Insurance for a 78 year old Canadian!?!

[shygirl]

I need some advice about etfs insurance company. Are they good enough? They are the only other company besides Travelguard that will insure my Father inlaw. Travel guard cost $600 for 2 weeks OUCH!:eek:

 

My husband wants to treat his parents to this cruise but we did not expect insurance to be so high. For our family of 4 it only cost $280.

 

Any advise would be great. We booked Wednesday, so I need some help fast!

[beth4652]

Check the company's rating on insuremytrip.com. If you didn't get your quotes there to begin with, you might want to do some comparisons using them. Unfortunately, the older we get, the more likely there is to be a medical problem, hence the higher insurance rates.

[JanineM]

RBC seems to be one of the main insurers in Canada, so you might want to check them. They do show up on "insuremytrip.com", so you should be able to get a quote there.

 

But you might want to do a bit more investigating. Does your FIL have any insurance through a former employer (like through a pension plan)? My dad was a teacher, so my mom still has insurance through the Alberta Teachers' Association. She gets her travel insurance there, but has also purchased through the Alberta Motor Association. Don't know which province you are in, but it might be worth trying that route - especially if FIL is a member of the affiliate of the CAA. Some of those insurance policies are quite good. Mom got the flu when visiting last Christmas, and we were able to change her flight and airline, plus get prescriptions and have her visit the doctor - all under the insurance. We did have to pay upfront, but she was reimbursed fairly promptly.

 

I do know that it is extremely expensive for older folks to get travel insurance. My aunt and uncle can't visit us in Florida because their insurance would be as much as the plane ticket.

 

Hope this helps.

[shygirl]

Thanks Beth for your quick reply; I actually got a $300 quote from insuremytrip.com for etfs. We usually don't stray from Travelguard, so this is a new company for us to try. Etfs has a A- rating. When I went to buy online I was just surprised at how many medical qualifying questions they were asking.

[cruiseco]

Insuremytrip is screwy when dealing with Canadians. As soon as you go to the quote page and enter Canada as your residence it drops out many goog plans that are normally available to Canadians. I don't know why. It may be because so many Canadians travel to Cuba and maybe they've gotten their hands slapped for insuring those trips.

 

Anyway, you can try CSA http://www.csatravelprotection.com or

 

MH Ross http://Http://www.tripinsurance.com or

 

TravelSafe http://travelsafe.com

 

and there are others that are available to Canadians as long as Cuba is not on the itinerary.

[RMVET]

Whatever you do, make sure you do it within the number of days from booking that will enable you to cover pre-existing conditions (which may vary by cruise company and insurer).

 

The most important coverage you get is not trip cancellation coverage, but the medical and transportation if he were to become ill while traveling. Do you get AARP in Canada? They also sponsor MedJet, which allows you to cover your whole family for transportation for under $300 per year. It covers you all year.

 

The insurance would be a cheap price to pay compared to transporting home an ill family member!

[Wanderlust26]

Travel insurance is quite expensive isn’t it? Recently I took an elderly relative on a 18-day repositioning cruise. Her insurance, through RBC, cost me $625 for trip cancelation and $648.28 for medical.

Yes, OUCH!

[Soccerfan]

As a Canadian I use www.tripinsurancestore.com. Have used them multiple times.

 

They had the best rates for my 79 year old mother in law for a 4 month trip to Italy.

 

Thay have a great website and Steve will offer you the best options for your particular situation.

 

Good Luck :)

[mr green]

I need some advice about etfs insurance company. Are they good enough? They are the only other company besides Travelguard that will insure my Father inlaw. Travel guard cost $600 for 2 weeks OUCH!:eek:

 

My husband wants to treat his parents to this cruise but we did not expect insurance to be so high. For our family of 4 it only cost $280.

 

Any advise would be great. We booked Wednesday, so I need some help fast!

 

As I understand it, both HAL and Princess offer reasonably priced insurance to Canadians, regardless of age.

