Need help with the “legal jargon” on our trip insurance

[cherylatwork]

We booked our August 3rd cruise last September. Three days after booking, my hubby’s 43 year old brother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic and liver cancer. The doctors gave him 6 months tops to live. Well March (6 months) came and went , he was doing well and responding to treatment. About a month ago his condition took a dramatic turn for the worse and he is not doing very good at all. He is at peace with his fate and really wants us to go on this trip. We do still plan on going unless he loses his battle in the next seven days. So here’s my question….

 

We bought trip insurance in May before final payment was due. This is the clause for death of a family member….

 

(p) PRE-EXISTING MEDICAL CONDITION EXCLUSION: The Company will not pay for any loss or expense incurred as the result of an Injury, Sickness or other condition of an Insured, Traveling Companion, Business Partner or Family Member which, within the 180 day period immediately preceding the Insured’s coverage effective date: (a) first manifested itself, worsened or became acute or had symptoms which would have prompted a reasonable person to seek diagnosis, care or treatment; (b) for which care or treatment was given or recommended by a Physician; © required taking prescription drugs or medicines, unless the condition for which the drugs or medicines are taken remains controlled without any change in the required prescription drugs or medicines.

 

Any help with this verbiage would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Cheryl

[klfrodo]

First,,, I would never wish this situation on anybody.

 

Back to the (non) question. I never really saw the question. You said,, here's the question, then quoted the exclusion.

 

If your question is?

 

We bought the insurance before final payment, are we covered if we have to cancel due to BIL's illness?

 

I'm not sure I can answer because I don't know if you paid for the exclusion of pre-existing conditions.

 

If you told me that you bought your insurance a few days after you made your initial deposit, then I'd feel better about your situation.

You also don't tell which insurance plan your purchased.

[cherylatwork]

I guess it's not really a question, but a clarification of what this means....

 

(p) PRE-EXISTING MEDICAL CONDITION EXCLUSION: The Company will not pay for any loss or expense incurred as the result of an Injury, Sickness or other condition of an Insured, Traveling Companion, Business Partner or FAMILY MEMBER which, within the 180 day period immediately preceding the Insured’s coverage effective date: (a) first manifested itself, worsened or became acute or had symptoms which would have prompted a reasonable person to seek diagnosis, care or treatment; (b) for which care or treatment was given or recommended by a Physician; © required taking prescription drugs or medicines, unless the condition for which the drugs or medicines are taken remains controlled without any change in the required prescription drugs or medicines.

 

Thanks

Cheryl

[cherylatwork]

 

We bought the insurance before final payment, are we covered if we have to cancel due to BIL's illness?

 

 

 

We will not cancel because of his illness. We will only cancel if he loses his battle before next Friday.....never mind, Thanks for you help

 

Cheryl

[cruiseco]

To give any kind of answer would require:

 

What insurer and what plan?

 

Other than that, what it means is they will not cover any losses due to anything your BIL was being treated for in the 180 day period before you bought the policy. That's the time frame they look at to determine if something is a pre-existing condition or not. The cancer would definitely fall into that.

 

Most plan, in order to get covered for a pre-existing condition require you to buy the policy shortly after making the first payment on the trip which you did not do. If you have one of those plans you're going to be out of luck.

 

There are a couple of insurers that may cover you if you buy the policy before making the final payment on the cruise. CSA, HTH, and a couple of plans from Travel Guard do this. If you have one of those you might be covered. I say "might" because with some insurers once a person has been determined to be terminal and has been given a certain life expectancy there's no coverage no matter when you bought the policy since the death is no longer a possibility but a sure thing.

 

If you bought the cruise line's plan, depending on the cruise line you might have a "cancel for any reason" benefit included which will give you a credit toward a future sailing -- usually about 75% of the cost of the cruise you insured.

 

So you really, really need to contact your insurer and get a clarification as to where you stand before making any decision as to cancelling or not.

[cherylatwork]

 

Most plan, in order to get covered for a pre-existing condition require you to buy the policy shortly after making the first payment on the trip which you did not do. If you have one of those plans you're going to be out of luck.

 

 

 

 

Thank you...in all honesty, we did not purchase insurance shortly after we booked because as I stated, we booked this in September and three days later he was diagnosed. He was only given 6 months to live, that would bring us to March which was well before final payment was due. With any luck, we will be on that ship next Friday, if not, lesson learned........

 

BTW we purchased the Travelguard Silver Plan

 

Again, thank you for your responses

 

Cheryl

[sirwired]

Yes, TravelGuard Silver will not cover you in this instance. Such exclusions are how they keep their prices low.

 

It's cool that you understand... many people would be working themselves into a frothing rage about "fine print" and ranting on the evils of insurance companies.