Annual policies, especially MedJet vs GeoBlue Trekker ?

[SempreMare]

Question for those of you who purchased an annual policy:  Why did you choose the policy you picked? 

 

I'm especially interested in MedJet vs GeoBlue Trekker.

 

@Hlitner, could you provide any insight here?   I recall from a different thread that you picked GeoBlue Trekker.

[Jersey42]

As I think you know, the GeoBlue Trekker policies provide medical and medical evacuation coverage. MedJet Assist is only medical evacuation. We chose GeoBlue because we needed the medical coverage and were comfortable with the evacuation coverage. People like MedJet because it gives you much more choice in where they transport you to. But with MedJet, you need to look elsewhere for medical insurance coverage.

[erdoran]

These are different types of policies for different purposes.  I just bought the MedJet (Black Friday sale) and will be buying GeoBlue Trekker as well, both for our cruise that begins 1/5/20 - and our other two cruises in 2020.  All will be covered by this one buy.

 

Medjet Assist will take to you any hospital you want If you are admitted to a hospital as an inpatient during your trip, subject to some limits of course, and being medically stable enough to fly.  They cover all of the travel cost, having a medical person (or specially equipped medical plane if needed) but don’t pay one penny for your medical bills.  They also do NOT evacuate you from a cruise ship, or ship to hospital.  FIRST you must have been admitted to the hospital.

 

Geoblue Trekker is medical/evacuation insurance, but evacuation is to the closest suitable medical facility, which I’d assume is in the country you have traveled to.  If you want to go to a hospital in the US and you aren’t in the US, that’s on you.  BUT—Geoblue pays your medical bills that Medjet won’t pay.

 

This is my first time buying them - just switching to Medicare 1/1/20 which is why we’re buying the coverage, but I’ve done a lot of reading and to us the combination of the two seems to cover us pretty thoroughly.  Geoblue has different coverage levels, read them carefully and choose the right one for you.  We are going with the highest level ourselves.

[SempreMare]

Thanks @erdoran and @Jersey42

 

 

In this comparison, would you guess that the company on the right is MedJet? 

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/mobile/public/docs/competitor-comparison/geoblue-multi-trip-trekker-competitor-comparison.pdf

[Jersey42]

6 hours ago, SempreMare said:

 

In this comparison, would you guess that the company on the right is MedJet? 

Yes it certainly appears to be Medjet.  Medjet advertises as a "membership program". While the chart is accurate, the Medical evacuation coverage is not the same.  Be sure to read the details so you understand the differences. Erodan gave a good summary and explained why some people purchase both GeoBlue Trekker and Medjet Assist.  

[Hlitner]

On 12/14/2019 at 1:48 PM, SempreMare said:

Question for those of you who purchased an annual policy:  Why did you choose the policy you picked? 

 

I'm especially interested in MedJet vs GeoBlue Trekker.

 

@Hlitner, could you provide any insight here?   I recall from a different thread that you picked GeoBlue Trekker.

Comparing Medjetassist to Geoblue is like comparing apples to komquats.  Geoblue is a medical/Evan plan while Medjet is just evac.  One should assess their own situation and look for the product that best fits their own needs.

 

Hank

[SempreMare]

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Comparing Medjetassist to Geoblue is like comparing apples to komquats.  Geoblue is a medical/Evan plan while Medjet is just evac.

 

Agreed.

 

When I posted this topic, I had heard from my TA that "MedJet could be purchased with optional insurance."

To me that implies, "There is a version of MedJet that includes insurance as an option."

So I wanted to hear from why people picked one vs the other for their specific situation.

 

I think what he meant was "You can purchase MedJet and a completely separate policy that provides medical insurance." 

 

 

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

One should assess their own situation and look for the product that best fits their own needs.

 

Sure.

 

In fact, that is a valid response for just about any cruise or cruise preference question asked on Cruise Critic. 

[erdoran]

I had re-read the Geoblue Trekker carefully and there was mention of evac to US if needed, so I started second-guessing myself and hopped onto Steve’s topic in this section and asked him “if Geoblue covers evac to US doesn’t that duplicate MedJet?”  His answer pretty much was that with Geoblue it is up to them whether or not to evac you to the US, they will if medically necessary, but it’s up to them what is “medically necessary”.  If you just WANT to be evacuated home and be treated by your own dr., or to some specialty hospital in the US, but the local hospital is perfectly fine to treat your problem (or Geoblue thinks it is fine) then no evac.  

