travel insurance

[MJ123]

Any good recommendation on travel insurance? Did anyone use Access America? any thoughts?

[billie5]

Any good recommendation on travel insurance? Did anyone use Access America? any thoughts?

This is an extremely complex question, impossible to answer without a lot more information from you.

 

Do you need insurance against trip cancellation, or are you only concerned about major medical problems while travelling? Do you want annual insurance, or do you need insurance only for one trip? For medical evacuation, are you concerned about getting from a hospital in, say, Dubrovnik, to your home hospital (or the Mayo Clinic), or do you also want to be protected against being plucked off the side of a mountain or a cruise ship with a helicopter, say, and conveyed to a local hospital and then home? Are pre-existing conditions an issue for you? How old are you? Are you concerned about having money up front, or can you afford to provide that yourself and then get paid back? Are you looking for something for $100 or are you willing to pay much more? Will your home policy pay for illnesses abroad?

 

This is just some of what can impact choices in a major way.

 

Bill

[esther e]

We use Access America (or Travel Guard) for every cruise we take. It is expensive as we are older and tend to take costly cruises. However, it's well worth it. Everything is covered from missing the ship due to a traffic accident to medical evacuations. Point in fact, we had, between the two of us, a medical bill on our last cruise of over $1400 (someone thoughtfully came on the ship sick and it went right through the a/c system and a good percentage of the ship picked it up.):eek: Thank goodness we only use it once or twice, but the money paid is like any insurance...if you need it, etc.

[lgcochran]

This is a great question; and I also am interested in peoples' comments.

 

We are interested in a one-time or annual medical only policy to cover the catastrophic situation that my husband's medicare or my individual policy doesn't cover. Seeing we have 3 trips planned in a 12 month period, the later makes sense. We are willing to "self-insure" the trip cancellation/interuption risk.

 

Last year, we bought HTH/ Unicare; but this company no longer will be writing this in Florida. Many other carriers are also not available in Fl.

 

Linda

[lgcochran]

Forgot on thing- check out Insuremytrip.com

 

You can review several coverage options, compare and get quotes on line.

 

linda

[billie5]

I also self-insure, and in many, many trips have never had a problem develop. I have always assumed that if I can afford to take a trip, I can also afford the loss incurred in not taking it. What did concern me, however, was the possibility of costs far beyond just the trip itself, ie., the catastrophic case. Because I travel several times a year (this year for example, Ethiopia in Feb, Mexico in March, Senegal in May, Greece in July), I wanted an annual policy. Because my BCBS policy covers medical expenses inside the US or outside, medical costs were not my main concern, evacuation insurance was.

 

I settled on MedJetAssist. It is not perfect. It will not pay for evacuation to the nearest hospital, so not suitable for mountain climbers (certainly of no concern to me) or helicopter evacuation off a cruise ship (possible and very expensive but exceedingly rare). It will pay for evacuation from any local hospital further than 150 miles from your home to any other hospital of your choice, which is the part I felt I needed. If for example I had had a problem in Ethiopia, or if I will have a problem in Greece in July, I am sure getting to the nearest hospital will not be a big deal. However, I would not want to be treated in an Ethiopian hospital, or even a Greek hospital. MedJetAssist would arrange to have me transported back to the US. Since both my wife and I are in our 60's and I have pre-existing problems, the cost of MedJetAssist was very attractive: nominally $350 for an annual family plan for both my wife and me, but actually less than $300 because I am an AARP member.

 

When I retire in about a year, I may have to rethink this choice, because while my BCBS covers me medically worldwide, Medicare does not and I will have to look into a policy which does.

 

Incidentally, I used InsureMyTrip.com and another similar website to educate myself on what was out there, but found that searching CruiseCritic gave me more useful information than either of those websites.

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

Bill

[MaggieS]

This last December we had to cancel our South America trip two days before departure. We had medical coverage but no cancellation coverage. Thus I guess you would say we were self insured. We had splurged on one of the big suites on the aft section and I was so excited. Well long story short we were out approximately $20,000. We are both in our 60s and had been quite healthy. We will never risk it again but we will cruise again.

[thrpy]

We never leave home without coverage. To be out any sum of money is too much.

ESTHER E, with TravelGuard, I'm too lazy to read ALL the fine print, did you just give them a copy of your policy number or pay out of your pocket and have the insurance company reimburse you?

[almtyrob]

Jule..sorry for your $$$ loss. Hope your medical issue is resolved so that you can cruise again. I probably am a little nutty w/ insurance but I never do any major travel bookings w/o getting full coverage. You never know when something will happen before or during a trip. Peace of mind for me.;)

[Leonid]

Another very good insurance source is TripInsuranceStore.com. We did a one week trip to Nuevo Vallarta last December. My wife had a freak accident, which required the services of the resort doctor. The insurance, which I booked through them, payed all the bills.

