Who buys trip insurance?

[rcandkc]

47 minutes ago, Focused1 said:

To cover medical and other related costs, we subscribe to Medjet, the Horizon level. This provides a high level of coverage for medical, evacuation and transport to facility of choice via jet or whatever transport is appropriate, as well as repatriation of remains🥺. Can’t beat the price for two persons — is about $550 per year. The trip cancellation is covered by our various credit cards. 

We also have medjet horizon.  Although it pays for medical evacuation after being admitted to a hospital, it does not cover the hospital bill while you wait for the evacuation. 

[vegasdriven]

This is how I look at it- Would never travel without medical insurance, but trip cancellation? I tend to look at insurance as something to cover you for an event that could put you into financial difficulty, so if the trip is already paid for, psychologically it would hurt, but it wouldn't cause me to lose the house,or worse.

 

Of course, maybe there is something I am not considering, and would appreciate any advice to the contrary.

[BBWC]

vegasdriven,

I am totally with you. We have worldwide medical coverage, but never buy cancellation insurance (in excess of what our credit cards already cover). With all the money we saved on insurance, we could miss a cruise or two and still come out way ahead financially.

 

[Focused1]

1 hour ago, rcandkc said:

We also have medjet horizon.  Although it pays for medical evacuation after being admitted to a hospital, it does not cover the hospital bill while you wait for the evacuation. 

Yes, that is correct but they will advance you up to $60K for such expenses. In our case, our private medical Insurance reimburses us for medical care outside of the US. 

[rcandkc]

1 hour ago, Focused1 said:

Yes, that is correct but they will advance you up to $60K for such expenses. In our case, our private medical Insurance reimburses us for medical care outside of the US. 

Just didn’t want readers think it covered medical expenses. 

[FloatSomeMore]

Our first Regent cruise, my husband and I had dinner with four ladies, one of whom was traveling alone because her husband had emergency surgery two weeks prior to sailing and insisted she come without him because they did not have travel insurance, he did not believe in it.  That night after dinner my husband began experiencing "the elephant on his chest."  A call to guest relations had the ship's doctor to our room and later a diagnosis of possible heart attack.  Long story short, medical evacuation by the Coast Guard, medical evacuation by jet with a four person medical team from Turks/Caicos back to Ft. Lauderdale and a heart catheterization at the Cleveland Clinic only to discover he had a virus which had attacked his heart, much like viral pneumonia.  Our health insurance paid everything considered health related.  Cannot remember if they paid the ship's medical bill which was $6K; however, our travel insurance paid for everything else out of pocket.  The 21 night cruise minus one night, all medical deductibles, incidentals at the hospital, airfare, etc.    They called me at least four times per day with offers of help and sympathy.  We were early fifties, perfect health with no pre-existing conditions.  Our cost for this experience was about $110,000.  We paid nothing extra.  For us, the cost of a cruise or land tour includes travel insurance.

[MalbecWine]

We never travel without insurance and not the credit card insurance as it may not cover all expenses and has too many loopholes.  We also carry Medjet Assist for evacuation which is very reasonable.  Paying for this by the hour would cost you 10K per hour.  We know of a couple that needed it and it would have cost them close to 100K from Africa.  We pay about $250 a year for this.  You will be transported to a hospital at home or where your home doctor wants you to go.  Another thing we have is MDVIP and we are able to contact our doctors 24&7 at home or when traveling land or sea.  When at home we never wait more than 15 minutes to see the DR. It’s well worth the money for a Concierge DR.  We know we are well covered for our medical needs should they arise.

[1982CruzStart]

22 hours ago, vegasdriven said:

This is how I look at it- Would never travel without medical insurance, but trip cancellation? I tend to look at insurance as something to cover you for an event that could put you into financial difficulty, so if the trip is already paid for, psychologically it would hurt, but it wouldn't cause me to lose the house,or worse.

 

Of course, maybe there is something I am not considering, and would appreciate any advice to the contrary.

i get your perspective on it being a sunk cost and therefore it is already gone. The reason we get cancelation insurance is that we are not in a position to drop 30 - 40,000 on a cruise not taken and turn around and take a replacement cruise.   At least if we have cancelation we can turn around and book another cruise. Without the insurance that year's vacation is gone and seeing as travel is very important to me i would be very unhappy to not be able to take a replacement. 

 

The last 2 years without travel because of my DH's health almost killed me so wouldn't want to do that again because of not insuring our trip. 

