Travel Insurance

[ctkathchick]

I have been looking at obtaining travel insurance for our upcoming cruise. Having never obtained travel insurance or known anyone who has had insurance or needed it I am unsure on which coverage to buy as it pertains to the medical limits. One policy has a 15,000 maximum and the other has a 35,000 dollar limit. Does anyone have any idea how much would an incident cost or at least a ballpark thought? I am leaning towards the one with the 15,000 coverage because I feel the other benefits more match what I think my needs would be. Thanks for all input.

 

[BirdTravels]

Most people don't buy travel insurance specifically for medical coverage. Travel insurance is supplemental insurance. Your medical insurance pays first. Travel insurance pays for covered costs that your medical insurance does not. Hospitalization in a foreign country could cost tens of thousands of dollars.  

 

Most people buy travel insurance for emergency evacuations (i.e., if you have to be flown in an air ambulance back home - $1M coverage is typical). And cancellation of the trip due to illness or deaths in the family. 

 

Others buy for cancel for any reason to allow them to back out of a cruise due to any reason (including corona virus). 

 

If you have already made final payment on your cruise, it may be too late to buy travel insurance.  

 

 

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

As Bird said, medical can get very high.  However, your insurance may not cover you, or within certain limits.  Such as medicare, you're on your own.  There are companies that do sell policies after final payment.  I just purchased a policy from Allianz yesterday for a cruise I'm going on next week. 

[ctkathchick]

Thanks for the reply. Now that we are getting to be a little older lol the medical potential is becoming more of a concern. I thought that that trip insurance would be the primary go to. Also I did not see anything for a 1m emergency evacuation. Lol I don't even think I'd cancel if I died I'd still try to go. The coverage I saw was 100,000

 

[julig22]

You have different options depending on your situation.  You can get insurance at any time before you leave but normally you get better coverage if you buy it when you put down a deposit.  Pre-existing conditions may not be covered if you wait on the insurance.

 

You can get a comprehensive policy or you can piece it together.  My Medicare plan actually does cover my medical.  I use a travel card to cover delays, cancellation, lost luggage and so forth.  So sometimes it pays to see what you might already have in place, then fill in the blanks.

[smplybcause]

Are you from the US? You know those crazy amounts before insurance adjustments? Figure costs will be something like that. 

 

A couple years ago I badly sprained my ankle during a game the cruiseline sponsored. I didn't see a bill, but they had posted all their fees. Between the after hours visit by both a nurse and doctor, xrays, temporary cast, crutches, and meds it was at least $2500 just to stabilize a sprained ankle. And I was in the medical bay for less than an hour. 

 

If something more serious happened on a cruise, based on the less than an hour for a sprained ankle cost you could blow through $15k super fast. I think I've read a post where a heart attack ran through like $50k not including the evac home. 

 

Personally I'm in my 30s and after that experience plus research the minimum coverage I'll take is 50k. But honestly most plans I chose it was a couple bucks to get significantly more coverage so I usually do that. 

[luvincruising]

  I would go on insure my trip dot com and squaremouth dot com to review available policies.  If you would feel better speaking with a rep, you can call either one and get your questions answered.

  When I travel out of the country and know that my personal health insurance will not cover anything [or very little] in terms of health problems or injuries outside the U.S., I buy a comprehensive policy. My definition of a comprehensive policy is

   Primary medical coverage - your travel ins. pays first, even if you have other coverage

   $100,000+ Emergency medical coverage - things happen

   $500,000 Medical evacuation - medical transport off the ship to a medical facility can be expensive

      - non-emergency evacuation is not a part of many policies but is a definite benefit, if it is needed.

   Pre-existing illness coverage- only important if it applies to you

   $0.00 Medical deductible - I do not carry much cash on trips;  a higher deductible could lower the cost of the insurance.

   Baggage & personal items loss - $250 - $300.00 per item - lost, stolen or damaged luggage [and contents]; this coverage   

   has a lot of restrictions;  read the policy details carefully.

