Insurance Coverage Limits?

[seasidemama]

Pricing different insurance coverages for upcoming trips.

 

Anyone know what the recommended amounts are for cruises that would reasonably cover emergency medical and emergency evacuations? I'm thinking this would be the biggest cost if ever needed.  

[klfrodo]

Depends on where you're going, what current coverages you may have, and what your risk tolerance is.

 

Myself? I go for a min of $100K (Primary) medical and $250K Evac. I self-insure the cost of cancellation.

[seasidemama]

35 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Depends on where you're going, what current coverages you may have, and what your risk tolerance is.

 

Myself? I go for a min of $100K (Primary) medical and $250K Evac. I self-insure the cost of cancellation.

Not sure what you mean by self insure. We usually just cruise Caribbean itineraries. As far as risk tolerance, I just want to have something that would cover anything that may come up when on a ship or abroad, including medivacs which I heard can be very expensive - I just have no idea what that means. Is it $50K, $100K $200K etc.... We only have regular medical insurance and no coverages through credit cards.

[cruisegus]

As @seasidemama said  $100K (Primary) medical and $250K Evacuation would probably cover you in most cases.  Most medical insurance will not cover you outside of the USA

 

His self insure comment means he will eat the cost of say a late flight or other problem that cause him to miss the ship.

 

A lot of us only worry about the possible medical problems and although missing a $3500 cruise would hurt, I won't lose my house because of it

Edited May 6, 2023 by cruisegus

[klfrodo]

Medivacs from the ship are free of charge. They are so specialized that this is done by trained military/coast guard units and is part of an international safety at sea treaty.

 

Cost comes in if you have to be medevac'd to another facility either for life saving measures or for continuation of care. 

An insurance broker who frequents the cruise insurance page says the biggest bill he's ever seen for evacuation was about $125K.

Edited May 6, 2023 by klfrodo

[seasidemama]

Got it. Thanks for  the info @cruisegus and @klfrodo. This is what I was looking for.

I didn't know the medivacs from the ship were free. I keep seeing on the boards mentions of these and was sure these were not free.

[jclinard]

Medical and related items would be the biggest insurable issue with (more or less) unlimited costs.  It's what I look at.

 

I prefer not to insure costs which are fixed.  If something happened and I couldn't take my next trip, I'm out about a mere 10K between air and cruise tickets (as well as prepaid hotel and tours), but that's assuming it's a total loss.  I've never canceled a cruise before, so I haven't looked into what I could recover (unlike Royal Caribbean, which has canceled at least five cruises on me).

 

 

7 hours ago, seasidemama said:

Pricing different insurance coverages for upcoming trips.

 

Anyone know what the recommended amounts are for cruises that would reasonably cover emergency medical and emergency evacuations? I'm thinking this would be the biggest cost if ever needed.  

 

[Philob]

You should also have one or two high limit credit cards on hand.

 

In most cases you pay the medical provider, come home and deal with the insurance company on getting paid back. Even if you only go to the med center on the ship, their bill will be on your final bill.

 

Exception would be if you had "primary" coverage and the insurer is able to negotiate (guarantee) payment to the hospital admin while your still there.

 

Getting "primary" travel medical coverage is worth the extra $ because when you make your claim, you only deal with one insurance company. "Secondary" means you have to make 2 claims. First with your home medical insurance provider. Then the secondary for what ever the first doesn't cover.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Philob