 

OTOH Medjet doesn’t require medical necessity to evac you, and they will also transfer you within the US if you need/want to go to a hospital more than 150 miles away from where you are (think....vacation someplace and you have a problem, or need to be treated by a specialty hospital far away).

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, erdoran said:

I had re-read the Geoblue Trekker carefully and there was mention of evac to US if needed, so I started second-guessing myself and hopped onto Steve’s topic in this section and asked him “if Geoblue covers evac to US doesn’t that duplicate MedJet?”  His answer pretty much was that with Geoblue it is up to them whether or not to evac you to the US, they will if medically necessary, but it’s up to them what is “medically necessary”.  If you just WANT to be evacuated home and be treated by your own dr., or to some specialty hospital in the US, but the local hospital is perfectly fine to treat your problem (or Geoblue thinks it is fine) then no evac.  

 

OTOH Medjet doesn’t require medical necessity to evac you, and they will also transfer you within the US if you need/want to go to a hospital more than 150 miles away from where you are (think....vacation someplace and you have a problem, or need to be treated by a specialty hospital far away).

While I have sometimes called Medjet the Cadillac of evac policies there are quite a few restrictions overlooked by some customers.  For example, a patient must be an inpatient in a medical facility and arrange to be admitted (as an inpatient) to another medical facility (usually near home) before Medjet will do an evacuation.  

 

They also have another interesting provision :"Medjet medical transport services are not available to a Member with mild lesions, simple injuries such as sprains, simple fractures, or mild illnesses that can be treated by local doctors and do not prevent the Member from continuing his or her trip or returning home without medical attention."

 

Medjet is a great policy, but one must be inpatient to impatient.   This sounds reasonable but we can think of some interesting problems.   When my wife needed evacuated from Japan to the USA (due to a major leg injury) she technically was not an impatient (she had just undergone outpatient surgery) and did not need immediate inpatient services at home (she had several follow-up outpatient surgical procedures after getting home).  Medjet would not have evacuated her under these circumstances.  However, Geoblue did pay more then $10,000 for her evacuation home.  Why? Since Geoblue also was responsible for her medical bills outside the USA, they were off the hook (financially) once they got her back to the USA.   And both her Japanese surgeon and cruise ship physician attested to the medical necessity of her getting home for further treatment.  In fact, the cruise ship physician said it was likely he would have forced her to leave the cruise several days later....due to the fact that the ship was doing a long crossing (from Northern Japan to Alaska) where emergency medical evacuation would have been impossible if her condition had worsened.   Even though she was not technically an inpatient, failure to medically evacuate her home would have likely resulted in substantial future expenses (and time) for further necessary treatment in a foreign country.  

 

One other interesting thing about Medjet is that it does not recognize cruise ship medical centers as an inpatient facility.  So a person would first have to be admitted to an impatient hospital (not including cruise ships before Medjet would consider arranging evacuation.

 

While I do think the Medjet policy is likely the best in the business it does have its share of limitations.

 

Hank
 

 

 

 

 

[erdoran]

Hank,

 

thanks for the clarity.  I was under the impression that Medjet had evacuated your wife.  That’s really good to know for the future, and of course, glad she is OK.  Also good to know that Geoblue is reasonable about medical necessity-your logic makes total sense, much cheaper to send her home and not pay any more bills!

[fstuff1]

On 12/14/2019 at 7:50 PM, erdoran said:

These are different types of policies for different purposes.  I just bought the MedJet (Black Friday sale)

 

how much was the policy  during the sale?

[erdoran]

$75 off, so $324 for two of us for one year.  It was a one-day sale.  

[Jersey42]

27 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

how much was the policy  during the sale?

 

25 minutes ago, erdoran said:

$75 off, so $324 for two of us for one year.  It was a one-day sale.  

