insurance. We are interested in purchasing travel insurance yearly instead of each  individual cruise. Any recommendations? Has anyone used Emergency Assistance Plus?  

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, lvnc327 said:

Interested in knowing what type/company do you use for travel insurance. We are interested in purchasing travel insurance yearly instead of each  individual cruise. Any recommendations? Has anyone used Emergency Assistance Plus?  

This is the last place you should be looking for insurance advice. What I need and what you need may be vastly different things. So....

 

Start with a broker like insuremytrip.com. Be prepared to explain your needs, preferences and means (e.g., PECs [as defined by travel insurers instead of medical insurers], current medical coverage for out-of-country emergencies/treatments, etc).

 

FWIW, know that "comprehensive" travel policies' pricing is primarily related to medical and evacuation (NOTE: field rescue at sea by a Coast Guard is NOT "evacuation") issues. The travel cancellation/interruption part of the price is relatively small. But, it gets you far better coverage than is available via your credit card perks.

 

And most (if not all) comprehensive policies are not yearly. Travel medical and/or evacuation can be annual (e.g.,GeoBlue for Medical and MedJet Assist for evacuation). But, annual trip cancel/interrupt policies  (other than the limited amount in some travel-savvy CCs) are a very rare offering.

 

For our needs (Medicare folks), we are fortunate that our CalPERS Medicare Supplement insurance converts to their Basic coverage the minute you step foot outside of the US. Nonetheless, we still purchase a comprehensive policy with PEC waivers available for policies bought as late as the cruise final payment date (e.g., Nationwide). We generally get near minimum medical and medevac limits to keep the premium price down. But we do that because all we need medically is the out-of-network extra charges covered and we have a MedJet Assist annual membership for medical evacuation. For trip interrupt/cancel, we look for better payout limits since we do considerably longer/premium cruises that exceed our CC travel perk limits.

 

So, for our medical, evacuation and trip cancel/interrupt, there are four parts to the coverage: Convertible Medicare Supplement, Medical Evac membership, CC trip protection and a "lower end" comprehensive travel policy with the kind of benefits that dovetail with the other coverages (which is yet another reason why particular company recommendations are minimally helpful).

 

Bottom line: Our strategy "sort of" minimizes our travel insurance costs while closing any/all loopholes in coverage. I say "sort of" because comprehensive travel policies for geezers are not cheap (figure 10%+\- of trip cost If age is 70s). 

 

Some folks will suggest "self-insuring" (particularly if they've got good medical coverage). They're prepared to "eat" trip cancel/interrupt losses. This may work for a "mass market" 5 day "boat ride from Miami. But, a "30 day/$30k" intercontinental cruise is a very different animal. And then, there's still evac  coverage to consider! 

 

In any case, contact a broker - at least to familiarize yourself with this complex subject.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Flatbush Flyer

[Host Kat]

6 hours ago, lvnc327 said:

Interested in knowing what type/company do you use for travel insurance. We are interested in purchasing travel insurance yearly instead of each  individual cruise. Any recommendations? Has anyone used Emergency Assistance Plus?  

 

@lvnc327

 

Howdy and welcome back to the Cruise Critic boards!   I see it has been awhile since you have posted.

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask a Cruise Question forum that is for general questions concerning cruising. 👍 Since your thread concerns travel insurance, I have moved your thread to the Cruise/Travel Insurance forum where it will be on-topic.

 

Please browse through the thread titles on this new forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that will be of interest to you. 

 

Also, be sure to check out the Q&A: Cruise Insurance w/ Steve Dasseos of the TripInsuranceStore.com June 2020 at the top of this forum.

 

I hope this will be helpful and glad to have you back aboard Cruise Critic! 

  

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat 

[Hlitner]

I will address a question to the OP.  There are two basic types of annual policies,  1.  Annual Travel Medical policies- which cover medically related issues and will often include some kind of medical evacuation coverage.  and 2.  Annual Trip Insurance which cover some medical and also give some coverage for trip cancelation and/or interruption.    And then you have the issue of Cancel for a legitimate reason (i.e. health, death, etc) vs Cancel for Any reason.

 

There is often a policy to meet just about any "want" but at a price.  The more peace of mind you want from insurance the more you will pay.  In a perfect world folks would insure everything for everything and pay nothing :).  But it does not work that way.  We have often "preached" that folks should evaluate their own "wants/needs," budget, risk tolerance and then act accordingly.  What is good for me may be totally unacceptable to you.  Because we travel at least 6 months a year (pre COVID) we purchased an annual Travel Medical Policy (with $250,000 of medical coverage that drops to $100,000 at age 70) and then rely on a major credit card, that provides $10,000 per person cancelation/interruption insurance (for good cause) to give us some coverage for that stuff.  Total cost per year (until COVID) was $450 for the medical (total cost for 2) plus the annual fee for the high-end credit card.

 

So, my question to the OP is what are you looking to get?  Yes, there are annual policies.  But to us the bigger issue then cancelation is whether a policy offers medical/evacuation coverage if one gets COVID!  My liability for cancelation is only the cost of the trip (which I intended to pay anyway) but my liability for medical  is unlimited.  I am less concerned about a few thousand dollars for the cost of a trip then the possible $100,000 plus if one faces a major medical problem.

 

Hank

[LocoLoco1]

A fellow cruiser in 2017 became somewhat ill and simply flew Business Class with his Meds in a handbag from Tahiti to LAX; thence a Taxi ASAP to Cedar-Sinai Hospital. That might be MY plan if it ever comes to that.