Insurance

I usually wait until final payment to purchase insurance due to the fact that we can cancel before then without penalty if we need to. In order to be covered for pre existing conditions i understand that insurance must be purchased at the time of booking ..is this correct? So....at the time of booking if you have no pre existing and then say a few months later your find out you have a heart or some kind of issue and something did happen on your cruise could/would it be considered pre existing?

I usually wait until final payment to purchase insurance due to the fact that we can cancel before then without penalty if we need to. If you use the Cruiseline Policy, there used to be words in the Policy that it's refundable up to Final Payment date - - I don';t knopw if they're still in the Policy

 

In order to be covered for pre existing conditions i understand that insurance must be purchased at the time of booking ..is this correct? So....at the time of booking if you have no pre existing and then say a few months later your find out you have a heart or some kind of issue and something did happen on your cruise could/would it be considered pre existing?

 

Most 3rd party policies require that you purchase w/in 14-21 days of booking to get "waiver of pre-existing conditions" and/or "cancel for any reason" optional coverage. If you do this, there's no such thing, or concern over ANY pre-existing conditions.

 

OtherWise -- Most policies have a 60 to 180 day "lookback window" for definin pre-existing conditions; if a condition occurred during that window, you would not be covered for any condition during your cruise that traces back to that pre-existing condition.

If during that window,

(a) a new condition occurs for the first time - it's a pre-existing condition.

(b) a condition that occurred prior to that window and was under control prior to that window, required a Doctor/Hospital visit or a change in RX, then it would be a pre-existing condition. (But....Note if you had a heart problem(for example) that started 5 years ago, and has been totally under control, even by prescription, as long as it did not change during the 60-180 day lookback window (did not require a hospital visit to treat or a change in Rx to control) , it's NOT a pre-existing condition.

 

The Carnival Policy has a 60 day lookback window, which is pretty much the minimum.

 

 

Ken

The TravelInsured policies that we purchase through TripInsuranceStore.com allow one to TRANSFER a policy from one trip to another as long as no claim has been made, the original travel date hasn't passed by, and the next trip is [started? completed?] within a year of the originally-insured trip.

We've made use of this several times now, so that we didn't "lose" that premium on the original deposit, which needed to be made within 21 days.

Also, the first premium is only for that first (usually quite small) deposit, as this type of policy allows one to up the coverage as additional non-refundable payments are made (also must be within 21 days of each extra payment).

This way, we never have to worry about whether any medical problem might be considered linked to anything "pre-existing".

So thus far, we haven't "lost" any early premiums, even though we weren't quite certain when we made original plans and then did indeed change them.

Just check *carefully* the terms of whichever policy you decide to get.

GeezerCouple

I usually wait until final payment to purchase insurance due to the fact that we can cancel before then without penalty if we need to. In order to be covered for pre existing conditions i understand that insurance must be purchased at the time of booking ..is this correct? So....at the time of booking if you have no pre existing and then say a few months later your find out you have a heart or some kind of issue and something did happen on your cruise could/would it be considered pre existing?

I bought my parents travel insurance a day after I made the first payment on their cruise. Within a month, my dad had been hospitalized and we found out he needed open heart surgery. We were optimistic that he would be well enough to cruise in a couple months. We had to make the final cruise payment in midst of this.

It turned out he wasn't up to the trip and we canceled his and my mother's cruise after the final payment. Because we purchased the insurance just after booking the cruise, we didn't have to worry about pre-existing conditions.

It took a couple of months of back-and-forth to get all of the doctors' records to the insurance company, but they paid out in full.

The TravelInsured policies that we purchase through TripInsuranceStore.com allow one to TRANSFER a policy from one trip to another as long as no claim has been made, the original travel date hasn't passed by, and the next trip is [started? completed?] within a year of the originally-insured trip.

 

 

 

We've made use of this several times now, so that we didn't "lose" that premium on the original deposit, which needed to be made within 21 days.

 

 

 

Also, the first premium is only for that first (usually quite small) deposit, as this type of policy allows one to up the coverage as additional non-refundable payments are made (also must be within 21 days of each extra payment).

 

 

 

This way, we never have to worry about whether any medical problem might be considered linked to anything "pre-existing".

 

 

 

So thus far, we haven't "lost" any early premiums, even though we weren't quite certain when we made original plans and then did indeed change them.

 

 

 

Just check *carefully* the terms of whichever policy you decide to get.

 

 

 

GeezerCouple

The only issue I see with this is that different trips have different needs. On one you might be renting a car, on another you might be SCUBA diving, on a third you might be in a remote location where medical evacuation will easily run you $100K (Maldives, French Polynesia, Antarctica, etc.).

The vacations we take are varied, and we've found there is no one size fits all company or policy. The policy I had for French Polynesia and the policy I have for London are very different in terms of everything from what they cover to how they cover, and from two different providers. In FP we were very concerned with medical evacuation costs. When we went to Greece we were concerned with civil unrest disrupting our plans. In London we made sure that we were protected for the First Class tickets on BA--although they were paid for with miles, they have a value of almost $25K. We also made sure we had rental car cover, as we are renting a car for a day to drive through the countryside to Stonehenge.

If you typically cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean, changing from one cruise to the next is probably going to make no difference. But I would be wary of changing a policy meant for a typical Eastern Caribbean cruise to one in a more distant or "exotic" locale.

The only issue I see with this is that different trips have different needs. On one you might be renting a car, on another you might be SCUBA diving, on a third you might be in a remote location where medical evacuation will easily run you $100K (Maldives, French Polynesia, Antarctica, etc.).

 

The vacations we take are varied, and we've found there is no one size fits all company or policy. The policy I had for French Polynesia and the policy I have for London are very different in terms of everything from what they cover to how they cover, and from two different providers. In FP we were very concerned with medical evacuation costs. When we went to Greece we were concerned with civil unrest disrupting our plans. In London we made sure that we were protected for the First Class tickets on BA--although they were paid for with miles, they have a value of almost $25K. We also made sure we had rental car cover, as we are renting a car for a day to drive through the countryside to Stonehenge.

 

If you typically cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean, changing from one cruise to the next is probably going to make no difference. But I would be wary of changing a policy meant for a typical Eastern Caribbean cruise to one in a more distant or "exotic" locale.

I understand your concern, but it really shouldn't be a problem.

All that is needed initially is the insurance coverage for the FIRST payment (usually a very small deposit) within the "window" (21 days for the policy we usually get). That might be 6 - 20 months in advance of the trip.

We'd only need to add more coverage at each stage that we added NON-refundable charges after that.

And the insurance coverage can be adjusted UP or DOWN if the total costs become more or less (either due to a different trip or perhaps adjustments for the original trip, such as less expensive lodging, or a shorter overall stay), as long as this is before travel starts.

What is VERY important is to check these things when one is comparing policies.

There is another type of coverage we might also use in the future (to avoid the chance of "lost early premiums"), and that must be purchased within a few days of the full payment of the most expensive portion (could be a cruise, could be business class airfare). That can be done much later, after one is more certain of the plans.

(One "catch" for this type of coverage is that if one wants to add CFAR coverage, it is MUCH more expensive.)

GeezerCouple