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Out of country insurance question - Geo Blue


Jane2357
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We are too young for medicare and are covered under a private Florida Blue policy -- which does not provide coverage out of the U.S.

 

We did purchase a standard trip policy through Steve but the health insurance amounts seem small to us in the case of anything catastrophic. I've heard of Geo Blue - a brand of Blue Cross for coverage outside the U.S. and we could get a $0 deductible 1 Million dollar policy for about $175.

 

Anyone have experience in this matter? Should we just settle for what was included in our regular trip insurance?

 

Should we also consider a med jet policy? P.S. We will be cruising through Panama, so Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico. Places where medical services may not be to our liking?

 

Edited by Jane2357
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I probably over-insure, but I travel a couple times a year, so I buy a yearly med-jet and a yearly geo-blue in addition to a "regular" trip insurance in case I have to cancel. Knock on wood I've never had to use the med -jet or the geo-blue, but I have used the regular insurance several times.

What would you do with a burst appendix in Guatemala? I hope I never need it, but GeoBlue will give you a list of physicians/hospitals in all your ports that have been vetted and also accept GeoBlue as primary. There's an app for that.

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One needs to carefully evaluate their own situation, risk tolerance, and budget. We have the GeoBlue Annual travel policy which costs about $450 a year (total cost for a couple) and gives us $250,000 or med plus $500,000 or evac. That policy covers the first 70 days of each and every trip we take over an entire year. Since we travel over 6 months of the year, but keep each trip under 70 days...that particular policy is perfect. GeoBlue is decent, but keep in mind it is secondary to your other policy. Having med jet plus Geo Blue is perhaps overkill...but there is much to say for the Med Jet policy. Since most of our trips are to Western Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico (other places are less common) we do not see the necessity of Med Jetassist on top of the Geoblue. But if we were taking a few trips to more exotic areas such as the interior of India or Africa we would likely add Medjetassist.

 

Hank

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am hard pressed, to see a reason to add medjet to a good policy which has medical and evacuation.

It is a duplication of services.

I would say that you are better off not having med jet assist in a more exotic locale. First, because they do not provide helicopter service, which is what you need when you are not near a runway,

Second, they contract with the same companies that OnCall and others use. So the back end, is the same. And the process of working through the evacuation. Is the same. I spent a lot of time researching the policies.

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I am hard pressed, to see a reason to add medjet to a good policy which has medical and evacuation.

It is a duplication of services.

.

 

Not every trip one takes is via cruise, or to exotic locations.

 

Medjet Assist covers you if you are more than 150 miles from home. Your primary health insurance only provides transportation to the nearest facility for the emergency coverage.

 

If I'm in Vegas, LA, or Miami, if I need medical transport to be nearer to my home after the emergency has been addressed, it's out of pocket or my Medjet policy.

 

I don't know too many people who get travel insurance for their quick trip in country travels

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KLFRODO,

You have probably identified one of the best reasons to get the medjet assist. It makes sense domestically in the situations you've described. It's not a duplication of service and most likely a helicopter won't be needed or would be covered under your primary plan.

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  • 6 months later...

We are trying to do our homework and with three cruises coming up starting in October looking at Geo blue annual policy. Found some reviews but most have not actually used the policy. I thank God that hopefully will not need it and help with peace of mind, but it is hard to make an informed decision without knowing how they settle claims. Has anyone actually used their policy and were you satisfied with how things were handled?

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One needs to carefully evaluate their own situation, risk tolerance, and budget. We have the GeoBlue Annual travel policy which costs about $450 a year (total cost for a couple) and gives us $250,000 or med plus $500,000 or evac. That policy covers the first 70 days of each and every trip we take over an entire year. Since we travel over 6 months of the year, but keep each trip under 70 days...that particular policy is perfect. GeoBlue is decent, but keep in mind it is secondary to your other policy. Having med jet plus Geo Blue is perhaps overkill...but there is much to say for the Med Jet policy. Since most of our trips are to Western Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico (other places are less common) we do not see the necessity of Med Jetassist on top of the Geoblue. But if we were taking a few trips to more exotic areas such as the interior of India or Africa we would likely add Medjetassist.

 

Hank

 

Hank, we also buy an annual GeoBlue Policy. Do you use other (non-medical) travel insurance along with GeoBlue? Most policies that offer trip cancellation or trip delay all offer medical insurance and evacuation as well. Are there companies or policies that just offer the travel insurance pieces without the medical pieces??

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hank, we also buy an annual GeoBlue Policy. Do you use other (non-medical) travel insurance along with GeoBlue? Most policies that offer trip cancellation or trip delay all offer medical insurance and evacuation as well. Are there companies or policies that just offer the travel insurance pieces without the medical pieces??

 

Good question! I believe that there are. You can search on Insuremytrip.com

 

And DH and I are very interested in this GeoBlue Plan. Never heard of it. We have looked into MedJet. We want to make sure we have a good medevac coverage when traveling out of the states. Have two trips coming up in 2018. One in AUS/NZ and the other Europe again.

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...Are there companies or policies that just offer the travel insurance pieces without the medical pieces??
This question comes up on this forum routinely, and the answer is not really.

 

Reason we've been told is that the medical component is relatively low expense (hence the good pricing on an annual Geo Blue policy) while the trip cancellation component is the bulk of the expense in a comprehensive plan. So when buying a cancellation plan, it costs very little to include medical coverage and make it comprehensive. You might be able to create a custom plan, but you would only be saving in the neighborhood of $30.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes that does make sense. The Geo Blue annual policy is a good value for those of you who cruise often or are out of the country (USA) often and if you live in states that qualify. Since we have BC/BS as our primary health insurance, Geo Blue is a nice add on and affordable safety net.

