Cruise Insurance

[Cachecara]

"Please check what your health insurance covers. How do you know that you are not already covered if you need to be airlifted to a hospital? I have a feeling that many people who buy insurance are really not sure if they are already covered or not.

 

If I am driving in the middle of the Nevada desert, and I get in a car accident, then I am covered for air evactuation to an appropriate medical facility. If I am skiing at Lake Tahoe, and I have a terrible accident, I am covered for air evacuation. If I am on a cruiseship in the Caribbean, I'm covered for air evacutaion. Just about everyone I know has similar coverage outside the United States. If this is your main concern then you should at least check."

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for such sage advice. I have often read threads of this kind and finally decided to do exactly what you suggested above. Thankfully, we do have great healthcare coverage regardless of what country we are in--including airlift.

I'm sure there are many other other situations insurance would be a wise investment. But what other situation is so important when one least expects it? At least this won't be such a trauma if god forbid we ever should need it.

[FlightMedic555]

The most expensive item you can run into is medical evacuation. An air ambulance flight, coast to coast, in the US is easily about $30,000. From the Carribean a little more, from Europe and Asia between $45,000 and $60,000. Aside from missing the cruise due to flight problems this is the reason to consider the insurance.

[tuggers]

I, too, always use travel insurance but NEVER the X insurance. Now, I know X is a viable company but having been caught once in a cruise line going out of business and using their insurance, I learned there is a better way. More coverage and usually lower cost by going with an outside company.

My health insurance dropped evac out of country last year along with a $75 per month increase in premiums. Such a deal!!!

If you travel a lot ( I do 15 - 20 cruises a year) you can get a seperate evac policy to cover all your trips. So if you are willing to assume the other risks you can still cover this expense. My friend, who does 30+ cruises a year has this.

[ocngypz]

The best person to talk to is a claims administrator at your health insurance carrier.

 

My mother has three health insurance policies. Blue Cross, Medicare and Tricare. Even with all three, she still has to pay out of pocket for local ambulance services. I know.. I file the claims and pay the bills.

 

A bill for BLS (Basic Life Support) is $645 from the city ambulance. And that is for a 4 mile drive. And we pay huge city taxes every year for the priviledge!

[Sky Sweet]

The best person to talk to is a claims administrator at your health insurance carrier.

 

My mother has three health insurance policies. Blue Cross, Medicare and Tricare. Even with all three, she still has to pay out of pocket for local ambulance services. I know.. I file the claims and pay the bills.

 

A bill for BLS (Basic Life Support) is $645 from the city ambulance. And that is for a 4 mile drive. And we pay huge city taxes every year for the priviledge!

 

That is excellent advice, Ocngypzy, ...You are such an asset to cruise critic, and I learn so much from your posts :)

[tinker]

We always buy trip insurance and have used it twice out of our last four vacations.

I use http://www.tripinsurancestore.com as they have an 800 number and will help you decided what company to choose, depending on your circumstances.

 

Our medical does cover us internationally, but in October my husband had chest pains in Aruba and so comforting to be able to call the travel insurance company for advice and have a case worker assign a claim number, advise to take him to the hospital, offer to call daily to check on him and ask if a wheelchair needed to be arranged at the airport.

Our medical insurance paid the hospital bill (three hours in the emergency ward on an IV with bloodwork and an EKG was only $396!!!) but we had to front the money and get reimbursed.

The trip insurance paid our out of pocket prescription cost and taxi transportation. Again, the most valuable part was having someone to call when in a worrisome situation. They determined there was nothing seriously wrong.

Travel insurance is more than just for medical, but as others said, the evacuation can be extremely costly, and it will cover you if the trip needs to be cancelled after final payment has been made.

Cost is usually only $40 to $75 per person and the piece of mind it provides is priceless.

[elsje]

We always buy travel insurance but never through the cruise lines. We recently spend $405 for our 16 day cruise and 4 land days, so a total of 20 days. I am 52 and my mother-in-law is 81 who has medicare and medicare will not cover outside the US. My health insurance will cover, but my out-of-pocket deductible is $1000 when I am not in my network location.

I ALWAYS buy within 15 days of my deposit this way I am covered for pre-exisiting health conditions as well. We had booked a Trans Atlantic on Princess for April 15th but had to cancel before final payment was due and we switched to the May 6th Trans Atlantic on the Galaxy. We were able to change the dates on our insurance by contacting them and let them know if the trip cost had changed in case we had to pay more.

 

I would not go with out ANY insurance.

 

Els ;)

[alpal1993]

This will be my 18 cruise and first time buying insurance.After reading this thread I decided it would be most benificial.

1 Flying in morning of the cruise

2 cover lost luggage

3 air lifting and medical expenses

Thanks for all the tips.I feel better now.