I just bought trip insurance!

[fizzy1]

39 minutes ago, FlamingJune1967 said:

Well - we have international medical insurance, never fly, and are pretty low-budget cruisers, so we were willing to take the risk of losing our trip cost.  We've recently increased our travel budget and our parents are getting elderly, so  I felt the time was right.    If our travel had included flights, I would have purchased protection years ago, but we live within driving distance of 8 ports - so we've never had that to contend with.   

Interesting . In the uk we have our travel insurance which also includes medical travel  insurance, covered in our bank account , works out about $120 a year for as many vacations as u want . This covers about $2,000,250 worth of cover. You can also upgrade this amount of cover for a few extra $

[hrhdhd]

On 9/7/2019 at 4:10 PM, Iamcruzin said:

The first misconception, is the mandatory insurance AKA “Obama care”. While mandatory, you don’t have to purchase it.

 

There is no longer an individual mandate to purchase insurance. That ended in 2018.

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, hrhdhd said:

 

There is no longer an individual mandate to purchase insurance. That ended in 2018.

Forgot about that. It popped up when I filled 2018 taxes. I have health benefits so wasn’t paying attention to the changes 

[Iamthesea]

1 hour ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I don't think you will be happy with the response from AARP with your Plan F.  I believe all supplemental plans have a lifetime limit of $50k on medical expenses.  Good luck on getting all of the correct forms and information for your insurance company to reimburse you when all of the forms are in a foreign language.  For me, I want a my health insurance to provide primary coverage and pay the foreign hospitals and doctors directly.  For me GeoBlue serves that purpose.  If you have a problem it's not that much different that dealing with Blue Cross in the US.  Call the 800 number and they can direct you to providers that they work with GeoBlue.   They then send guarantee of payment to those providers.   We had to use it once in London and we were directed to some of the best dentists in London.  I'm sure there are other providers that also work well, but I had a good experience with GeoBlue.  

 Now I am confused!  I did not think that GeoBlue, or any annual plan was Primary. 🤔

What is the best GeoBlue plan to purchase for pre-existing conditions?

[ipeeinthepool]

5 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 Now I am confused!  I did not think that GeoBlue, or any annual plan was Primary. 🤔

What is the best GeoBlue plan to purchase for pre-existing conditions?

 

Ok, my bad.  I was considering my own condition and probably many Celebrity cruisers..  I'll try to fix it.  You're correct, GeoBlue requires Primary Medical coverage and they will coordinate with your existing coverage.  However, they understand that those of us on Medicare for Primary coverage don't have any coverage for international travel and they become the direct insurer and don't require you to submit any paperwork to be rejected before they cover your costs.  They ignore any coverage that you may have through your supplemental plan.  The purpose of the primary coverage is really to allow pre-existing conditions to be covered.  That is,  they don't want you to travel internationally for the sole purpose of treating an existing condition.  When I was turning 65 last year Investigated these questions with Steve from the Trip Insurance Store and managers at GeoBlue.  I also questioned if Medicare was really primary insurance if it didn't provide international coverage, they assured me that it did.  You can also find other examples confirming that coverage in the insurance board of CC.  Both single trip and multi trip GeoBlue policies cover pre-existing conditions.

[12thAggie]

I buy a yearly insurance policy that covers all my travel.  Cheaper in the long run.

 

[Lilikins]

We are also looking at purchasing travel insurance for the first time. Travel guard ended up being almost $500 to cover flights, cruise and 1 week in Italy. I will shop around but I was pretty shocked at how high it came out to be with 2 people in their 30s with no preexisting conditions.  

[Iamcruzin]

4 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I don't think you will be happy with the response from AARP with your Plan F.  I believe all supplemental plans have a lifetime limit of $50k on medical expenses.  Good luck on getting all of the correct forms and information for your insurance company to reimburse you when all of the forms are in a foreign language.  For me, I want a my health insurance to provide primary coverage and pay the foreign hospitals and doctors directly.  For me GeoBlue serves that purpose.  If you have a problem it's not that much different that dealing with Blue Cross in the US.  Call the 800 number and they can direct you to providers that they work with GeoBlue.   They then send guarantee of payment to those providers.   We had to use it once in London and we were directed to some of the best dentists in London.  I'm sure there are other providers that also work well, but I had a good experience with GeoBlue.  