 

  If you find a policy that has these minimums, you should have a fairly comprehensive package but read the policy details carefully and ask questions.

Have a great cruise. 

 

[Rick&Jeannie]

If you do much cruising you might want to check out  GeoBlue for an annual policy. Covers you regardless of how many trips you take and regardless of whether it's a cruise.

[casofilia]

Go and "blow your nose" in an American hospital and see what that costs!!!!!!   As a non-American we would always take an unlimited cover when travelling where any part of the trip includes the US

[gstrick99]

I was a cruise line nurse for 10 years. My main takeaway from that experience was never leave the country without travel insurnace. I saw more than one family scramble together their credit cards for very expensive air evacuation, and many learn too late that their home policy didn't cover foreign medical emergencies. The ship can help get you to the nearest hospital if they can't manage an emergency,  but getting back home is on you and when you are stable, a better option in most cases. Not every US health insurance plan pays for care outside the country. You need to check yours. I hear there are some Medicare supplements that do, and I'll check when I get that age. I just researched and bought a policy for an upcoming transatlantic 15 day cruise.. This was my choice from InsureMyTrip.com, but you may find others that suit you better. Details of medical coverage are on their site. I thought it reasonable for the time it covers, including my flight home.

[brookie848]

We've been on seven cruises, but have booked nine. Our first cruise we had to cancel the day before when my MIL died (we had booked the cruise 30 days before sailing). Since it was our first cruise and we booked so close to departure, we only had NCL's insurance. Thankfully it covered most of the cost of the cruise.

 

For the past couple of years we've used insuremytrip and bought a pre-existing condition policy. And wouldn't you know it...we cancelled our upcoming cruise (I still haven't updated my signature) this week after my husband received a kidney transplant. We've spoken to the insurance company and just need to provide them with some paperwork.

 

When we cancelled our cruise, we booked one for next year since his doctor's said he would be clear to go, but we plan on calling insuremytrip to make sure we get a policy that will work best for our circumstances just in case. We've also used them to cover land-based trips. Like others have mentioned, I suggest looking at their site and seeing what works best for you.

[tumblew467]

You can go to the trip insurance store and he explains all the diff policies or call them they may be able to help. Even if it past final payment there were policies in the past  you could  get as well.  I did a mock  quote for a 7day trip with each person costing $3000 and the ages of 55 and 56 to see what would be offered. The initial pymt date of feb 2019 and the trip takes place march 29- april 5 2020

 

However now on the site it says in bold red the following. All the policies say ins needed to be bought  before Jan 21 ,2020.

** The 2019-nCoV Coronavirus outbreak is now a known event and any Travelex Insurance plan would have had to been purchased prior to Jan 21, 2020 for the policy to cover you for Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption**

[DeltaOne]

2 minutes ago, tumblew467 said:

You can go to the trip insurance store and he explains all the diff policies or call them they may be able to help.

 

I second the advice to call the folks at the trip insurance store.  They're quite good at explaining your options and  helping you make a choice.  

 

Ask them about their "insure as you go" strategy. https://tripinsurancestore.com

 

[debenson0723]

I just bought an annual policy from Allianz because I have 3 cruises booked, including one with an additional week in Europe that is land based.  I also do a couple of land vacations a year (even if they are just 3-4 days, they are all included).  The cost savings of going annual vs. per trip were significant and what they don't cover, my AmEx card will in most cases. 

[ColeThornton]

FYI..tons more good insurance info on the Cruise/Travel Insurance forum.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

[realtorgranny]

We were on a 19 day TA when my husband contracted pneumonia. For four days he went to the infirmary twice a day for treatments. His bill was over $11,000. Medicare does not cover out of country services. We were thankful we had purchased insurance. You do have to pay the bill yourself and then get reimbursed. FYI.. make certain you have a credit card with plenty of available credit. We saw several families scrambling to get their credit extended because they had to pay a huge bill. We certainly learned our lesson and always get outside insurance. Do your research early so no surprises.