 

Maybe as some of said they have saved so much money on insurance they have been able to do more with that saved money. However for me hindsight is 20/20 and i am just not comfortable taking that chance.  Worked for them and that is great but doesn't work for me.

 

i consider insurance just part of the cost of the trip. 

[RachelG]

I have probably saved enough in not paying for trip insurance to cover 3-4 big cruises.  But we cruise a lot.  

Edited March 17, 2019 by RachelG

[orvil]

I checked out the Medjet.  That's something that is worth considering.  Thanks for the information.

[Focused1]

1 hour ago, orvil said:

I checked out the Medjet.  That's something that is worth considering.  Thanks for the information.

If you are a AARP member, you’ll receive a discount off annual membership. You must enter Medjet through the AARP website. 

[MalbecWine]

I’m glad I could provide this information.  It’s really a another layer of protection and peace of mind.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

It depends on what country you reside in.  It's harder for Canadians to get insurance right now, not sure why.

 

It also depends, I now find out, on the cost of the trip.  Our World Cruise booked for 2021 starts at $62,000 per person, lowest fare.  We have found no carriers, neither in Canada nor the States that will cover that big a liability, regardless of our age or state of health.  (And Regent Care charges 20%, yes you read that right!)

 

So, as one ages, one must contemplate "self-insuring".  If I'd known that, I might not have bought all those insurance policies for the last 20 years--could have probably paid for a nice cruise now!  As it is, we have lined up coverage for about 2/3 of our base cost.  Not great, but it is what it is.  Luckily we have good travel health insurance already.

[ronrick1943]

8 hours ago, Focused1 said:

If you are a AARP member, you’ll receive a discount off annual membership. You must enter Medjet through the AARP website. 

 

Also most airlines offer you the service at a discount, plus you get bonus miles.

[RJ2002]

We travel quite a bit, both at sea and on land.  We have an annual (multi-trip) travel insurance policy.  There are not a lot of them out there, but the one we have is through Roamright.   You can insure up to a certain amount of coverage per-trip.  I think this year we decided on $10K per/person for trip cancellation/interruption, and the total annual premium for both of us was around $1200.    $10K is the max they offer on this particular policy.  Sometimes that is not enough to cover our entire trip, but it certainly covers the bulk of our expense for most of our trips.  We're willing to "self-insure" for any overage.

 

We also have pretty good coverage through our Chase Reserve cards, but it doesn't have a pre-existing condition waiver - - which our annual policy does.   

 

We rely on the policy for unexpected situations not only for us, but also for close relatives with health concerns.  Since we travel a lot, it's nice to not have to worry about arranging for an individual policy for each trip.

[papaflamingo]

We also always insure.  Started cruising in 1998 and I insured due to my mothers age.  In 2011 she passed away 2 weeks before a fairly expensive cruise out of Venice.  The cancellation insurance for that cruise alone more than covered all the premiums I'd paid on nearly all the cruises up to that time.  So as one poster said he could lose a couple of cruises and still be better off, we lost one cruise and recovered more than we'd paid in combined premiums.  Glass half full or half empty I guess.  

The real answer to insurance is what you're willing to pay for comfort.  Can you afford to lose that $60,000 you paid for that long Regent cruise?  Can you afford to be air evacuated from Nuka Hiva to a hospital that can handle your illness then home on a private medical evacuation jet?  Do you have the cash ready to pay those medical costs?  If so, no problem.  But for me.. I'd rather pay the money to purchase the insurance.  Like others, I consider it part of the cost of the cruise.  Gives me peace of mind.  

[MalbecWine]

6 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

 

Also most airlines offer you the service at a discount, plus you get bonus miles.

Airlines will not accept stretcher pax’s that require medical attention.  On Medjet they provide you with a trained nurse or doctor.  If your doctor and the attending DR determine you can fly commercial your insurance should cover the cost.  If not it’s on you.  Let’s say you are at a lodge in the bush in Africa which there are many on Safari.  The lodges have contact with the flying doctors who will pick you up and get you to Medjet.  Many runways in the bush cannot have jets land on dirt runways so they will transfer the patient to the closest airport and then you fly to the closet airport where you live.  You may have a fuel stop as it will probably be a Lear Jet or Gulfsteam.

 

Just a note, we are only customers of Medjet and glad we have it for peace of mind for a few hundred dollars a year we have the family plan.   Most CC companies will evacuate you to the nearest hospital and God only know where that will be until you are stabilized to fly commercial.  With Medjet you personal doctor is in contact all the way until you arrive home and met.