This year we have 2 land trips and 1 cruised scheduled. Next we have 3 cruises booked, all on O. Each one is insured with the same company. Again, all through them.

What's great is that one can compare policies. And since I'm on Medicare, I need a policy that is the primary payer. Most of the policies are secondary payers, which could pose a problem.

Another benefit of TripInsuranceStore.com is if you have to change your travel dates, your policy is portable with no extra charge. We have had to do just that several times because of extenuating circumstances.

Check them out. Their home office is in Minnesota.

[Benita]

I am one of those nerdy type of people who read the fine print. There are subtle differences between the policies and on a web site, like http://www.insuremytrip.com it is easy to compare.

Access America is very restrictive about who they cover for bankruptcy. They only cover American based airlines, and only the ones that are not currently in trouble. Travelguard is less restrictive, but has some drawbacks - like not covering several of the airlines,in the event of strikes (very common with airlines like Alitalia).

I also want preexisting coverage for health issues. Even though my husband and I are relatively young (late 40s), we have elderly parents and want to be able to cancel last minute if something happens to them and they have lots of preexisting problems. Some policies will not cover any preexisting problems, and others will do so if you buy within a week or two of the deposit. There are one or two companies that will even extend this time frame until the final payment.

I like if the coverage for health issues is primary - that means the travel insurance company will reimburse you for the bills, without you haveing to submit to your own health insurance (or in the case of Medicare), your secondary insurance. My father-in-law had Access America and my husband and I had TravelInsured insurance while on a cruise. He had a massive GI bleed and we all had to be evacuated in Jamaica. Everybody got reimbursed, but his took two months longer, as Access America made him submit claims to Medicare (denied-Medicare does not cover you out of the country) and then he had to submit it to his secondary insurerer (also denied) and then they looked at the claim and paid it. Too much paperwork. TravelInsured issued a check to my husband and me (we evacuated with his father) within three days of receiving the claim.

[esther e]

We never leave home without coverage. To be out any sum of money is too much.

ESTHER E, with TravelGuard, I'm too lazy to read ALL the fine print, did you just give them a copy of your policy number or pay out of your pocket and have the insurance company reimburse you?

 

Medicare will not cover us out of the country. Since the bill was so high, AA asked us to first file with our secondary (UHC) and if denied, which it will be because thank God we haven't met our yearly deductible yet, they will issue us a check. If it was not such a high cost they would have paid promptly. They just want to be sure that we won't be filing twice. This is going to take a couple of months, but that's all right. A couple of years ago I had a medical bill of about $700 from a fall on a ship and they paid without us filing with UHC.

[lgcochran]

Billi5, I owe you a drink if we ever meet on a cruise. Your comments sparked me to check my COBRA coverage (recently retired) with BCBS and indeed it does cover foreign travel. So, I just need to cover my husband.

I've found 2 annual multi-trip policies covering medical and exacuation (to nearest facility not home) ranging in price from $139 (Amex Insurance) to $200 (Medex). He suggested that if he was that bad off, throw him off the ship!!!!

 

I agree with you, with 3 trips a years, the full trip coverages ranging from 5.5 - 9.71% of trip value, you could end up spending in the 000's for the coverage.

 

I'll also consider the MedJet Assist.

 

Maybe living in the hurricane area of the US and having been in the inusrance industry prompts one to assume more risk!

Linda

[billie5]

Linda,

Well, I will be on Oceania's Nautica in July and Costa's Concordia in November. If you are going to be there I want that drink.

 

Bill

[Gail in California]

My TA signed me up for insurance with the cruise line. Just noticed that it is $1800 for a 16 day trip . Have used this site to check out all your suggestions & find that I can get Travelex, Travel Insured, Travelguard, or Access America for far less. Still trying to compare & make a decision. Should air (using our miles for free air) & pre & post hotels be considered in the total cost or just the cost of the cruise?

 

Thanks.

 

Insuremytrip.com & tripinsurancestore.com are great.

[LEJ]

Insurance will not reimburse you for tickets purchased with air miles. However, you should include you pre and post hotel costs if they are not refundable, and any other costs that are not refundable. This was information from my travel agent

[lovecruisingtoo]

You are absolutely correct that insurance will not reimburse you for costs associated with the use of air miles. However, the cost to redeposit miles is normally very modest (about $100 and you get the taxes that you paid returned) and therefore should not be a big consideration.

[lgcochran]

Bill:

 

We'll be on Regatta in July in the Baltic. This is our first O cruise, although years ago we were on R1 or R2 Istanbul to Athens. We really enjoyed it!!

 

Not quite close enough for the drink!

 

Linda