Covermore morning

[cruisine21]

This was someone’s travel insurance issue on the Osteoporosis support page I’m on.

 

Ok, so I have just had a recent experience with this.
I was doing Everest Base Camp Trek so chose Covermore as the had an Adventure Plus add on which covered EBC. I also disclosed my pre-existing OP with 1-2 breaks within 5 years (their criteria).
Unfortunately I had a slip coming down from a hill and broke my ankle in 3 places requiring heli-vac to Kathmandu where I underwent immediate surgery.
And there started a week of stress dealing with Covermore - or more specifically their Emergency Assist (which is a sub-contract to Covermore). They were terrible - not calling back when they said they would, not returning emails. I was then told they would need to contact my GPs for medical history however there was a delay in this. Meanwhile I had to book and pay for my own business class ticket home without any offer of assistance (until I told them I had done it). The delay either obtaining my medical history continued (with my friends at home doing the chasing) as they had sent requests to incomplete email addresses. 6 days later, and in the day I was now booked to fly home, I received confirmation that they would cover my $21,000 hospital bill. I can’t tell you how much stress I experienced over that time.
Since getting back, I completed my claim via their portal and uploaded supporting documentation. I then received an email from them enquiring as to whether I needed assistance with my claim as presumably they hadn’t received it. Rang to follow up and was told they couldn’t see any documentation uploaded. Had to redo. Then sent an email reply to explain it was resubmitted. Never received reply or acknowledgment but did receive payment within approx 4 weeks from 2nd submission. Although I believe they have underpaid me by $300 which I have followed up by email but have received no reply..   🙄

I understand why they wanted my medical history - they obviously need to verify that my disclosure was truthful.  But their handling of my situation has been very much less than satisfactory.

Long story short, would I go with Covermore again given they were prob most expensive? NO!

And as a byline - I had to undergo the surgery again once I arrived home (6 weeks ago) and the surgeon stated that he saw no sign of osteoporosis in my ankle. It was just a trauma injury that could happen to anyone. May well increase the cost of my next cover tho 😞

[arxcards]

Underpaid by $300 = excess?

 

Most travel insurance is just a badged product, underwritten by just a few companies. The emergency assist is much the same, a central call centre that is used by several insurance brands in Australia and around the world. It is fair to not want to use the same emergency assist again, but that is harder to do when several competing insurance brands are sub-contracting to the same service.

 

I hope it has all worked out in the end.

[Cbtours]

9 hours ago, cruisine21 said:

This was someone’s travel insurance issue on the Osteoporosis support page I’m on.

 

Ok, so I have just had a recent experience with this.
I was doing Everest Base Camp Trek so chose Covermore as the had an Adventure Plus add on which covered EBC. I also disclosed my pre-existing OP with 1-2 breaks within 5 years (their criteria).
Unfortunately I had a slip coming down from a hill and broke my ankle in 3 places requiring heli-vac to Kathmandu where I underwent immediate surgery.
And there started a week of stress dealing with Covermore - or more specifically their Emergency Assist (which is a sub-contract to Covermore). They were terrible - not calling back when they said they would, not returning emails. I was then told they would need to contact my GPs for medical history however there was a delay in this. Meanwhile I had to book and pay for my own business class ticket home without any offer of assistance (until I told them I had done it). The delay either obtaining my medical history continued (with my friends at home doing the chasing) as they had sent requests to incomplete email addresses. 6 days later, and in the day I was now booked to fly home, I received confirmation that they would cover my $21,000 hospital bill. I can’t tell you how much stress I experienced over that time.
Since getting back, I completed my claim via their portal and uploaded supporting documentation. I then received an email from them enquiring as to whether I needed assistance with my claim as presumably they hadn’t received it. Rang to follow up and was told they couldn’t see any documentation uploaded. Had to redo. Then sent an email reply to explain it was resubmitted. Never received reply or acknowledgment but did receive payment within approx 4 weeks from 2nd submission. Although I believe they have underpaid me by $300 which I have followed up by email but have received no reply..   🙄

I understand why they wanted my medical history - they obviously need to verify that my disclosure was truthful.  But their handling of my situation has been very much less than satisfactory.

Long story short, would I go with Covermore again given they were prob most expensive? NO!

