Medical Insurance

[lifeisrealygood]

Information please!!!

 

My wife and I have been on 28 Celebrity Cruises.  We are US citizens on Medicare with a secondary insurance plan.  We always take the Celebrity Vacation Protection Plan and that, combined with what medical benefits come with our credit card, we believed to be adequate medical coverage.  

 

With this Coronavirus thing, I thought it would be a good time to look at just what coverage we have.  We are on the March 15th Caribbean Cruise on the Silhouette to the Southern Caribbean.  Let's assume that we need to be airlifted or transferred from the port to the nearest hospital to be treated.  With our credit card, we have unlimited coverage to get us to the hospital, including medical supplies and procedures en-route.  With our credit card, once we get to the hospital, the credit card medical coverage ceases.  With the Celebrity Vacation Plan, we get medical coverage up to $10,000.  That is really not a lot of money if you have something serious.

 

If we die, both plans I think ship "the box" back to the States.  We don't want that to ever happen!!!!

 

My question is this.  What additional insurance coverage do you United States Citizens purchase to cover what could be a huge medical bill at a hospital not in the United States, say in Grenada or St Vincent?  

 

We have been very lucky thus far on our many cruises.  

 

 

 

[cruiserchuck]

We purchased a medical/evacuation plan for our recent trip fromTravel Guard, through a site called insuremytrip.  We had cancellation coverage through our credit card.   

[dsa181920]

I use TripInsuranceStore.com. They provide quotes from several companies. There are some policies that require you to have a primary medical policy and a few that do not have this requirement . You can choose different coverage amounts for medical expenses, evacuation, etc.  There is a forum on cruise critic that is focused on insurance. You will find a lot of information there.

 

 

[DogLover]

So Dear Hubby is on Medicare with supplemental and I (still a few years out from Medicare) have United Healthcare. We also have excellent trip cancellation/interruption benefits with our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

 

That said, whenever we travel internationally, we always add a policy with GeoBlue for Medical coverage. We've (thankfully) never used said coverage, but it's reassuring to have just in case. Might be of interest to you. You can qualify for the Voyager Essential Plan with Medicare thus eliminating any pre-existing condition issues.

 

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/products/single-trip/voyager-5-overview.cfm

 

Safe travels!

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

I would definitely call your Credit Card company and confirm your belief that their travel insurance covers medical evacuation and medical evacuation from a ship.   When I talked with Chase Sapphire they indicated it did not cover evacuation.  

 

Also important to understand your insurance as it pertains to corona virus.    I read last week the Medjet issued an exclusion for coronavirus.  

 

You might also have a read of this:

https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/can-you-count-on-your-credit-card-travel-insurance.php

 

One important assertion made is:  

 

Credit cards also don’t cover medical evacuation, while travel policies do, she says. Transport in an international air ambulance can cost $100,000 or more, Kundell says. “If you get injured or have a heart attack in a remote location, you’re talking about a lot of money,” she says.

 

Legally none of us can give you insurance or legal advise unless we are licensed but really recommend you not rely on your personal belief without checking with the insurer.   A little research may same you lots of money in the event of a major illness. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2020/02/02/does-travel-insurance-cover-the-coronavirus/#25c42fe44d64

 

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, DogLover said:

So Dear Hubby is on Medicare with supplemental and I (still a few years out from Medicare) have United Healthcare. We also have excellent trip cancellation/interruption benefits with our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

 

That said, whenever we travel internationally, we always add a policy with GeoBlue for Medical coverage. We've (thankfully) never used said coverage, but it's reassuring to have just in case. Might be of interest to you. You can qualify for the Voyager Essential Plan with Medicare thus eliminating any pre-existing condition issues.

 

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/products/single-trip/voyager-5-overview.cfm

 

Safe travels!

 

 

 

Great advise.   We have also have an annual policy with GeoBlue.  

[Silkroad]

We aren’t yet eligible for Medicare, so I don’t know how that works for travel, but we augment our medical coverage with additional travel insurance (not from the cruise line). I purchase our travel policies from Steve Dassos at tripinsurancestore.com. We also have an annual Medjet Assist policy, but as Jim said, Medjet has recently excluded some countries from coverage for evacuation due to coronavirus.

There’s also a lot of useful information on the CC insurance forum. Here’s the link:

 

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

Edited February 11, 2020 by Silkroad

[Scottygirl1]

Our travel policy, with a major international brand, specifically excludes epidemics and pandemics.  I think we won't be taking the risk to travel.

[jelayne]

We have a annual travel policy that provides trip cancel, interruption, baggage $50K medical, etc.  while it provides evacuation it conditions are restrictive- get you to the nearest place you can be treated, so we have a separate evacuation plan.  Additional our Medicare supplement provides $50K. Medical.  Credit card also provides some travel coverage and medical.  
 

We had a friend who was injured and had to be transported to be treated.  Getting transported from the Canary Islands to US cost  just under $100K. 

[cruiserchuck]

15 minutes ago, Scottygirl1 said:

Our travel policy, with a major international brand, specifically excludes epidemics and pandemics.  I think we won't be taking the risk to travel.

 

The policy we purchased for a recent trip also excluded epidemics and pandemics.  It was for a trip we took last December, so I did not even know about the exclusion until the Coronavirus issue recently arose, and I looked at the fine print.  It is my understanding that many policies exclude coverage for epidemics and pandemics

[royalcruz]

3 hours ago, DogLover said:

So Dear Hubby is on Medicare with supplemental and I (still a few years out from Medicare) have United Healthcare. We also have excellent trip cancellation/interruption benefits with our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

 

That said, whenever we travel internationally, we always add a policy with GeoBlue for Medical coverage. We've (thankfully) never used said coverage, but it's reassuring to have just in case. Might be of interest to you. You can qualify for the Voyager Essential Plan with Medicare thus eliminating any pre-existing condition issues.

 

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/products/single-trip/voyager-5-overview.cfm

 

Safe travels!

 

 

This is also what we do. We get the best annual policy that GEOBlue offers.