Travel insurance and Medicare

I have a question please. We just returned from a cruise. We bought the gold insurance. My household had to see the doctor and we paid the $95.00 doctor visit. We called the insurance so we can get the $95.00 when we received the claim it said that we had to send it to Medicare first and then to the insurance. So my first question is if there are any medical bills because sometimes they could be large if an accident happened during the cruise do Medicare pay? What if a person have HMO? While our bill was small it's not always the case. My second question is do we need to send the bill to Medicare? If yes than why do we get insurance other than able to cancel before the cruise. Thanks

The insurance you bought is considered "Secondary" not "Primary".

Had you purchased an insurance that was "primary", then you only need to submit paperwork to them. One of the "Fine print" gottchas that we talk about here on the insurance forums.

Since you purchased "secondary" you must first submit your paperwork to your other insurance providers for them to pay their portion, then you submit to your "secondary" insurance provider. Even though most Medicare doesn't cover outside the US, you must still submit to them, then when you get their denial, you submit to your travel insurance provider.

To answer the first question of what if you have a major illness that will be expensive?

That's why you need a high credit card limit. You are expected to pay the bill up front.

In some cases, a travel insurance policy will provide a letter of ability to pay to the care provider, but not always. No, Medicare is not one of those. No, my plan with United Healthcare is not one of those.

Yes, Medicare will not usually cover services outside of the US. And, as stated, because your travel insurance is "secondary" coverage, even if Medicare won't pay, the travel insurance company needs the Medicare denial to process the claim. So, you must first submit the claim to Medicare.

Most HMO plans require you to obtain services from providers in the HMO, which would never be a ship's doctor.

If you incur large medical expenses, you usually have to pay up front, unless you've purchase a travel insurance policy that will deal with this for you.

I don't understand your question asking why you purchase travel insurance. The answer seems self-explanatory.

People who travel without insurance are, IMO, very foolish.