Travel insurance for pre-existing conditions

[mtnlvr53]

I'm confused about the pre-existing condition exclusion. 

When your are of Medicare age it's unlikely that you are without some type of pre-existing condition/s. I know the BEST thing to do is purchase your insurance within two weeks of booking. But we cancelled a cruise and booked a different cruise. The carrier let us move the insurance onto the new cruise. The initial insurance was purchased before the 14 days, so no pre-existing exclusion. But does it still? 

If not, where can I find medical only for any potential flare up of a pre-existing condition while on the cruise? Of course having coverage for the cruise cancellation would be nice but the potentially devastating financial issue would be needing care, a lot of it, while on the ship. 

Thanks for any input. Since Medicare doesn't pay for foreign treatment, it has to be primary medical insurance. (at least I think so)

Janet

 

[MaineYachtClub]

Your question made me go back and check my travel insurance policy and to do a bit of research.  Of course every situation is different, but depending on the date that the policy was purchased, the look-back period of the policy, and changes to your health during that period, a pre-existing condition waiver may not be needed.  I found this on a senior travel insurance site:

 

Travel insurance only cares about changes in your health 60-180 days immediately prior to buying travel insurance to determine a Pre-existing Medical Condition.

The Travel Insurance Carrier cares about:

• New Medical Conditions
• Changes in the Severity of an old Medical Condition
• New recommendations for treatment
• Changes in medication

If you haven’t experienced any of these in the 60-180 days prior to policy purchase, you don’t have a pre-existing medical condition per travel insurance.

For example, if you have high blood pressure and your medication dosage hasn’t changed in years, it would not be considered a pre-existing condition.

[GeezerCouple]

On 4/8/2023 at 11:28 PM, mtnlvr53 said:

I'm confused about the pre-existing condition exclusion. 

When your are of Medicare age it's unlikely that you are without some type of pre-existing condition/s. I know the BEST thing to do is purchase your insurance within two weeks of booking. But we cancelled a cruise and booked a different cruise. The carrier let us move the insurance onto the new cruise. The initial insurance was purchased before the 14 days, so no pre-existing exclusion. But does it still? 

If not, where can I find medical only for any potential flare up of a pre-existing condition while on the cruise? Of course having coverage for the cruise cancellation would be nice but the potentially devastating financial issue would be needing care, a lot of it, while on the ship. 

Thanks for any input. Since Medicare doesn't pay for foreign treatment, it has to be primary medical insurance. (at least I think so)

Janet

 

 

You should post on the Travel Insurance section of CC for more eyes (and eyes with more experience about this):

 

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

 

You probably would do well to contact a travel insurance broker such as

www.TripInsuranceStore.com

 

They deal with several vetted insurers, and they can help you select the insurer and specific policy type that is best for your particular situation and trip.

They can also help with claims, should it come to that.

 

We learned about them here on CC almost 10 years ago, and have purchased quite a few policies.  And we've had several claims as well (all through TIS with Travel Insured), including a few large claims.  All we paid promptly, which is what matters, after all...

 

You should ask them about deadlines for getting the waiver of pre-existing condition exclusions.  That deadline is different from the one for CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason), and sometimes these get confused.

 

And discuss your understanding with them.  You do *not* need to have Primary travel insurance coverage if you have Medicare, but having primary will help speed the claim process.  (It takes longer if you first need to have Medicare consider the claim and then deny it, even though everyone "knows" it will be denied. 😡 )

 

Also, don't forget that the definition of "pre-existing condition" is very specific for each travel insurance policy, and is usually quite different from how we "think of pre-existing conditions" in everyday life.

 

Finally, what you describe as "within two weeks of booking" is not always that "two weeks".  It can vary by state, and is typically in the 10-20 day range.  (It's state dependent because travel insurance is regulated by the state.)  Where we live, it's the longer deadline, although we always get the coverage started as soon as we get off the phone with the first payment.  (Otherwise, IF we were to wait until the end of the 10-20 day interval... what if we were sick then, and not "fit to travel"...!?  Ooops!  So we get it straightaway and we are good to go. 😉 )

 

GC