How many risk No insurance when cruising

18 cruises, no insurance, including several T/A's. I have private medical insurance. If I miss one now and get hung with the bill, I am still way ahead. The price of cancel for any reason insurance makes self insurance a very reasonable alternative. There may come a time when health issues or some other factors come into play, but for now, this is my choice

If you had to pay upwards of $50,000 for hospitalization and medivac from a third world country how would your numbers come out? How many cruises does this equate to? At an average cost of $350 for a comprehensive package works out to 142 cruises .

We have annual travel medical and annual MedJet. We travel quite a lot, not all on cruise ships.

We self insure for travel costs.

We have MEDJET also, but never travel with ins.period.

I don't purchase extra insurance because I have what I need already. I have travel interruption, travel cancellation, and lost luggage coverage through my Chase Sapphire rewards card. I also have a lot of emergency coverages and assistance such as medical evacuation through my work's group term life insurance. And my medical insurance will reimburse me for procedures abroad.

Anything else that might not be covered (if anything), I choose to self-insure. Meaning, the chance that I would lose money (and how much that would be) is less than I would pay for the many cruises I plan to take in my lifetime.

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We never got insurance when we were younger but it's a must now. Not only are we 70 and 71 but we have mothers in their 90's. We are in good health, but you just never know, and we always buy insurance with pre-existing clause for us and immediate family members.

We would be able to cover the cost of cancelling a cruise if needed, though it would hurt, but not the super expensive evacuation and/or serious medical coverage.

We have used our insurance twice, both because of medical emergencies of parents.

I didn't buy it on my fist six but from now on I am. I'm a little older and wiser now so I realize it's just not worth the risk to not get it.

Fletch1027

The UK hasn't left the EU yet.

The higher-fee credit cards can come with some really good travel insurance, which can offset the cost of the fee (often $450). I'm particularly impressed with the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card which includes 100k emergency evac, 10k trip cancellation, and 1M accidental death. (You may still want to purchase medical insurance). However, the really, really cool feature about the card is that you get a $300 credit against travel costs each year! So your net cost is only $150 and you can easily make that up in benefits.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits are really fantastic -- I jumped at this card as soon as it was released!

We're very fortune to have excellent employer provided insurance that has extensive coverage overseas for medical and evacuation. That, combined with some of the other travel insurance benefits of the Reserve, leave me feeling confident that we've adequately covered when we travel.

I insure for medical evacuation and out of network medical care.

While my insurance would reimburse me for those costs, coming up with the cash for an air lift, hospital costs, plus getting home ain't exactly easy! It's worth $150 to me to know that I'm covered if I slip in the bathroom and break an ankle (which happened to a friend in Vietnam).

I no longer insure for cancellation. I can absorb that cost. My friend's broken ankle would have cost her and her husband $150K by the time the ambulance, surgery, her husband's lodging, and the last minute first class air fare (her leg had to stay elevated) were paid for. PLUS, they didn't have to make the arrangements, MedJet handled it.

One thing to take away from this discussion is that the term "insurance" means many different things to many people. Part of any discussion is that these definitions become blurred and shifting. My observation is that "insurance" comes down to several different and distinct categories.

1) Cancellation insurance - this includes both cancellation by the passenger and cancellation by the provider. Can include air or just the cruise. Various levels of coverage are possible, including cancel for any reason, cancel for new conditions and much more.

2) Trip interruption - this includes lost luggage. It covers delays and glitches after you have left home.

3) Medical treatment - the actual cost of the care, both within your home country and/or abroad.

4) Medical evacuation - the cost to transportation related to your medical care.

So when anyone casually says "travel insurance", the first thought should be "well, what kind of coverage are we talking about?" The second should be "and what are the things that it does and doesn't cover"

As in all risk management situations, this all comes down to cost/benefit analysis mixed in with personal risk tolerance. What is "right" for someone else is likely not "right" for you, if only because of the huge variables involved.

Finally, a reminder to all that "travel insurance" does not mean that the insurer will make sure that you get to enjoy your vacation. It doesn't guarantee you backup air travel, or anything else. It doesn't provide damages because you didn't get to have a good time. Insurance is merely to reimburse the loss of actual expenditures due to a covered incident.

My purchased coverages: Post-departure interruption, medical treatment, medical evacuation. Other coverages for luggage and air interruption are under my credit card. Cancellation I self-insure.

I've cruised 7 times and to date I have bought insurance only twice. Once was with my elderly mother. She had sufficient issues that I thought it was wise.

The other time is when my sister and I went on the British Isles cruise. It was so far from home (further than either one of us had ever traveled) and I got nervous so I bought it then, too.

I'm just north of San Francisco and my other cruises have been closer to home. Either Alaska or coastal down towards Mexico. The cruises were cheaper, relatively speaking and we were in the US the majority of the time so I took a chance and didn't purchase it.

But, as time goes by and I get older I'm not as big about taking such chances. So, going forward it is likely I will always purchase it.

I won't leave the US and it's territories without it, unless I'm on company business and covered by WC.

For me, anybody who travels without adequate travel insurance is just plain foolhardy.

Well you are entitled to an opinion. We never take out travel insurance.

How many people have actually used Medjet Assist? Someone above mentioned something about a friend using it but how many others have? I am unsure about purchasing it. (We always purchase travel insurance).