If you are an AARP member they offer a discount year round.  Not as good as erodan's Black Friday sale, but I believe it comes out to $350 per year for a family.  This is for international and domestic travel, under 74 years of age and up to 90 days per trip. Other options are available.

https://www.aarp.org/benefits-discounts/all/medjetassist-10063/  

[AlanF65]

I have UHC Safe Trip Annual policy, UHC is my primary Advantage plan. I paid about $275 for 1M in coverage

 

https://www.uhcsafetrip.com/our-insurance-products/annual-frequent-traveler/

 

[klfrodo]

1 hour ago, AlanF65 said:

I have UHC Safe Trip Annual policy, UHC is my primary Advantage plan. I paid about $275 for 1M in coverage

 

https://www.uhcsafetrip.com/our-insurance-products/annual-frequent-traveler/

 

Thanks for sharing

[fstuff1]

1 hour ago, AlanF65 said:

I have UHC Safe Trip Annual policy, UHC is my primary Advantage plan. I paid about $275 for 1M in coverage

 

https://www.uhcsafetrip.com/our-insurance-products/annual-frequent-traveler/

 

 

why did you pick  UHC Safe Trip over GeoBlue ($100/year)?

[Jersey42]

1 hour ago, AlanF65 said:

I have UHC Safe Trip Annual policy, UHC is my primary Advantage plan. I paid about $275 for 1M in coverage

 

https://www.uhcsafetrip.com/our-insurance-products/annual-frequent-traveler/

 

I am about to renew my GeoBlue Trekker policy, so when I saw this, I took a look.  Unfortunately it is not available in Florida.  For curiosity, I took a look at the policy for another state.  A couple of things I noticed:

• GeoBlue is cheaper for me for the coverage I need. For a few other options I tried, GeoBlue was always a little cheaper.
• Pre existing conditions are covered with GeoBlue.  UHC appears to have a 180 day look back period for medical.
• UHC adds some lost and delayed baggage coverage 
• UHC can have a little more accidental death and dismemberment coverage
• GeoBlue requires that you are also covered by a health care plan at home, UHC does not appear to have that stipulation.
• GeoBlue will act as first (primary) payer, so you do not need to submit first to your home insurance company. It appears that UHC is also.

Please correct, if I am mistaken.

[erdoran]

I just got Geoblue Trekker this morning for hubs and me, about $400 for the two of us (we’re in our 60’s).  With a minimum of 3 trips planned, possibly 4, I think this type of policy is a no-brainer.  We combined it with Medjet which I think is really unnecessary but it’s important to hubby so we sprung for it.  Didn’t know about that UHC but the GeoBlue seems well regarded and hlitner’s experience supports that.

[klfrodo]

1 hour ago, Jersey42 said:

 Unfortunately it is not available in Florida. 

 

And for myself, Geoblue is not available in Washington State. It's nice to see I have an option now..

[AlanF65]

3 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

why did you pick  UHC Safe Trip over GeoBlue ($100/year)?

For me the UHC with 1 million coverage was $235 in September, I bought the day before my birthday so I was a "year" younger.

Geo Blue at last years  age for 500k coverage  today is $265.

Parts of the policy are amended to California law so some of the definitions are more favorable to me.

 

If I go on 3 trips between 919 and 9/20 its $85 per trip. (I was originally on a B2B so that was two trips for insurance math). Although my trip is to Alaska I will be leaving from and returning to Vancouver and visiting Canada out of Skagway so there is a risk I end up in a Canadian hospital.

 

My first trip was more than 180 days away so the preexisting didn't matter.

UHC is both primary and secondary, so I thought that would make it simpler.

If you guarantee payment, they will wire or guarantee payment to the hospital.

I can cover over100k on credit cards but if I guarantee to the insurer I don't have to go that route but I will if need be. Worse case I can wire more money in, use other credit cards that I don't carry on trips or use my corporate AMEX card and reimburse when paid.

Medical Evacuation and repatriation is $1,000,000.

 

[AlanF65]

3 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

• GeoBlue is cheaper for me for the coverage I need. For a few other options I tried, GeoBlue was always a little cheaper.
• Pre existing conditions are covered with GeoBlue.  UHC appears to have a 180 day look back period for medical.

I used Miami Zip Code and last years age and the cost was close, UHC was 235 and Geoblue was $265.

