Travel Insurance For Us From Now On!

[abitaturbodog]

My family just returned from a fabulous cruise on the Costa Fortuna but it could've easily been ruined by medical issues and their costs. I have learned from this experience that I will purchase travel insurance from now on.

 

My 10 year old had just gotten stitches out of his knee prior to leaving. After 15 minutes on the slide (before we left Ft. Lauderdale) his knee began to open back up. After banging it on a table in the dining room that evening and playing in the pool the following day it completely re-opened! :eek:

 

We had some nurses in our roll call that gave us good advice and we decided that rather than taking him to the ship's doctor to get it re-stitched, we would just wrap the daylights out of it and let it heal from the inside-out. He's going to have an awesome scar to impress all the girls!

 

Then, I got strep throat. I've gotten it many times in the past and after suffering for over a day I was just about the drag myself to the ship's doctor, when a friend that we were traveling with said that she had brought a prescription for Amoxicillian with her. (She has an great doctor at home that wrote a prescription for her...just in case). After 2 doses of the medicine I was on the road to recovery. I actually just finished the prescription this morning!

 

Anyway, the reason for my rambling is that I never thought that I would need insurance. My family is relatively healthy and those type of things only happen to other people! Wrong! If I had to take my son to get re-stitched and myself to get treated for Strep, I'm sure our bill would have been way more than the insurance cost. So for now on, I'm not traveling without insurance.

[Pegs222]

Not that I do not agree with you on purchasing travel insurance as I always get it, but wouldn't your private insurance pay for going to the ships doctor?

[okgirl]

My family just returned from a fabulous cruise on the Costa Fortuna but it could've easily been ruined by medical issues and their costs. I have learned from this experience that I will purchase travel insurance from now on.

 

My 10 year old had just gotten stitches out of his knee prior to leaving. After 15 minutes on the slide (before we left Ft. Lauderdale) his knee began to open back up. After banging it on a table in the dining room that evening and playing in the pool the following day it completely re-opened! :eek:

 

We had some nurses in our roll call that gave us good advice and we decided that rather than taking him to the ship's doctor to get it re-stitched, we would just wrap the daylights out of it and let it heal from the inside-out. He's going to have an awesome scar to impress all the girls!

 

Then, I got strep throat. I've gotten it many times in the past and after suffering for over a day I was just about the drag myself to the ship's doctor, when a friend that we were traveling with said that she had brought a prescription for Amoxicillian with her. (She has an great doctor at home that wrote a prescription for her...just in case). After 2 doses of the medicine I was on the road to recovery. I actually just finished the prescription this morning!

 

Anyway, the reason for my rambling is that I never thought that I would need insurance. My family is relatively healthy and those type of things only happen to other people! Wrong! If I had to take my son to get re-stitched and myself to get treated for Strep, I'm sure our bill would have been way more than the insurance cost. So for now on, I'm not traveling without insurance.

 

Just be sure to purchase it within 2 weeks of making your 1st payment (deposit) on your cruise to have pre-existing conditions like your son's stitchs covered. :)

[Sea Island Lady]

Just be sure to purchase it within 2 weeks of making your 1st payment (deposit) on your cruise to have pre-existing conditions like your son's stitchs covered. :)

Not anymore!

 

You can get CSA Luxe up to and within 24 hours of your FINAL payment and it covers pre-existing conditions.

 

Had that been my son, I would not have taken a chance with his health. He could have (and may still) developed a staph infection from all the water "yuck" that may have passed from the pools to his open wound.

[cruisnpat]

Hope you and your son are both doing well.

[marktac]

Not that I do not agree with you on purchasing travel insurance as I always get it, but wouldn't your private insurance pay for going to the ships doctor?

 

Not necessarily. My HMO doesn't pay a nickel outside of US and Canada. Won't mention its name but it is big and its first and last letters are A---a.

 

As we've gotten a bit older we've recongnized that we are not as immortal as we once were. We buy it now through Insuremytrip as just another part of doing the cruise.

[mfs2k]

My family just returned from a fabulous cruise on the Costa Fortuna but it could've easily been ruined by medical issues and their costs. I have learned from this experience that I will purchase travel insurance from now on.

 

My 10 year old had just gotten stitches out of his knee prior to leaving. After 15 minutes on the slide (before we left Ft. Lauderdale) his knee began to open back up. After banging it on a table in the dining room that evening and playing in the pool the following day it completely re-opened! :eek:

 

We had some nurses in our roll call that gave us good advice and we decided that rather than taking him to the ship's doctor to get it re-stitched, we would just wrap the daylights out of it and let it heal from the inside-out. He's going to have an awesome scar to impress all the girls!