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Hank, we also buy an annual GeoBlue Policy. Do you use other (non-medical) travel insurance along with GeoBlue? Most policies that offer trip cancellation or trip delay all offer medical insurance and evacuation as well. Are there companies or policies that just offer the travel insurance pieces without the medical pieces??

 

Just noticed this old inquiry. We do not buy trip cancellation insurance since we are willing to self-insure cancellation. Having taken far more then 100 cruises (all over the world) we simply do not cancel our bookings. So if you do the math we are ahead by a lot of money (we think its close to $100,000) because of all the money we have saved by self-insuring (not buying cancellation insurance. We also have a Chase credit card that gives us up to $10,000 of cancellation insurance for free (its a benefit of the card). We often use this card for our bookings. If you want up to $20,000 of free cancellation...you can do it by getting a 2nd Chase card (for your spouse) and splitting the cruise cost between the two cards.

 

Hank

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  • 1 month later...
One needs to carefully evaluate their own situation, risk tolerance, and budget. We have the GeoBlue Annual travel policy which costs about $450 a year (total cost for a couple) and gives us $250,000 or med plus $500,000 or evac. That policy covers the first 70 days of each and every trip we take over an entire year. Since we travel over 6 months of the year, but keep each trip under 70 days...that particular policy is perfect. GeoBlue is decent, but keep in mind it is secondary to your other policy. Having med jet plus Geo Blue is perhaps overkill...but there is much to say for the Med Jet policy. Since most of our trips are to Western Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico (other places are less common) we do not see the necessity of Med Jetassist on top of the Geoblue. But if we were taking a few trips to more exotic areas such as the interior of India or Africa we would likely add Medjetassist.

 

Hank

 

I was just reading another thread about GeoBlue and read that it doesn't cover trips within the US, only out of country.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2563829

 

Poster on that thread was told that a cruise that stops at San Juan or St Thomas wouldn't be covered, as it's a US territory.

 

Does that sound right?

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That was also my understanding, but on the GeoBlue app, where you locate a GeoBlue provider by country, the USVI is listed with providers in St. Thomas and St. Croix. Puerto Rico is not listed.

OK, but the question is - is the whole trip not covered just because Puerto Rico is visited?

 

That's what the poster on the other thread was told. That their cruise that included a stop in St Thomas and San Juan would not be covered, if they had any medical issues.

 

Seems to me that any ports that are in foreign countries should be covered, but not any stop(s) in US held territories.

 

I know, for medical coverages, once you've boarded a cruise ship you're considered "out of country", so, except for those ports where you re-enter US space for the day, all other locations that you might require assistance in should be covered. But I could be wrong - I hope not.

 

We're considering getting an annual plan from GeoBlue since we have several trips planned in the next year. But one of those trips may include a stop in St. Thomas (or maybe San Juan).

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Geo Blue would not cover US territories as mentioned, but your US carrier would, including Medicare. Not much of an issue there.

 

A health problem on a ship would be covered because a ship is not US territory, unless you would be on the POA, which is a US ship...and in that case a US carrier would cover the problem.

 

As I understand, for some, the reason for Medjet is for choice to fly home regardless of local circumstances. GeoBlue requires a Dr certification that transportation to a US hospital is medically necessary. Otherwise GeoBlue will pay to transport to a medical facility that is competent to treat the problem.

 

My conversation with GeoBlue told me that GeoBlue is primary, no deductible, for treatment by their network providers outside of the US. This is for the annual policy.

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OK, but the question is - is the whole trip not covered just because Puerto Rico is visited?

 

That's what the poster on the other thread was told. That their cruise that included a stop in St Thomas and San Juan would not be covered, if they had any medical issues.

 

Seems to me that any ports that are in foreign countries should be covered, but not any stop(s) in US held territories.

 

I know, for medical coverages, once you've boarded a cruise ship you're considered "out of country", so, except for those ports where you re-enter US space for the day, all other locations that you might require assistance in should be covered. But I could be wrong - I hope not.

 

We're considering getting an annual plan from GeoBlue since we have several trips planned in the next year. But one of those trips may include a stop in St. Thomas (or maybe San Juan).

 

I again looked at the policy language (of the annual policy) and see nothing that indicated coverage would be invalidated if one stopped at a US Port. The policy covers the first 70 days of an unlimited number of trips during the policy year. While one could make an argument that there is no coverage in a US Territory (your regular insurance...even Medicare would be effective) once you left that Territory the policy would certainly be in force. And also keep in mind that it is an "annual" policy and not a trip policy. The major restriction on the Annual policy that has caused us some heartburn is the "70 day" rule. Because of this we generally limit our trips to 70 days....and in fact actually take some trips that are exactly 70 days in length.

 

It would not be a good policy for an entire World Cruise :(.

 

Hank

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I again looked at the policy language (of the annual policy) and see nothing that indicated coverage would be invalidated if one stopped at a US Port. The policy covers the first 70 days of an unlimited number of trips during the policy year. While one could make an argument that there is no coverage in a US Territory (your regular insurance...even Medicare would be effective) once you left that Territory the policy would certainly be in force. And also keep in mind that it is an "annual" policy and not a trip policy. The major restriction on the Annual policy that has caused us some heartburn is the "70 day" rule. Because of this we generally limit our trips to 70 days....and in fact actually take some trips that are exactly 70 days in length.

 

It would not be a good policy for an entire World Cruise :(.

 

Hank

 

So, what if you're on a trip that's close to that 70 day limit and you go over (unplanned)? You're just not covered for that portion longer than the 70 days? Or no more coverage for the rest of the year?

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