I would consider the fact that they direct you to a provider a benefit. I wouldn't want to be searching for a doctor in a foreign country or any place that I don't reside.

[Iamthesea]

2 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Ok, my bad.  I was considering my own condition and probably many Celebrity cruisers..  I'll try to fix it.  You're correct, GeoBlue requires Primary Medical coverage and they will coordinate with your existing coverage.  However, they understand that those of us on Medicare for Primary coverage don't have any coverage for international travel and they become the direct insurer and don't require you to submit any paperwork to be rejected before they cover your costs.  They ignore any coverage that you may have through your supplemental plan.  The purpose of the primary coverage is really to allow pre-existing conditions to be covered.  That is,  they don't want you to travel internationally for the sole purpose of treating an existing condition.  When I was turning 65 last year Investigated these questions with Steve from the Trip Insurance Store and managers at GeoBlue.  I also questioned if Medicare was really primary insurance if it didn't provide international coverage, they assured me that it did.  You can also find other examples confirming that coverage in the insurance board of CC.  Both single trip and multi trip GeoBlue policies cover pre-existing conditions.

 

My husband is 67 on Medicare and has PEC's.  So, as understand it with the GeoBlue, should DH become ill in Europe, Geo would pay the hospital bills upfront instead of DH paying and then submitting to Medicare, being rejected, and then submitting to Geo?

 

What about me?  I am 62, and still on employee insurance.  I also have pre-existing conditions.  Should I become ill overseas, would I have to pay bills upfront, or would Geo also step up as primary?  I could then submit to my health insurance when returning home.

 

1 hour ago, Lilikins said:

We are also looking at purchasing travel insurance for the first time. Travel guard ended up being almost $500 to cover flights, cruise and 1 week in Italy. I will shop around but I was pretty shocked at how high it came out to be with 2 people in their 30s with no preexisting conditions.  

 

No need to cover your full air cost.  Simply cover the amount you would need to exchange your ticket for another time.  That is...if you knew you could take another trip within a year from when you purchased your first ticket.  And make sure to cover only the non-refundables.   A hotel for one week in Italy can be cancelled if you didn't book at the non-refundable rate.  Same for tickets, excursions, etc.

[Lilikins]

9 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

No need to cover your full air cost.  Simply cover the amount you would need to exchange your ticket for another time.  That is...if you knew you could take another trip within a year from when you purchased your first ticket.  And make sure to cover only the non-refundables.   A hotel for one week in Italy can be cancelled if you didn't book at the non-refundable rate.  Same for tickets, excursions, etc.

That’s a big part of my issue - understanding what constitutes as non refundable. Technically everything is refundable at this point until my final payment in February including airfare since that was purchased through celebrity. The agent said everything that will become non refundable at some point in time should be included in the trip cost...isn’t that everything? Even for hotels, it’s refundable until the day of - if you cancel within 24hrs it’s nonrefundable.  Sorry if this is obvious to everyone but me. The insurance agent didn’t really provide much clarification.

[ipeeinthepool]

19 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

My husband is 67 on Medicare and has PEC's.  So, as understand it with the GeoBlue, should DH become ill in Europe, Geo would pay the hospital bills upfront instead of DH paying and then submitting to Medicare, being rejected, and then submitting to Geo?

 

What about me?  I am 62, and still on employee insurance.  I also have pre-existing conditions.  Should I become ill overseas, would I have to pay bills upfront, or would Geo also step up as primary?  I could then submit to my health insurance when returning home.

 

 

I would call GeoBlue and ask the question about you.  I think the answer would be yes and they would coordinate with your current insurance, but call and ask the question.

[Iamthesea]

Thank you! 😉

 

Lilikins - I did not realize that you purchased your air through Celebrity.  That would be a question for Celebrity Air, or perhaps someone on here would know.  We have never purchased air with Celebrity, nor any pre and post cruise stays.