 

Then, I got strep throat. I've gotten it many times in the past and after suffering for over a day I was just about the drag myself to the ship's doctor, when a friend that we were traveling with said that she had brought a prescription for Amoxicillian with her. (She has an great doctor at home that wrote a prescription for her...just in case). After 2 doses of the medicine I was on the road to recovery. I actually just finished the prescription this morning!

 

Anyway, the reason for my rambling is that I never thought that I would need insurance. My family is relatively healthy and those type of things only happen to other people! Wrong! If I had to take my son to get re-stitched and myself to get treated for Strep, I'm sure our bill would have been way more than the insurance cost. So for now on, I'm not traveling without insurance.

 

According to your profile, you've taken 7 cruises so far... Factor in what the total cost of insurance would have been for all your cruises combined, for your whole family, and i bet it adds up to a lot more money than you would have paid for stitches and antibiotics.

[iamtrustworthy]

Not anymore!

 

You can get CSA Luxe up to and within 24 hours of your FINAL payment and it covers pre-existing conditions.

 

Hi Sea Island Lady,

 

Nice to run into you again. There's another company that covers pre-existing conditions until no later than 24 hours after your final payment. It's HTH & they have plan that's often less expensive than the CSA Luxe.

 

Go to www.google.com and look up " HTH trip protector plan description " - you'll find good info on it.

[marktac]

According to your profile, you've taken 7 cruises so far... Factor in what the total cost of insurance would have been for all your cruises combined, for your whole family, and i bet it adds up to a lot more money than you would have paid for stitches and antibiotics.

 

Yeah, but when you factor in the med-evac because of the blood infection the kid gets (hypothetically speaking), that insurance is looking pretty good right about now.

 

That is what insurance is all about, not the band-aids, but the big stuff that can max out all your cards at the same time in that little Belize clinic.

[okgirl]

Hi Sea Island Lady,

 

Nice to run into you again. There's another company that covers pre-existing conditions until no later than 24 hours after your final payment. It's HTH & they have plan that's often less expensive than the CSA Luxe.

 

Go to www.google.com and look up " HTH trip protector plan description " - you'll find good info on it.

 

That's good information I usually use CSA and just assumed that it would be lots more expensive to get a policy at the last minute that also covers pre-existing.

[roudy1]

Great information...and thank you for sharing. DH and I booked a cruise for 2/22/09 and dh has a pre-existing condition...and for the first time since we started cruising I failed to get insurance within the two week period...so will be checking out these sites....again thanks...

Char

[ruskatab]

I always buy the insurance and take antibiotics with us. I hope your son still had fun despite the cut opening back up.

[Sea Island Lady]

Hi Sea Island Lady,

 

Nice to run into you again. There's another company that covers pre-existing conditions until no later than 24 hours after your final payment. It's HTH & they have plan that's often less expensive than the CSA Luxe.

 

Go to www.google.com and look up " HTH trip protector plan description " - you'll find good info on it.

Hi! :)

 

I just did a comparison with CSA Luxe and the HTH Preferred (I think that's the name) and the HTH was $77 more than what I paid! ;)

 

BTW - I checked about my brothers insurance and they are covered for $8000 for two, instead of the just $4000 that was suggested. ;)

 

Thanks again for your help!

[iamtrustworthy]

Hi! :)

 

I just did a comparison with CSA Luxe and the HTH Preferred (I think that's the name) and the HTH was $77 more than what I paid! ;)

 

BTW - I checked about my brothers insurance and they are covered for $8000 for two, instead of the just $4000 that was suggested. ;)

 

Thanks again for your help!

 

Hi Sea Island Lady,

 

Good, I'm glad the CSA was correct! And the HTH is sometimes more & sometimes less. It has to do with how CSA prices their plans. Also the HTH Trip Protector plan is less than the Preferred.

[abitaturbodog]

Thanks for the advice on buying insurance and wel wishes for my son. He's doing great, his wound is still open but scabbed up pretty good. I think he's even going to be catcher in his baseball game tomorow.

 

My thinking was that we were very lucky that we didn't need the doctor on board, or have anything more serious happen. Like Marktac said, you never know when you might need that med-evac. I won't take any chances from now on.

[dolfansam]

My family just returned from a fabulous cruise on the Costa Fortuna but it could've easily been ruined by medical issues and their costs. I have learned from this experience that I will purchase travel insurance from now on.

 

My 10 year old had just gotten stitches out of his knee prior to leaving. After 15 minutes on the slide (before we left Ft. Lauderdale) his knee began to open back up. After banging it on a table in the dining room that evening and playing in the pool the following day it completely re-opened! :eek:

 

We had some nurses in our roll call that gave us good advice and we decided that rather than taking him to the ship's doctor to get it re-stitched, we would just wrap the daylights out of it and let it heal from the inside-out. He's going to have an awesome scar to impress all the girls!

