Travel Insurance

[Thechamp555]

Just now, MStarzky said:

well he did it so its not impossible, also you are not buying it specifically for the cruise. Its the evac insurance that matters the most.

What's the Evac ?

[MStarzky]

 In case they need to get you off the ship or fly you somewhere. You have to remember that everything is constantly changing and every agent I've talked to has told me different things.

[mexico8]

On 7/17/2021 at 11:07 AM, iancal said:

For those of you who have DB pensions it might be well worth your while to carefully look at any supplementary insurance that comes with it.

 

I retired ten years ago.  At that time travel insurance was not too expensive for us.  It is different now that we are in our very late 60's and one of us is on medication.   

 

My pension provides two month out of country medical/evac.  I did not think that this was such a big deal.   I did not realize the cost of this coverage or how the premium increases with age and/or pre-existing conditions. 

 

 It is now..to the point where we typically cap our travels to 60 days or less.  We did  this twice a year pre covid-occasionally buying additional insurance when we went over the 60 day point.  This coverage saves us  an increasing amount of money each year.  Just hope that it continues since it is a benefit not an entitlement.   We had occasion to make an out of country claim a number of years ago.  It was handled promptly and we rec'd the full amount of our claim.

 

I mentioned this to a friend who routinely bought BCAA travel insurance and paid a great deal for it.  He carefully checked his DB pension plan and was surprised to find that it provided good, out of country medical/evac.    This was a benefit that was never highlighted to him on his retirement.  In his case the savings for him and his spouse are quite substantial.   

 

 

Two questions for you:  1.  Are you Canadian and 

2.  What is DB pension?

 

Thanks.

[gnome12]

1 minute ago, mexico8 said:

Two questions for you:  1.  Are you Canadian and 

2.  What is DB pension?

 

Thanks.

I can answer the second question. DB stands for defined benefit pension plan.

[mexico8]

4 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I can answer the second question. DB stands for defined benefit pension plan.

We are retired from the Federal Government but I don't think it's a DB pension.  Thanks for the info.

[waiting2retire]

30 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

We are retired from the Federal Government but I don't think it's a DB pension.  Thanks for the info.

You are correct. It is not. 

[gnome12]

3 hours ago, waiting2retire said:

You are correct. It is not. 

I am certain that your civil service pension is a defined benefit plan. Before you retired, you got pension statements saying that you had accumulated so many dollars per year or per month of pension. Your pension also has inflation protection. The alternative is a defined contribution plan where you accumulate a pot of money and at retirement they calculate how much benefit that will buy. 

[waiting2retire]

11 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I am certain that your civil service pension is a defined benefit plan. Before you retired, you got pension statements saying that you had accumulated so many dollars per year or per month of pension. Your pension also has inflation protection. The alternative is a defined contribution plan where you accumulate a pot of money and at retirement they calculate how much benefit that will buy. 

I stand corrected. @gnome12  you are absolutely correct!  My ignorance of all things financial continues to amaze me. Good thing I have that defined benefits pension plan 😁

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, waiting2retire said:

I stand corrected. @gnome12  you are absolutely correct!  My ignorance of all things financial continues to amaze me. Good thing I have that defined benefits pension plan 😁

Yes it is. And a civil service pension plan is the gold standard!

[iancal]

6 hours ago, mexico8 said:

Two questions for you:  1.  Are you Canadian and 

2.  What is DB pension?

 

Thanks.

Yes,  Canadian.  As others have note DB= Defined Benefit Pension.  In my instance a company pension, not a Government pension.

 

 Our friend was a member of a multi-employer DB plan. He claimed that the out of county medical that his union DB plan provided was more generous than the BCAA plan that he had been purchasing for the previous few years.  Whats more....there were no preexisting condition issues with it.  A huge plus.

 

Edited July 21, 2021 by iancal

[mexico8]

28 minutes ago, iancal said:

Yes,  Canadian.  As others have note DB= Defined Benefit Pension.  In my instance a company pension, not a Government pension.

 

 Our friend was a member of a multi-employer DB plan. He claimed that the out of county medical that his union DB plan provided was more generous than the BCAA plan that he had been purchasing for the previous few years.  Whats more....there were no preexisting condition issues with it.  A huge plus.

 

Thanks for the info and good for you and your friend.   We have 40 days coverage with the Federal Government Health Insurance plan (Sun Life) but it does not have cancellation insurance and if we are away longer than 40 days we don't have coverage so we buy a yearly plan with Medoc.

[Thechamp555]

1 minute ago, mexico8 said:

Thanks for the info and good for you and your friend.   We have 40 days coverage with the Federal Government Health Insurance plan (Sun Life) but it does not have cancellation insurance and if we are away longer than 40 days we don't have coverage so we buy a yearly plan with Medoc.

Medoc is an Canadian insurance company ?

 

 I'm also a retired federal public servant with Sunlife but I cannot go to my cruise because I received mix vaccines.

[waiting2retire]

6 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

Thanks for the info and good for you and your friend.   We have 40 days coverage with the Federal Government Health Insurance plan (Sun Life) but it does not have cancellation insurance and if we are away longer than 40 days we don't have coverage so we buy a yearly plan with Medoc.