[KEN31VA]

Two points:

- No one mentioned the insurance that comes with many credit cards.  It doesn't cover medical costs, but will cover other expenses purchased with the card.

- If you decide to purchase travel insurance, it may make sense to NOT insure 100%.  It could reduce you cost significantly and still provide the same medical coverage.  You are only coinsuring the other costs.

[sdnich]

 I have a question we booked our cruise through our Chase Sapphire reserve card so I know we have a lot of insurance for trip cancellation I wanted to add on extra medical through insure my trip .com  but I am now six weeks from our trip can we still add this on ?? I read through the four pages and was unsure about my question if anyone knows the answer that would be helpful ??

[Lilikins]

I do have some trip coverage from my credit card (citi is getting rid of it, but I put the cost of the entire cruise on it before the cut off point) but I was lead to believe that I still had to account for all of the costs of the trip in order to get medical. So you mean I don’t have to put 100% of the trip cost for trip insurance if I’m already covering a portion through my credit card? 

 

These things never crossed my mind when we were traveling in our 20s. It was so much simpler traveling with the mindset of “why would I need medical coverage and med evacuation? I’m healthy”. Ah the ignorance of being young and feeling indestructible.

[Responder]

9 minutes ago, Lilikins said:

I do have some trip coverage from my credit card (citi is getting rid of it, but I put the cost of the entire cruise on it before the cut off point) but I was lead to believe that I still had to account for all of the costs of the trip in order to get medical. So you mean I don’t have to put 100% of the trip cost for trip insurance if I’m already covering a portion through my credit card? 

 

These things never crossed my mind when we were traveling in our 20s. It was so much simpler traveling with the mindset of “why would I need medical coverage and med evacuation? I’m healthy”. Ah the ignorance of being young and feeling indestructible.

If you insure through a company like "tripassure.com" for example, you will find only a few policies that provide waiver of pre-existing along with not having to insure for total trip cost. Up until now we have only used the insurance for the medical aspect.

After September 22 when Citi cancels their trip insurance benefits, we will have to look for a package to insure total cost as well as medical. Becomes very difficult and expensive at our age and some companies only insure up to age 85. 

[BigAl94]

We never travel without insurance and consider it would be very unwise for anyone to consider doing so. My wife and I have fairly significant pre existing conditions and an annual policy is out of the question. Being in UK we buy per trip and have found https://www.travelinsurance4medical.co.uk/ to be competitive for our needs. Cover for a recent two week Baltic cruise was £155

Edited September 9, 2019 by BigAl94

[Fouremco]

On 9/8/2019 at 8:58 AM, AdGuyMG said:

OK .. here's a more current, 2019 source.

 

www.gangwaze.com/blog/cruise-travel-insurance

 

A survey was done to find out what percentage of cruisers buy cruise insurance. It was significantly more than we’d have guessed, at 67%!  That’s over 2 out of every 3 cruisers that opt in to buy coverage.

More current, but with a totally insignificant polling of 190 readers of an obscure cruise website's blog.

 

If you were to conduct a poll on this forum, you too might - or might not - achieve similar numbers, but CC members are far more aware of issues such as travel insurance than is the average cruiser. Consequently, you wouldn't be able to extrapolate the results to the general cruising population.

[KEN31VA]

A few additional comments:

- Most importantly, with insurance, one needs to read the "fine print".  Even then you never know for sure if your loss will be covered until you have it, and then it is too late.  

- Look for insurance to cover potential large issues and don't worry about the small stuff.  This is why I usually insure only part of the total cost as long as it still provides the full medical benefit - again check the fine print. Realize that insurance companies are there to make a profit and the major benefit that you are buying is "peace of mind".

- Yes, Citi is cancelling their travel protection, but some other credit cards still do - at least for now.

- Once you have made the decision to buy insurance there are many options and prices.  I have found that if you are up in years and/or have preexisting conditions it is important to purchase the insurance when making your initial deposit.  If you wait until final payment, you may find it advantageous to cancel and make a new reservation to save on the insurance cost.

[Kartgv]

1 hour ago, KEN31VA said:

……… Once you have made the decision to buy insurance there are many options and prices.  I have found that if you are up in years and/or have preexisting conditions it is important to purchase the insurance when making your initial deposit.  If you wait until final payment, you may find it advantageous to cancel and make a new reservation to save on the insurance cost.