 

john

[mr green]

I need some advice about etfs insurance company. Are they good enough? They are the only other company besides Travelguard that will insure my Father inlaw. Travel guard cost $600 for 2 weeks OUCH!:eek:

 

My husband wants to treat his parents to this cruise but we did not expect insurance to be so high. For our family of 4 it only cost $280.

 

Any advise would be great. We booked Wednesday, so I need some help fast!

 

As I understand it, both HAL and Princess offer reasonably priced insurance to Canadians, regardless of age.

 

john

[shygirl]

:) Great suggestions and links!

 

tripinsurancestore.com had the best information and pointed us to the right company. We ended up booking with AIG Travel Guard which is the parent company to TravelGuard Canada! Instead of $780 for the inlaws. We got $425 for both with a "Cruise tour and travel" coverage with an upgraded medical.

 

I'm done with insurance(not my favourite:mad: ) planning. Now it fun time! Port of call boards here I come!:D

[sun~]

For us Canadians it's pretty shocking to even think about paying big bucks for medical insurance! I know my FIL did a great deal of research since he is now over 75. My ILs cruise two or three times a year, so they got a policy that covers them anytime they are out of the country. It is quite a good deal and easier than buying insurance for each trip. I believe he mentioned that it cost him in the $500-$600 (I am sure that was per person) for the year (yikes!!!!) but he did say it was much cheaper than a per trip policy.

[RMVET]

Don't feel bad about the cost of your insurance. My husband and I are sailing in January on the QE2 world cruise, and the insurance for the two of us was over $2700 for 90 days!

[jaycor99]

Hi

I know insurance can be costly traveling out of Canada-My 81 year old father in law had a heart attack when he had been in Florida for only 3 hours.

He had triple by pass with in 24 hours with amazing results and service!!

He would have had to wait I think longer here in Canada to get the by pass.

He was thrilled with his care and the insurance had to pay put almost $125,000.00 US

So yes it can be very expensive but well worth it if needed.

He had to wait a year to travel again and his insurance did go up but not by a huge amount and he is in florida now as we speak.

[RMVET]

Hi

I know insurance can be costly traveling out of Canada-My 81 year old father in law had a heart attack when he had been in Florida for only 3 hours.

He had triple by pass with in 24 hours with amazing results and service!!

He would have had to wait I think longer here in Canada to get the by pass.

He was thrilled with his care and the insurance had to pay put almost $125,000.00 US

So yes it can be very expensive but well worth it if needed.

He had to wait a year to travel again and his insurance did go up but not by a huge amount and he is in florida now as we speak.

 

Glad to hear that your father is doing well after his surgery. He was fortunate that he was near good hospitals.

 

The insurance is so important. About 20 years ago, one of my friends took his father back to Scotland for a family reunion and, unfortunately, his father died while there. Then, it cost over $30,000 to bring his body home for burial. I understand that it costs even more for cremation.

[Ontario Cruiser]

For cancellation insurance if you have Bank of Montreal Mastercard you are insured up to $5000.00 per card, there are more than one type of card make sure you hav ethe one that covers. TD Insurance has insurance for any trip 17 days or less no questions asked, quite reasonable.

Ontario Cruiser:)

Only 12 more days until our Summit Hawaiian cruise.

[Melissa401]

Insuremytrip is screwy when dealing with Canadians. As soon as you go to the quote page and enter Canada as your residence it drops out many goog plans that are normally available to Canadians. I don't know why. It may be because so many Canadians travel to Cuba and maybe they've gotten their hands slapped for insuring those trips.

The plans which currently display for Canadian residents are following the Canadian Insurance regulations.

There are possibly other companies which offer travel insurance for Canadians (as mentioned earlier in this thread) but, you should ask for proof that they are authorized to sell travel insurance in Canada.

 

Travel To Cuba:

Any company that shares any ownership with a US company is not allowed by the US Government to sell service to people traveling to Cuba.

These companies however can usually refer you to a partner who can sell for Cuba trips, so it might worth a call.