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Medicare and getting sick onboard a cruise ship


MB2014
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We have insurance that will cover us out of network to a certain amount, and then full coverage after that threshold it hit. If we had medical bills over $50k, we would be out about $10K. We are comfortable with that risk.

 

I beg to differ on the cost of a private medivac charter. $100k is about right from Europe, from Tahiti it could be $250K to LA, at least an additional $50K to our home in Orlando. I know someone who was flown air ambulance from Myrtle Beach to Chicago after a catastrophic injury, and the cost was $50K. My cousin was just medivaced from the west coast to NYC, no idea on the cost, and obviously this isn't the time to ask, but I will eventually find out.

 

 

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We did a land trip to Antarctica a while back that included 10 landings and a number of on land activities. If I remember correctly, we were required to have one million in evacuation insurance. Can you imagine what an evacuation from Antarctica to the nearest appropriate medical facility would cost.

 

We now do more normal trips and carry a yearly policy that covers medical, evacuation and some other useless stuff such as trip delay.

 

DON

Edited by donaldsc
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Not sure where the poster who posted about the medical evac costs obtained their information. While many patients can and are transported on a commercial airline with a medical person in attendance, a true private medical jet is very expensive. Probably about $50-100k from Europe, easily $150k-$200k from Asia. While $500k is pretty much impossible a policy with only $50k is really only good in the US and the Caribbean.

 

 

 

The 50K is sure better then the cruise line policies although we prefer policies with at least $100k med. The Trip Evacuation issue has become a real con...that is used by darn near all the companies. The reality is that its almost impossible for a company to spend over $50K on any med evac (even a chartered private medical evac jet costs less). So most companies are now marketing real high numbers (ours has $500k), but not providing the very high medical limits.

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Cruiseco, Buzz's evacuation will be courtesy of the tax payer. Many moons ago my husband was evacuated from South Pole to Christchurch for surgery. When he was evacuated he was US Navy, transferred to NSFA for his time on the ice. NSFA was under dept of Treasury at that time.

 

 

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That's insurance fraud. Your claim would be denied.

 

They often ask for a photocopy of your driver's license so getting caught can be a high probability.

 

There can be major differences in one plan when sold to residents of different states so they do watch for this type of thing to make sure the plan version being bought matches what is registered with the state's department of insurance.

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  • 1 year later...

I spoke with GeoBlue about coverage/evacuation in Alaska since I am going on a cruise. I have a GeoBlue policy for international travel. GeoBlue does not cover Alaska if you are a US resident. They only provide international coverage. Finding a policy for medical and evaluation while on a cruise to Alaska has been an issue. American Express does have a Global Medical Evacuation policy which covers emergency care and evacuation which is much more reasonable than insurance offered by the ship and better coverage.

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I spoke with GeoBlue about coverage/evacuation in Alaska since I am going on a cruise. I have a GeoBlue policy for international travel. GeoBlue does not cover Alaska if you are a US resident. They only provide international coverage. Finding a policy for medical and evaluation while on a cruise to Alaska has been an issue. American Express does have a Global Medical Evacuation policy which covers emergency care and evacuation which is much more reasonable than insurance offered by the ship and better coverage.

 

I've got MedJetAssist (thru AARP) who provides evacuation from anywhere in the world (with an airport nearby) as long as you are more than 150 miles from home.

 

https://medjetassist.com/?source=adwords-branded&adcampaign=156405018&adgroup=20147506698&kw=med%20jet%20assist&adistype=paid_search&creative=248473716473&keyword=med%20jet%20assist&matchtype=e&device=c&adpos=1t1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIh5f81b3Y2gIVirlkCh3EdgCCEAAYASAAEgJSK_D_BwE

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  • 2 months later...
We do not necessarily think Trip Insurance is a "rip off" but do think it is generally an overpriced product (often costing 7-10%+ of trip costs). However, we do purchase an Annual Travel Medical Policy which provides $250,000 of Medical Coverage (as compared to the inadequate $10,000 of many Trip Insurance policies). And our annual policy costs $450 a year which is the total cost for DW and me....and covers the first 70 days of EVERY trip we take throughout the entire year. In our case that one policy gave us coverage for 103 days of cruising and 2 months in Mexico.....during the current year.

 

If one really wants to get some trip cancellation coverage it is easy to get one of the Credit Cards (such as Chase Sapphire) that gives you cancellation coverage (in the case of Chase it is $10,000 per trip).

 

Hank

Would you mind sharing the company that you got theAnnual Travel Medical Insurance from? Or you can contact me at:

suzyed at aol dot com Thanks

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Would you mind sharing the company that you got theAnnual Travel Medical Insurance from? Or you can contact me at:

suzyed at aol dot com Thanks

 

He has posted many times about this. Unless it has changed it is Geo blue. I am sure he will update to confirm.

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  • 1 month later...

We BCBS PPO and I have been told by the company that we are covered worldwide at places that accept BCBS. How would you know if they took you somewhere? So I still buy secondary insurance with evac and cancellation.

 

. I’d love geoblue but we live in Texas so I guess that’s out. Since we cruise at least 3 weeks a year I’d like a comprehensive policy as we also travel a lot in the country and it might be cheaper? These questions always come up every cruise and I’m never sure I’m buying the right thing.

 

Most recently I’ve been using a Nationwide cruise policy. I agree that the million dollar evac is way too much. I usually get $250k for evac and like the same or at least 100k for medical. Being in the medical field I know costs can add up very quickly. 2k for sepsis was super cheap! We’d pay more then that out of pocket here.

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