Another Travel Insurance Thread - Please Help if you Can....

[sail7seas]

We are not 65 so not on Medicare.

Our health insurance says it pays world wide but we've never tested it.

We have MedJet Assist Coverage by yearly policy that pays for medical evacuation coverage.

 

We have not bought travel insurance for our last 60+ cruises and have been extremely fortunate to have never needed it.

We are more than willing to self insure for trip cancellation but as we get older, I get more uneasy about not having medical coverage I know will pay if we break a leg in Curacao (for example).

 

So, please help if you can.

We booked a cruise Friday so are within 'previous condition' window and want to investigate your favorite 'other than cruise line' insurance.

 

Would you share with me which coverage you recommend for someone who does not want duplicate coverage for medical evacuation, doesn't care about lost luggage or missed ports. I just want to know we have medical coverage as PRIMARY and hopefully your experience in dealing with the company.

 

I am aware of insuremytrip.com and will compare etc

 

Thanks if you can/will help.

[CowPrincess]

If your or DH are employed and have benefits, check the insurance provided through the employer .... we have surprisingly good out-of-country travel coverage through DH's employer, though no one except us uses it!

[sail7seas]

If your or DH are employed and have benefits, check the insurance provided through the employer .... we have surprisingly good out-of-country travel coverage through DH's employer, though no one except us uses it!

 

Thanks. :)

 

I do not work outside our home and DH is self-employed.

[CowPrincess]

Oh darn!

[swalm22]

We to have a medical insurance but what you have to check is the area and the max. cost it covers.

 

In our case I feel it covers it little to low so therefore for sure we take a travel insurance which also cover medical help, this should be not to expensive.

 

The most expensive insurance is for the trip cancellation which in fact you better take it, just think what will be happen if one of you get sick special in this time with this Mexican flu and other virus.

 

My advice don't save money on insurance.

[sail7seas]

Trip cancellation coverage is not our primary concern. We have saved so many thousands of dollars through the years of not paying all those premiums that now, while we would not like it, we are willing to absorb that. We are most concerned about medical coverage out of country.

 

I am looking at TravelEx Lite.

Anyone have experience with them?

Can you write Primary Medical coverage with them and only cover those parts of the trip you want insured or do you have to take medical evac even though we have excellent coverage for that? Were we booking TravelEx Lite, we would take the trip cancellation coverage but it is not our principal concern.

 

Thanks.

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Sail I have not heard of TravelEx Lite

But the company I work for sells Tavel Guard and I have purchased it in the past. The coverage is quite good for the type of things you are wanting it for.

 

My recent cruises I purchased HAL's Plat. insurance but my need was if I needed to cancel last minute. HAL's Plat Insurance does not cover a high enough coverage for any type of medical.

 

Everyone's needs are different so that is why it is good to shop around. The cruise line's insurance is not always the best choice.

[CowPrincess]

S7S, check with the provider of your primary medical insurance. Sometimes it is easiest and best to work with insurer providers you already have -- you might be able to add out of country coverage to your existing policy as a yearly item at a better rate than insuring through another on a trip by trip basis.

 

Also, in Canada, we have some credit cards that provide medical coverage IF you use the card to pay for the trip. I don't think any that we carry have that feature, but some do, IIRC.

[Sprocket]

You might want to check with your own insurance as to whether or not you have a lifetime limit on coverages. While I realize insurance in Canada is different than that of the US, when I checked I felt the lifetime limit was too low for us.

So its possible that we are overinsured when we travel now, but from what I've read on these boards one evacuation would have probably wiped out any future coverage for us.

[TMWeddle]

Different companies are reviewed on http://www.travelinsurancereview.net and here is a comparison site: http://www.squaremouth.com

 

I'm going through this process right now - will probably decide tomorrow.

 

Which cruise did you book this time?

[sail7seas]

I've sent a message to inquire if we can write a policy that covers only what we want and doesn't force us to duplicate coverage we already have. Hope I get a timely response.