I had not realized that Medoc provided cancellation insurance prior to reading this thread. I purchased it once several years ago when I was out of the country for more than 4 months. It makes sense to me now to purchase an annual policy to cover the additional insurable costs when travelling several times a year. Am I correct that I need to join the National Association of Federal Retirees in order to purchase the Medoc insurance?

 

 

[iancal]

41 minutes ago, mexico8 said:

Thanks for the info and good for you and your friend.   We have 40 days coverage with the Federal Government Health Insurance plan (Sun Life) but it does not have cancellation insurance and if we are away longer than 40 days we don't have coverage so we buy a yearly plan with Medoc.

We do not have have cancellation with this plan. Only 60 days consec. out of Canada medical and evac. 

 

 We have only needed cancel insurance  once over many, many years of international travel. Three years ago we had to cancel a China trip.   Miraculously our credit card cancel insurance covered every dime...and we had our full claim satisfied within 15 business days.  We were shocked and pleased!

 

Each year I have to check my pension plan benefits to make certain the this out of country insurance is still there...and there for the usual amount of time.   This is benefit not an entitlement hence it is always subject to change or elimination.

Edited July 21, 2021 by iancal

[Fouremco]

24 minutes ago, waiting2retire said:

I had not realized that Medoc provided cancellation insurance prior to reading this thread. I purchased it once several years ago when I was out of the country for more than 4 months. It makes sense to me now to purchase an annual policy to cover the additional insurable costs when travelling several times a year. Am I correct that I need to join the National Association of Federal Retirees in order to purchase the Medoc insurance?

 

 

No, they have other plans, but Federal Retirees have a special plan. For more information, check here:

https://www.federalretirees.ca/en/preferred-partners/travel-partners/medoc-travel-insurance-through-johnson-inc

 

We've had the annual plan for a good number of years and have been extremely pleased with Medoc.

[Magicat]

Don't some credit cards have travel and cancellation insurance?  Or are the terms too restrictive and not all that comprehensive? 

[waiting2retire]

2 minutes ago, Magicat said:

Don't some credit cards have travel and cancellation insurance?  Or are the terms too restrictive and not all that comprehensive? 

Mine is only good until the age of 65 😒

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, Magicat said:

Don't some credit cards have travel and cancellation insurance?  Or are the terms too restrictive and not all that comprehensive? 

On my TD Visa Infinite (not the highest end card, but still a premium one) the cancellation coverage is a maximum of $1250 per person and $5000 per family, which doesn't go very  far on the types of trips that I am taking lately.

[gnome12]

I have been buying CAA non-medical package coverage from CAA South Central Ontario (because my employee benefits included very good out of province medical coverage). This only seems to ask about whether you have been advised not to travel. There are no other pre-existing coverage clauses that I could find that related to that specific package.

 

Note that right now, COVID, as an known risk, is not a covered reason for cancellation.

[broberts]

The trip cancellation insurance on my card is limited to $2,500 and only covers purchases paid with the card. Nowhere near enough for a cruise.

[iancal]

Our situation is very different.  Since retiring we do far less cruising and a great deal of spontaneous international travel. 

 

When we do book a cruise it is typically inside the final payment window and more often within a few weeks of boarding.  Hence, our need for high dollar cancelation insurance is much lower.  When we travel it is not unusual for us to only book a few days ahead, with the exception of return air or low cost domestic air in some countries.  

 

This was not the case prior to retirement.   But...we have essentially self insured for 50 years.  IF we were booking well in advance for an expensive trip we may well consider cancelation insurance IF the premium was reasonable.   Our China trip cancel was under the 5K limit so we were fortunate to be reimbursed.

[Robjame]

1 hour ago, iancal said:

 

When we do book a cruise it is typically inside the final payment window and more often within a few weeks of boarding. 

I think that makes a lot of sense though choice is more limited at this time. Our preferred cruise line is booking over a year out due to the vast number of cruise credits being redeemed.

Perhaps we should be more spontaneous and less picky. Thanks.

[Sharon1927]

Has anyone purchased the Manulife Covid medical insurance recently for a cruise ? I have been trying to figure out if it will truly cover covid. I have received different responses from Manulife reps. One says it will cover you if you are fully vaccinated and another says no.

[curlywigg]

On 8/1/2021 at 7:56 AM, Sharon1927 said:

Has anyone purchased the Manulife Covid medical insurance recently for a cruise ? I have been trying to figure out if it will truly cover covid. I have received different responses from Manulife reps. One says it will cover you if you are fully vaccinated and another says no.

We had been booked on a TA for Nov and we’re trying to get insurance lined up before final payment. Manulife does have a COVID policy, but it is not valid for cruise travel. I did an online chat through the website and the person suggested that my call be referred to a ‘licensed’ agent, so I asked a lot of questions with this agent and the bottom line was that I couldn’t insure my trip with them. Might be worth a try, just to get your questions answered? 

[iancal]

I questioned Manulife several months ago.  They responded in writing.   At that time our Manulife out of country medical did cover covid.  

 

But this could be meaningless.  Covid has a long way to go.  It would not surprise me if T's and C's are changing.   

 

Having said that, I cannot imagine any out of country medical insurance that would not require full covid vaccinations as a condition of coverage.

 

Nor can I imagine someone even wanting to travel outside the country if they are not fully vaccinated.

Edited August 5, 2021 by iancal