And as a byline - I had to undergo the surgery again once I arrived home (6 weeks ago) and the surgeon stated that he saw no sign of osteoporosis in my ankle. It was just a trauma injury that could happen to anyone. May well increase the cost of my next cover tho 😞

Glad it worked out 🥺

[Sparky74]

The trouble with insurance is that you don’t know how good it is until you have to make a claim. 

[Cbtours]

Just now, Sparky74 said:

The trouble with insurance is that you don’t know how good it is until you have to make a claim. 

True! I had to make first one ever last year when we had to change all our travel plans due to my daughter being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer (side note after gruelling chemo and major surgery she is all clear🙏🏻).

I had westpac complimentary cc insurance and Frank had an annual policy with Qantas. Both paid out in full within 10 days 🥰

[MicCanberra]

We have NRMA travel insurance, no real issues, yes they need a lot of detail but they paid out fairly promptly (within their time limits).

As I have always said, you never know how good something (TAs, Insurance, etc)  is until you have an issue and how they respond is the measure.

[Sparky74]

46 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

True! I had to make first one ever last year when we had to change all our travel plans due to my daughter being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer (side note after gruelling chemo and major surgery she is all clear🙏🏻).

I had westpac complimentary cc insurance and Frank had an annual policy with Qantas. Both paid out in full within 10 days 🥰

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

[Cbtours]

4 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

Believe you me there was much prayer! Whatever the results, we know Gods keeping power ❤️

 

[Normanville]

2 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

We have used Westpac Black CC insurance for all our travel. Had one major claim paid out quickly and with follow up call to check on health. The insurer is Alliance, they could not have been more helpful.

Juls

[cruisine21]

9 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

 

9 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

Glad to hear that your daughter is OK, Irene. I’m sure there was lots of prayer in addition to the chemo and surgery. 
 

We're hoping to rely on the complimentary Westpac insurance for our next few cruises but I need to delve into the T&Cs. It’s good to hear some positive feedback on it. 

We caught Covid before a cruise last year and claimed on our Westpac Altitude Black Insurance. Our claim was paid in 14 days without any issue.

[Galesa]

The thing is, that many of the alternate, (to covermore) TI companies do not cover pre-existing conditions. We have Westpac CC TI and it doesn't cover PECs, even relatively minor ones (like Breast Cancer when in remission for more than 10 years). So this means we have to get additional TI. Covermore seems to be the only one that provides broad cover for a range of PECs, at a cost of course.

[Cbtours]

9 minutes ago, Galesa said:

The thing is, that many of the alternate, (to covermore) TI companies do not cover pre-existing conditions. We have Westpac CC TI and it doesn't cover PECs, even relatively minor ones (like Breast Cancer when in remission for more than 10 years). So this means we have to get additional TI. Covermore seems to be the only one that provides broad cover for a range of PECs, at a cost of course.

I did notice when researching for this years TI that what was always covered in the list of 40 odd conditions (like acne and bunions!!!!) that high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes were always covered ( as long as there were no complications such as heart conditions, that condition was long standing, managed etc). These appear to have both disappeared from the accepted list and now are on the non accepted list and incur a huge jump on some companies list!

 

[cruiser3775]

4 hours ago, Galesa said:

Covermore seems to be the only one that provides broad cover for a range of PECs, at a cost of course.

That's not my experience at all.

Edited June 18 by cruiser3775

[Galesa]

45 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

That's not my experience at all.

Well I have a conditions which causes Angina like pain yet my arteries are ostensibly clear. I found that Covermore was one of the few TI companies that provided cover for that PEC. 

[Aussieflyer]

Isn't there a particular TI company (name escapes me at this very moment) that covers a really wide range of medical PECs - though you do pay much more. But in the scheme of things if there are PECs that need to be covered, it would be worth it. 

[SunnyinDubai]

On 6/18/2024 at 8:06 AM, Cbtours said:

These appear to have both disappeared

If I recall correctly, I think there was a higher risk if you had diabetes and got COVID so I believe it has been taken off most if not all PEC lists for TI. 