 

Of course, if can't get good service while writing the policy, it would speak a lot as to service we'd get if we had to make a claim. :eek:

 

 

Thank you to all trying to help.

 

What applies for Canada is not the same as U.S. Seeing as we live in U.S., I have to work with what applies here. :)

 

We have excellent health insurance. But though I've been told we are covered out of country, I'll feel better with primary payer medical travel insurance. Somehow, I think we've pushed our luck going on so many cruises and being so fortunate for so long.

 

 

 

 

[san diego sue]

We also felt like we never wanted to buy travel insurance. Our Medical Ins. covers us all over the world however, we have to pay and wait for reimbursement. In the event of medical evacuation (Helicopter etc), the cost is probably very high.This happened to friends of ours, taken off ship by helicopter.

 

Prior to a 32 day cruise this spring, my husband suddenly became very ill. Probably would have canceled and lost the cost of a very expensive trip. Personally, the loss didn't bother me as much as my husband's illness. Since we were in 100% penalty phase, decided to not cancel until the very end. Two days before the trip, my husband decided we should go. He spent more time in our cabin , rested, missed a couple of great ports but still was glad we made the trip.Had we had the travel insurance, we would have cancelled.

We have booked two trips since then and did buy the insurance. We booked through a well known Warehouse membership store that has travel agency. They sell very inexpensive insurance at a fraction of what the cruise lines charge. Being an executive membership of the store , we get double of the coverage.Cost for a seven day cruise was $30.00 each, and 11 day cruise was $40.00 each. Really cheap.

We have cruised over 50 cruises and never previously considered insurance.My husband used to say the cost of it could get us another cruise, so why waste the money.

[sail7seas]

Great post, Sue. Happy your husband was able to make the trip though not able to fully enjoy it.

 

For years, we have had medical evacuation coverage. We buy MedJetAssist policy that renews annually. It is one of the very few which permits evacuation to hospital of your choice.

 

I am mostly interested in medical abroad coverage ad would probably buy trip cancellation/interruption.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

[sail7seas]

Well, this is interesting.

 

I mentioned above I wrote to inquire about possible policies. I received a reply e-mail within five minutes. It stated that all policies that covered trip cancellation coverage required me to buy medical evacuation.

 

I wrote again and asked if they had no policy which covered medical and skip the trip cancellation.

 

Immediate response again which is very impressive.

However, after this back and forth correspondence, I learned that despite the fact we have MedJetAssist and don't need additional evacuation coverage, there is no travel policy one can buy that does not include it. The worst part is that what we would be forced to buy would almost assuredly not permit us to select the hospital to which we wanted to be taken.

 

We have the choice of paying premium for duplicate (and inferior) coverage in order to get medical or not writing insurance from any of their companies ..... at least according to the correspondence I've had from insuremytrip.com.

 

 

Sue.... I shall be looking into your suggestion of where to buy coverage.

 

 

[mudscraper]

Hi Sail

 

If by chance you have Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance,this is the info they gave me when I called them to inquire about overseas coverage. The wife and I are both retired and not of Medicare age. We each have our own BC/BS policies from former employers.

 

We are both covered worldwide. They sent me a letter stating : Through our program BlueCard Worldwide,members traveling or living abroad can receive inpatient,outpatient, and professional services from healthcare providers worldwide.

 

BC/BS provided two phone numbers for assistance in finding affiliated providers while out of the country. 1800-810-2583 and if the area you are calling from out of the country is unable to dial toll free numbers, call 1-804-673-1177.

 

Claims for services rendered outside of the U.S. will need to be submitted on the International Claim Form (://www.bcbsil.com/PDFinternational-claim-form.pdf

 

Contact BC/BS for further info on the BlueCard Worldwide program.

 

 

 

Rich

[cp556]

Sail---

 

I think you're right that most travel insurance policies bundle in emergency evacuation/repatriation with the medical package.