[orvil]

As a retired airline employee, I can assure you that airlines will not transport you if you are on a stretcher or unstable.   Airline employees travel a lot.  I've got a million stories of fellow employees accidents that required special care returning home.  I've also got a lot of stories about people who broke something and had it set in a far-flung country that went very badly.  The good news is my particular airline will transport my remains for free, but only on the mainline service.  Of course, at that point I won't care.

 

You want to get home, asap. 

 

Will a commercial airline let you on?  Break an arm and wearing a sling, probably.  Break a leg and can't bend it to fit in a seat, doubt it.  Heart attack, deep vein thrombosis, or broken back, nope.  Bedridden, no way!  They don't want you because you are high risk.  They don't like stopping short to drop you off.  It pisses off the other customers and costs the airline money.

 

Then, there's the transport of your luggage, ambulance service to and from the airport, check in and out services, and your spouse's transport.  Do you really want to try to arrange this from a foreign country where you don't speak the language?

 

At the bare minimum, if you are traveling to any country where medical services are limited or suspect, you want evacuation insurance.  Whether you insure the trip itself, that's a separate discussion.  These discussions are as individual as the person making them.

[MalbecWine]

Yes, language is another issue and Medjet has interpreters all around the world.  Haveing been also in the airline business now retired after 26 years, the above poster is absolutely correct and I also worked for a major carrier.  Cabin crews are highly trained but they are not doctors and need to call for assistance either on the plane or doctors on the ground which can cause a diversion. 

 

Back in the day the airlines had breavment fares and youth youth fares and those days are long gone also at my airline we did take stretcher passenger being accompanied by a care giver but they needed to buy all three seats in coach.  The alrlines today with not accept the liability.

[ronrick1943]

I think one can say you don't think you need insurance, until you need it.  When I first started cruise I didn't buy it-lucky for me it worked out, but if something had happened I would never have had the money to pay for medical let alone trying to get back to the US. Now that I'm older (a lot older) I just couldn't think of not taking it out.  We've had to use it 2 times, so when we book like others on this board we look at the cost as part of the cruise.

[vegasdriven]

Not having had a lot of experience on this subject I am wondering if we could have some discussion about the merits of taking a higher deductible. Any thoughts?

[MalbecWine]

I don’t believe on trips on cruises that is available I maybe be wrong.  We insure our land and cruises fully.  I hope no one needs to use it but you can lose thousands of dollars.  One incident and it pays to have it.  If you travel on luxury line better to be safe than sorry..  As they say penny wise dollar foolish.

[travelwell]

Malbecwine sounds a lot like me. We have used Medjet for years. Biggest plus is they fly you to the hospital of your choice, in other words home. We used Medjet for the whole family even with no trips planned decades ago. When my DH traveled internationally for work his employer paid for it. Yearly insurance for the whole family just a few hundred dollars. A nobrainer for cruises. We also are using a physician with MDVIP. Concierge medicine is controversial but cheaper for us when we did the numbers for what we received. Got a discount on Medjet with them too. But MDVIP not travel insurance. We would never travel without travel insurance,  especially the medical coverage. 

[MalbecWine]

19 minutes ago, travelwell said:

Malbecwine sounds a lot like me. We have used Medjet for years. Biggest plus is they fly you to the hospital of your choice, in other words home. We used Medjet for the whole family even with no trips planned decades ago. When my DH traveled internationally for work his employer paid for it. Yearly insurance for the whole family just a few hundred dollars. A nobrainer for cruises. We also are using a physician with MDVIP. Concierge medicine is controversial but cheaper for us when we did the numbers for what we received. Got a discount on Medjet with them too. But MDVIP not travel insurance. We would never travel without travel insurance,  especially the medical coverage. 

Your screen name says it all.  MDVIP offers Medjet and highly recommended to have.  We have had it as well for years and they are very proactive.  Your peace of mind and health are important than money.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

On 3/18/2019 at 12:14 PM, vegasdriven said:

Not having had a lot of experience on this subject I am wondering if we could have some discussion about the merits of taking a higher deductible. Any thoughts?

 

In the past I don't think any of our plans have had deductibles.  Oh, maybe you're talking about medical plans? Some small deductible makes sense in that case.

 

In our case, for our world cruise insurance, our deductible will be about $45K 😞  We are looking at it that way, since we really want to do this cruise.  So, after final payment 6 months prior, we will be taking on that liability.  Yes we can afford it, but it would crimp our style, for sure.