 

Then, I got strep throat. I've gotten it many times in the past and after suffering for over a day I was just about the drag myself to the ship's doctor, when a friend that we were traveling with said that she had brought a prescription for Amoxicillian with her. (She has an great doctor at home that wrote a prescription for her...just in case). After 2 doses of the medicine I was on the road to recovery. I actually just finished the prescription this morning!

 

Anyway, the reason for my rambling is that I never thought that I would need insurance. My family is relatively healthy and those type of things only happen to other people! Wrong! If I had to take my son to get re-stitched and myself to get treated for Strep, I'm sure our bill would have been way more than the insurance cost. So for now on, I'm not traveling without insurance.

 

I work in an ER and we had a patient flown in from a country in South America. The patient had been on a cruise in South America and fell and broke her ankle in three places. The insurance paid for her to be taken care of in that country (two weeks in hospital), paid for a nurse to fly down there and bring her back on a private flight. Savings many 1,000s of dollars. After I heard her tale, I have bought insurance for each cruise.

 

I am glad I did for this cruise I am leaving for on Sunday. Up until a couple of hours ago, I was not sure if I was going to be able to go. Mom was just realed from the hospital after treatment for a brain aneurysm and one of the people I am traveling with had a health crisis too. She was just cleared to go today.

[Muumuu]

Seen just too many people needing to be taken off or flown off for treatment. And they were not all elderly either. I always get insurance for us and even my grandsons when they are with us.

[andnickali]

When I was on RC Liberty last year I had a nasty fall on the flow rider and thought for sure my ankle was broken. Well, it wasn't broken, but I still had to be on crutches for the rest of the cruise. I had travel insurance and submitted the claim to both my Aetna and the travel insurance. The Aetna paid their UCR (I have an HMO) and I submitted the co-pay $35 to the travel insurance and they paid that.

 

That being said- I do not get it for the $100 doctors visit- I get it in case I have to be shipped off the ship! A few weeks ago I had to have emergency surgery for my gallbladder and appendix- I could not imagine if I had been on a cruise (which is in two weeks). I would have had to leave the ship for service. And, even if I could make it to a stop and then book a commerical flight the cost would be outrageous. For our family the $125-$150 we pay is well worth the piece of mind.

[Sea Island Lady]

When I was on RC Liberty last year I had a nasty fall on the flow rider and thought for sure my ankle was broken. Well, it wasn't broken, but I still had to be on crutches for the rest of the cruise. I had travel insurance and submitted the claim to both my Aetna and the travel insurance. The Aetna paid their UCR (I have an HMO) and I submitted the co-pay $35 to the travel insurance and they paid that.

 

That being said- I do not get it for the $100 doctors visit- I get it in case I have to be shipped off the ship! A few weeks ago I had to have emergency surgery for my gallbladder and appendix- I could not imagine if I had been on a cruise (which is in two weeks). I would have had to leave the ship for service. And, even if I could make it to a stop and then book a commerical flight the cost would be outrageous. For our family the $125-$150 we pay is well worth the piece of mind.

I am surprised that your travel insurance came through. Most policies will not cover "extreme sports" and from what I have seen in videos, I consider the Flowrider extreme! :D Glad you are on the mend!

 

dolfansam = Have a wonderful cruise!

[mascara]

I'm sorry to hear of cruise-health-horror stories, it's always a bad day to have a vacation ruined by a health issue.

 

I really have to put in another vote for cruise insurance. I've NEVER bought it - my husband and I are healthy, and insured. However, I was supposed to take the NCL Jewel last February. Eight days out, my husband's work had an issue they could not handle in his absence. I realise this is not a "normal" covered event - the Lord spoke to me when I put the deposit on the cruise and I bought cruise insurance AND the "cancel for any reason" rider for an extra $44.00. I was refunded 50% from the cruise line because I cancelled eight days out, and the travel insurance covered 75% of the remainder, no questions asked. I paid $160 for the policy, I was refunded $554 by the insurance.

 

Insurance CAN be expensive. We have an upcoming cruise and also a separate trip to Alaska (we call it "hers and his" with a cruise then a fishing trip), which cost over $400 to insure with "cancel for any reason." However, as with all insurance it is a gamble and you pay for your piece of mind.

 

While the cost of insurance over seven cruises for the family above would probably be much more than the cost of the medical care required (and hope you don't need an air-lift to somewhere!), I highly doubt the majority of people are putting that premium away for "what if." If everyone did that - no one would ever need insurance!

 

Kerstin

[abitaturbodog]

Dolfansam--I hope your mom is doing well. That's pretty scary~

 

I hope that none of us need to use the insurance! But just in case, we will have it from now on. I'll be traveling with the warm-fuzzies!