 

We've had great experiences with TravelInsured (aka TravelInsured International). FAST payment and very helpful/friendly phone staffers. Look at travelinsured dot com ... there's info on the Medical Protection plan. Interestingly, the minimum length of travel is 15 days... they also have a Comprehensive plan.

[donaldsc]

Have you checked out InsureMytrip.com?

 

DON

[LVSue]

When we were both employed, DH and I never got medical insurance when traveling abroad, and were always reimbursed for medical expenses on return. Key word being reimbursed. And amazingly they always took our word on the exchange rate. So perhaps you were not just lucky. I suspect your primary insurance is sufficient.

 

Since hitting 65, we always get travel insurance (Access America and Travel Guard), but as you point out all-inclusive: trip cancellation, delay, med-evac and med expenses.

[greatexpectations]

We own a vacation rental villa on St. John and after much research recommend CSA trip insurance to all our guests; you can get a free, no obligation quote to compare with other insurance companies at http://www.tripinsure.com

[fann1sh]

Sail, even though I'm Canadian, there's a legal issue that applies to insurance everywhere. It's "subrogation". If you Google it, you might have difficulty with the legal-babble (or maybe not - but as an ex-lawyer Wiki's "explanation" made my head hurt!) So, here's a not very accurate summary.

 

When you have more than one insurance company that could be involved in paying a claim, they have to sort out who's responsible for paying what. With primary medical coverage, evacuation coverage, and trip coverage, they will figure out who is A - who is B - who is C. A pays, then collects all/part from B, who then collects all/part from C.

 

If your world wide primary coverage is very good, it may turn out (if you make a claim) your current coverage would have paid everything anyway. You may have "wasted" your money on the extra insurance.

 

Confidence you are bullet-proof is definitely worth something. However, Cow Princess was not wrong about working with your primary insurer. Since your husband is self employed, it's possible he has an insurance agent/broker, and can discuss the hypothetical broken-leg-in-Curacao to see if you have gaps/limits. But, if you would have to deal with an energy-sapping call center, and speak to multiple supervisors to get a question answered and then with a hundred qualifications.....go ahead and make yourself "bullet proof", buy the insurance for the peace of mind. Usually subrogation is figured out without a lot of problems, but sometimes companies fight over who pays what, and the claimant's money is delayed. Lawyers get to see the "sometimes", which make us all believers in Murphy's Law.

 

Hope THIS "explanation" didn't make your head hurt. :o

[TMWeddle]

It looks to me that you can pick coverage options for just medical at squaremouth.com. Besides all the comprehensive choices there is a section for just medical where they list different companies.

[bellebaby]

Hi, Sail

 

Take a look at this policy offered by TravelGuard on it's website:

 

http://buy.travelguard.com/tgi2/proc/launch.aspx?br=tgdirect&__utma=1.1402700732.1248188082.1248188082.1248188082.1&__utmb=1&__utmc=1&__utmz=1.1248188082.1.1.utmccn=(direct)|utmcsr=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&arc=000329&st=22&cn=1&dn=1&pcode=PNG&plan=17816&prc=007814

 

Although it includes evacuation coverage, it is very reasonably priced including $25,000 of PRIMARY medical coverage. Does not include trip cancellaton coverage.

 

This policy is not offered through insuremytrip.com

 

Don't know if it will work for you, but take a look.

 

B

[sail7seas]

Thank you. I'm off to check out both of these suggestions as well as a policy I heard about from Access America.

 

[mamaofami]

Sail, have you called American Express travel ?

Also, can you et a letter of confirmation from your insurance carrier that they cover you out of the country?

[sail7seas]

Sail, have you called American Express travel ?

 

Also, can you et a letter of confirmation from your insurance carrier that they cover you out of the country?

 

 

We are AmEx Platinum but their coverage isn't suitable for what I am seeking. I didn't like the answers to some specific questions I asked. Not to say it isn't good/fine for many or even most but it isn't just what I am seeking.

 

Thanks.