 

I didn't check to see if the 180 day look back when I renew will be for new conditions or not. It didn't matter this year. I bought more than 6 months before travel with plans on renewing

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by AlanF65

[erdoran]

7 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

I am about to renew my GeoBlue Trekker policy, so when I saw this, I took a look.  Unfortunately it is not available in Florida.  For curiosity, I took a look at the policy for another state.  A couple of things I noticed:

• GeoBlue is cheaper for me for the coverage I need. For a few other options I tried, GeoBlue was always a little cheaper.
• Pre existing conditions are covered with GeoBlue.  UHC appears to have a 180 day look back period for medical.
• UHC adds some lost and delayed baggage coverage 
• UHC can have a little more accidental death and dismemberment coverage
• GeoBlue requires that you are also covered by a health care plan at home, UHC does not appear to have that stipulation.
• GeoBlue will act as first (primary) payer, so you do not need to submit first to your home insurance company. It appears that UHC is also.

Please correct, if I am mistaken.

That pre-existing thing is a deal breaker for me, even if I hadn’t already purchased Geoblue.  Hubby has had a medical problem within that time period, he’s fine now and was fine when we purchased this cruise, but he’d fall within that lookback.  That’s a big deal for a lot of folks, the preexisting coverage.

[SempreMare]

On 1/1/2020 at 4:29 PM, AlanF65 said:

UHC is both primary and secondary, so I thought that would make it simpler.

 

Your saying this made me curious ...

I have BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) for US primary insurance via my employer

 

GeoBlue is a "licensee" of BCBS.  Which I s'pose does not imply that simplification that you have.

It's probably still like dealing with 2 separate companies.

[mtnlvr53]

I wonder if anyone has experience with the "look back" clause.  Is it saying that a pre-existing condition is only a problem if the policy is purchased within the 180(or whatever) day period before the travel? Most 65 plus, Medicare eligible folks have pre-existing conditions of some sort.  For example, if you purchase the policy on Jan 1 and cruise July 30 or any time 180 after the purchase of the policy there is no "look back" or does it mean that no time with the 180 days prior to a health incident a new condition has been diagnosed (or modified) and therefore no coverage for a pre-existing condition? 

[Hlitner]

On 3/14/2021 at 10:36 PM, mtnlvr53 said:

I wonder if anyone has experience with the "look back" clause.  Is it saying that a pre-existing condition is only a problem if the policy is purchased within the 180(or whatever) day period before the travel? Most 65 plus, Medicare eligible folks have pre-existing conditions of some sort.  For example, if you purchase the policy on Jan 1 and cruise July 30 or any time 180 after the purchase of the policy there is no "look back" or does it mean that no time with the 180 days prior to a health incident a new condition has been diagnosed (or modified) and therefore no coverage for a pre-existing condition? 

If one is comfortable with reading insurance policies (including the definitions and fine print) then you certainly need to read through any policy (before you purchase).  These days it is no longer wise to rely on what existed yesterday as policies can, and do, change.   One nice thing about the Geoblue annual Global Trek policy was that there were no pre-existing condition issues.  On the other hand that same policy "excludes" COVID related health issues.  But most policies do have "look back" clauses which need to be carefully scrutinized before booking.  If one is not confident of their own ability to deal with the oft complex language it is time to call a decent cruise broker (Steve Dasseos is often recommended here on CC) for advice.  But even the best broker is only as good as the information and questions from the cruiser so be very candid and make your concerns known.  A good broker will have the answers and steer you to the products that best meet your needs.

 

But lets talk a little about pre-existing conditions in general terms.  Pre-existing conditions may or may not be an issue depending on the language.  So, for example, if you have a pre-existing condition for which there has been no change in treatment or medications for the look back period...it might be covered.  But it can become complicated (which is why I dislike the insurance industry).  Say you have had a cardiac/hypertension issue and been on meds for years.  The a couple of months prior to a booking your physician changes your medications.  Depending on the policy language that might be a big problem or it might be a nothing.

 

So again I urge fellow cruisers who are unfamiliar with insurance language or do not want to spend their time dealing with the nitty gritty...consider finding a good professional cruise broker.  And as I have said many times,  your cruise/travel agent might push certain travel/med policies (for which they earn a commission) but most cruise/travel agents are not well versed in insurance.  Do yourself a favor and find a travel insurance expert...or spend the time doing your own homework.

 

Hank