 

Yes, the "up in years" part does add considerable complexity/expense to the options.    We've found that if we want to insure the actual cost of the trip, once you reach that "up in years" point, the cruise line cancellation protection is much less expensive.   They charge a flat percentage of the fare with no age calculation.  Most other full coverage insurance bases the rates on age and they rise steeply as age increases.  

 

The other problem is that, even with GeoBlue, the maximum age they'll insure is 85.    I've seen multiple posts asking if anyone's ever found medical/evacuation protection that does not have an age limit, but have never seen an answer.   Most cruise line policies offer a small amount of coverage, but not nearly enough to cover a serious problem.  We're not there quite to that age yet, but would hate to think that we'll have to stop cruising just because we can't afford to take the risk of having inadequate insurance coverage.     

Edited September 9, 2019 by Kartgv

[sippican]

On 9/8/2019 at 10:50 PM, Lilikins said:

That’s a big part of my issue - understanding what constitutes as non refundable. Technically everything is refundable at this point until my final payment in February including airfare since that was purchased through celebrity. The agent said everything that will become non refundable at some point in time should be included in the trip cost...isn’t that everything? Even for hotels, it’s refundable until the day of - if you cancel within 24hrs it’s nonrefundable.  Sorry if this is obvious to everyone but me. The insurance agent didn’t really provide much clarification.

 

As recommended I would call X for clarification. However, as you stated, even the air is refundable right up to final payment date.  As the agent told you, everything will become non-refundable at a certain point.  If you used a credit card to book any part of the trip, you may want to check to see if they have any travel coverage.

[KEN31VA]

It appears to me that your agent didn't adequately explain the refundability of purchasing an airline ticket through them - or anyone else for that matter.  It is my understanding that an economy ticket is only fully refundable after 24 hours unless you paid for a "refundable" ticket, which is more expensive.  A typical economy fare ticket can be exchanged for a fee, but some of the new economy fares can not be exchanged for refunded.  A few years ago Choice Air offered some good fares, especially to Europe, that were not available on the airline web site.  Recently, I have found this not to be the case.  The only tangible advantage that I see for using Choice Air is that they say they will "assist you" if there is a problem enroute although I have found it best to deal directly with the airline when something occurs such as a missed connection.

[sippican]

52 minutes ago, KEN31VA said:

It appears to me that your agent didn't adequately explain the refundability of purchasing an airline ticket through them - or anyone else for that matter.  It is my understanding that an economy ticket is only fully refundable after 24 hours unless you paid for a "refundable" ticket, which is more expensive.  A typical economy fare ticket can be exchanged for a fee, but some of the new economy fares can not be exchanged for refunded.  A few years ago Choice Air offered some good fares, especially to Europe, that were not available on the airline web site.  Recently, I have found this not to be the case.  The only tangible advantage that I see for using Choice Air is that they say they will "assist you" if there is a problem enroute although I have found it best to deal directly with the airline when something occurs such as a missed connection.

 

Celebrity's newest air program does indeed allow for cancellation and changes right up to final payment IF you purchase refundable tickets (which are still priced very reasonably compared to published rates, and frequently the same or less). No money down, no change fees.

[Lilikins]

Celebrity air recently started promoting a buy now, pay later plan. There is no money down so long as you purchase a refundable ticket - in my case the non refundable version of my ticket somehow cost MORE money than the refundable. No idea why that would be or who would choose to get a nonrefundable ticket at a higher price.

[Alushar]

As previously stated UK policies tend to be all in covering medical, evac, cancellation, disruption and legal. We always take an annual policy although our credit card covers some and added cruises once we started. We haven't had to use it cruising yet but did after a trip to central France and getting severe disruption for the largest snow dump in the Central Massif in 100 years which made us miss our flight and have to shuffle from France to Switzerland to get another.

 

It was a joy to call the Company next morning to hear "Are you ok don't worry we will sort that" and have the taxi, train and air fares reimbursed plus a per diem for food and drink and the excess waved!