Friend had travel insurance. However the medical was only $10000. Had a stroke and needed surgery in Greece. He was left with a $60,000 bill for what was NOT covered! Cruise company insurance doesn't have enough medical coverage as far as I am concerned!

We're also in the group that buys medical only and relies on Chase Sapphire for cancellation and other travel risk benefits. The cancellation benefits are not a major concern as we would be willing to underwrite the risk on our own...but, it's a nice credit card perk.

That said, there was a time when we bought cancel for any reason insurance. We both had very elderly parents alive at that time and the likelihood of cancellation was very, very high.

Not me! I'd rather pay a bit for peace of mind.

I never travel without travel medical insurance, but never buy other "travel insurance" such as trip cancellation, etc.

We cruise over 100 days a year and never buy any kind of cancellation insurance. We do purchase an annual trip medical insurance policy which gives us $250,000 of medical coverage for every trip (up to 70 days per trip) that we take during the entire year. That policy costs us $450 a year (total cost for two seniors).

As to cancellation insurance, we have taken over 100 cruises without spending a penny on such stuff, We calculate that we are over $100.000 ahead of the game by not having purchased cancellation insurance. In the event that we do have to cancel a cruise (and lose our money) we will still be far ahead of the game. Having spend over thirty years of my life in the medical insurance industry....it is not my desire to give our hard earned money to insurance companies (who make a hefty profit). That being said, folks need to look at their own situation and risk tolerance and make decisions based on their personal wants and needs. Listening to others is fine for purposes of gathering info....but the ultimate insurance decision is quite personal.

Hank

I don't purchase extra insurance because I have what I need already. I have travel interruption, travel cancellation, and lost luggage coverage through my Chase Sapphire rewards card. I also have a lot of emergency coverages and assistance such as medical evacuation through my work's group term life insurance. And my medical insurance will reimburse me for procedures abroad.

 

Anything else that might not be covered (if anything), I choose to self-insure. Meaning, the chance that I would lose money (and how much that would be) is less than I would pay for the many cruises I plan to take in my lifetime.

 

 

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For anyone considering relying solely on a credit card's included trip insurance, please note that even the most savvy of the travel cards do not have waivers for pre-existing medical conditions. Thus, if you make a trip interruption/cancellation claim related to a medical issue that appeared or changed during the "look back" period (before depositing or purchasing the trip), your claim will most likely be denied.

We travelled from l982 til 2011 or so, without any insurance. We are both in good health, always felt we self insured our trip, so if we had to cancel, so be it. Never happened.

In all those years, we had to visit the ship medical facility 2 times, once for an insect bite that swelled and another time for an ear infection... both incidents were expensive.

We have reach the age, as seniors that we felt is probably was a good idea to get some health insurance since Medicare does not cover anything out of the country... my dh is 83 and I will be 70. So about 5 years ago, we started to buy some insurance for health coverage. So far so good, still have had no need to use it.

I have now found I can buy an annual plan from Travel Guard for business travellers which work well for us, we travel about 2 times a year... it good for health issues and emergemcy evacuation. world wide.

One of the reasons we did not buy insurance before was we often changed our minds on trips, we would book and cancel, book something else. Changing travel plans does not matter with an annual plan.

In Britain:

1. Total insurance covering cancellation, luggage and medical costs about £20 for a fortnight for a young healthy person.

2. Only emergency medical is covered in by an EHIC card in Europe, not necessarily restricted to EU countries. Except in rare circumstances, nothing else is covered either by your own medical insurance or by an EHIC card.

3. Hence anyone who leaves the UK without insurance is pushing their luck.

In Britain:

 

1. Total insurance covering cancellation, luggage and medical costs about £20 for a fortnight for a young healthy person.

 

2. Only emergency medical is covered in by an EHIC card in Europe, not necessarily restricted to EU countries. Except in rare circumstances, nothing else is covered either by your own medical insurance or by an EHIC card.

 

3. Hence anyone who leaves the UK without insurance is pushing their luck.

Just as a note -- Insurance of the type you mention in #1 is not terribly expensive in the US for a young, healthy person either. The problem is that a lot of cruisers are older and some have chronic health issues -- hence, it is considerably more expensive for them to get coverage.

We've never gotten any insurance.

When I was married and we both had good jobs and we had plenty of "discretionary" funds, we did not buy insurance. Our medical from our company was excellent and covered out of country. Used it once on Grand Cayman when he stepped on a buried spotted ray and got "stung" - used the ER at the Georgetown hospital and then a followup later on our trip (it was a land vacation).

Once I was divorced (after he said I could "retire", so I had no job), I lost my "gravy train" and had to start worrying about finances. My first big trip, post-divorce, I decided to get "no matter what" insurance. Good thing. 4 days into a 14 day trip, I had a major accident, shattering and dislocating bones in my left leg. 4 nights in the Sienna University Medical Center hospital, change of flights to get home, loss of the rest of the trip's hotels and the hiking trip I was booked on... The insurance took care of everything, saving me from the 10,000EU hospital bill, the airline change fees, asking if I wanted a traveling nurse to fly home with me for assistance (I had to overnight at CDG, but I declined the offer), and getting the refund for the rest of my trip. Once I got home, my regular medical insurance paid for the surgery and the year of rehab (minus $25 each visit to my physio).

If I had liquid assets to cover a loss of money I put into a trip, I'd do it. But, since I don't, I prefer to insure. I just count it as part of my costs of a vacation out of the US...