 

[julig22]

53 minutes ago, realtorgranny said:

Medicare does not cover out of country services. We were thankful we had purchased insurance. You do have to pay the bill yourself and then get reimbursed.

Straight Medicare - no.  But I was able to change my advantage plan this year to cover both out of state and out of country expenses since I planned to travel.  Hadn't even thought of it until the guy at the presentation mentioned that the "other" plan was much better if I did much travel, as I would be covered with no maximum.

[tumblew467]

20 hours ago, realtorgranny said:

We were on a 19 day TA when my husband contracted pneumonia. For four days he went to the infirmary twice a day for treatments. His bill was over $11,000. Medicare does not cover out of country services. We were thankful we had purchased insurance. You do have to pay the bill yourself and then get reimbursed. FYI.. make certain you have a credit card with plenty of available credit. We saw several families scrambling to get their credit extended because they had to pay a huge bill. We certainly learned our lesson and always get outside insurance. Do your research early so no surprises.

 

Yes correct, however there are some  trip ins polices that you can make them primary and your own health ins would be 2ndary. B/C  other wise you do have to wait for a denial letter from your  own ins and then go to get reimbursed from  your travel ins.  And it can be quite time consuming. So there are other options out there , you just have to research the right one for you.

[bravestwj]

I usually use Travel Guard and their Gold policy.  24.3 cruises and I had never used my insurance until the .3 cruise that was cancelled on day 3 of a 10 day voyage.  I was very pleased with how things worked out with my first travel insurance claim.

I am a kidney transplant recipient so I normally purchase for medical evacuation just in case, but it came in really handy when the cruise was cancelled for mechanical reasons.

 

[FLAHAM]

My Anthem Blue Cross/Shield policy covers out-of-country medical expenses at its "preferred provider" rates. 

[fshagan]

On 2/7/2020 at 8:32 PM, ctkathchick said:

Thanks for the reply. Now that we are getting to be a little older lol the medical potential is becoming more of a concern. I thought that that trip insurance would be the primary go to. Also I did not see anything for a 1m emergency evacuation. Lol I don't even think I'd cancel if I died I'd still try to go. The coverage I saw was 100,000

 

 

In addition to medical coverage, I buy policies that include medical evacuation coverage (at least $100,000) and "reparation of remains" coverage ($10 to $30,000). It's a bit ghoulish to think about, but if one of you dies on the cruise you can have high costs to fly the body home, or even have a mortuary meet the ship. News stories are out there where it's cost $10,000 to have a mortuary pick up the remains and transport them to your home state.

[Edinburghgirl1]

I find it staggering that anyone would travel anywhere without travel insurance! From the first holiday I ever embarked on back in 1977 I have always had a policy in place to cover the unforeseen emergency or cancellation. 

[Hogladyrider]

Looking for opinions on vacation protection/insurance offered by cruise line.  In the case of Carnival it is offered with Nationwide.

 

I have cruised 25+ times and NEVER purchased insurance.....HOWEVER, I am now retired and much older and wiser and "stuff happens" and feel that going forward it would be best to purchase travel insurance.

 

Looking to book a cruise for Dec 2020 so starting researcing insurance options now before I book.

 

Thanks in advance

Susan

 

PS - we are Florida residents so we drive to ports no flying required.

[LDVinNC]

Cruise line "vacation protection" is woefully short on medical and evacuation coverage.  We bought it for our upcoming trip for the CFAR coverage, but added on a separate policy to give us primary med/evac at higher limits.

[AKJonesy]

On 2/7/2020 at 7:25 PM, Funky Fusion FoodsJ said:

As Bird said, medical can get very high.  However, your insurance may not cover you, or within certain limits.  Such as medicare, you're on your own.  There are companies that do sell policies after final payment.  I just purchased a policy from Allianz yesterday for a cruise I'm going on next week. 

Can you provide any details that are not personal to you.  That is,  did you buy the prime one time, etc.  How much research did you do before purchasing?  Just want to know if you found good reviews, checked elsewhere.  Anything you can provide to get me going would be appreciated.