 

There are a number of TI which cover PEC - so I am suprised to read that only Covermore covers PEC. I have purchased SCTI and Allianz with PEC post covid. Allianz was great when I caught COVID overseas and even asked me why I did not submit any bills relating to accomodation for the extended stay (was staying with family so did not stay at a hotel) and they paid the eye watering cost of my return fare which I was pleased with as I was worried they would not pay it given how expensive it was...but that was the only fare available for me to get back to Aus post quarantine. 

[cruiser3775]

3 hours ago, SunnyinDubai said:

There are a number of TI which cover PEC - so I am suprised to read that only Covermore covers PEC.

Yes, that's what i was going to say earlier, when my computer froze up after one sentence.  I have several pre existing conditions, and have found that some are automatically covered by different travel insurance company quotes, while others have to be declared and attract an extra charge.  Covermore is quite expensive, and offers things I don't need, like $20,000 coverage for loss of my luggage. I don't carry diamonds and Gucci shoes in there, so no need for that level of coverage!

I also found recently that, if you have a frequent flier number, you can get substantial discounts through Qantas and Virgin for travel insurance quotes.

[Womble99]

38 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I also found recently that, if you have a frequent flier number, you can get substantial discounts through Qantas and Virgin for travel insurance quotes.

Does Qantas do cruise coverage? Last time I tried running a quote through them there was no mention of cruise coverage in their pds and no option to select it when quoting a policy?

 

Given their great phone service for flights I wasn't keen to check by phone so they missed my business.

[Cbtours]

26 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

Does Qantas do cruise coverage? Last time I tried running a quote through them there was no mention of cruise coverage in their pds and no option to select it when quoting a policy?

 

Given their great phone service for flights I wasn't keen to check by phone so they missed my business.

Yes def cover cruises. Very helpful when I ph to double check. It’s def in PDS under reference to “transport” and I’ve double checked again no we taking annual again and it is def auto covered.

[cruiser3775]

On 6/19/2024 at 1:43 PM, Womble99 said:

Does Qantas do cruise coverage?

Yes, they do, but they seem to be doing their best to hide it. You can find the reference by trawling through the PDS.  I actually emailed them to get a confirmation in writing, in case I had a claim.  Virgin is more upfront, and their cruise insurance is actually with Covermore. You buy it through Virgin, quote your FF number to get the discount, then the documents that are emailed to you are from Covermore.

[arxcards]

Not so sure about it being hidden. Prior to covid, for most policies, international travel was international travel regardless of by land, air or sea. Post covid, some policies have cruise as an add-on, some don't. Just looking at one of my pre-covid policy PDS, the only distinction given to cruising was that a domestic cruise required international insurance. With that same company now, cruising is an add-on which has specific cover around covid isolation, missed ports --- and insurance for your tux.

 

I wish it was simple again. I don't need to insure my tux or most of the long list of items and can readily suffer the disappointment of a missed port in one of the bars on the ship.

[boeckli]

On 6/19/2024 at 1:43 PM, Womble99 said:

Does Qantas do cruise coverage?

 

 

I just found the following in their TI FAQ section under "Purchasing"

 

https://insurance.qantas.com/help-and-support/purchasing-travel-insurance/does-my-policy-cover-a-cruise

[Womble99]

39 minutes ago, boeckli said:

 

I just found the following in their TI FAQ section under "Purchasing"

 

https://insurance.qantas.com/help-and-support/purchasing-travel-insurance/does-my-policy-cover-a-cruise

So coverage only for international cruises any domestic ones are not covered. Kind of makes the annual policy worthless if you do any local cruising as well?

[Aus Traveller]

26 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

So coverage only for international cruises any domestic ones are not covered. Kind of makes the annual policy worthless if you do any local cruising as well?

What is classified as a 'domestic' cruise? Would this be a cruise (for instance) on the Murray River? Would a cruise on an international ship from Sydney to Hobart and return be classified as international or domestic? Previously the advice is that international coverage would be required for the Sydney-Hobart-Sydney cruise.

[Cbtours]

18 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

What is classified as a 'domestic' cruise? Would this be a cruise (for instance) on the Murray River? Would a cruise on an international ship from Sydney to Hobart and return be classified as international or domestic? Previously the advice is that international coverage would be required for the Sydney-Hobart-Sydney cruise.

Well you state you’re going in a cruise inc domestic with say covermore and one cover and they load the excess then. But more sure about annual