Annual travel insurance

My wife and I have been cruising quite a bit and we hope to continue. We have always bought cruise insurance from Royal. But with expecting to cruise 8 or more times a year. I am thinking about buying annual trip insurance. I'm 68 and my wife is 61. My wife is a cancer survivor with the cancer in remission for almost 2 years.

Any ideas which plans would be better for us?

It really depends on what you're after. I have health insurance that will cover international travel (reimbursement), and have access to enough assets to cover the costs in the interim. So for me, I'm not interested in "health" insurance.

I have MedJetAssist, because I want to know I can get home if I need/want to. I purchased a three year plan that covers my entire family for just over $1,000

There are a number of companies that offer annual policies. Some cover pre existing conditions (Geo Blue) and others do not. I personally have Allianz, but I do not recall their policy on pre existing conditions.

So this is included with your regular US health insurance plan, you just pay up front and get reimbursed later, right? But it doesn't cover transportation?

My wife and I have been cruising quite a bit and we hope to continue. We have always bought cruise insurance from Royal. But with expecting to cruise 8 or more times a year. I am thinking about buying annual trip insurance. I'm 68 and my wife is 61. My wife is a cancer survivor with the cancer in remission for almost 2 years.

Any ideas which plans would be better for us?

Can you adopt me, pleeeease

So this is included with your regular US health insurance plan, you just pay up front and get reimbursed later, right? But it doesn't cover transportation?

It depends on the plan you have. That's why the first thing anyone should do is find out what coverage they ALREADY have. A lot of people purchase travel insurance when their current product already covers them.

Correct!! I believe ours does,too, but will find out for sure. I just always dread calling them...

This would cover treatment on the ship, too, if it were necessary, right?

Correct!! I believe ours does,too, but will find out for sure. I just always dread calling them...

This would cover treatment on the ship, too, if it were necessary, right?

Most likely. But it is probably through a reimbursement model, meaning you'll have to foot the bill and then submit the paperwork to your insurer. The charges will be subject to the usual terms and qualifications. So, if you have a high deductible you haven't met yet, you'll be responsible for that part. Also, if you have a high copay for emergency services, they'll deduct that from the amount they reimburse.

We like GeoBlue. If traveling internationally they have a list of clinics and physicians they participate with in most countries. We go to their website in advance of our trip and jot down a few for each country that we will be visiting.

As with all insurance, the more risks they cover, the higher the price.

We took the annual GeoBlue policy because I was comfortable with their coverage of the biggest risk, evacuation. Our policy only cost a couple of hundred dollars a year but it is limited to medical and evacuation coverage. We are content self-insuring for other things like trip cancellation, trip interruption, luggage, etc.

Trip Insurance Store's website has information on a variety of Annual Insurance Plans. Steve, the owner, is a wealth of knowledge and happy to help you find the plan that fits your needs.

Trip Insurance Store Annual Trip Insurance Plans

Trip Insurance Store's website has information on a variety of Annual Insurance Plans. Steve, the owner, is a wealth of knowledge and happy to help you find the plan that fits your needs.

 

Trip Insurance Store Annual Trip Insurance Plans

Your link didn't work. Below is the link to the Trip Insurance Store website. I've been buying our travel insurance through them for several years.

https://tripinsurancestore.com/

Your link didn't work. Below is the link to the Trip Insurance Store website. I've been buying our travel insurance through them for several years.

 

https://tripinsurancestore.com/

Thanks for sharing the link. :)

Just note that annual policies are going to be medical only and will not cover trip delays, cancellations, etc. If that's what you want and need, great, but be sure you are very clear on what you are purchasing.

Just note that annual policies are going to be medical only and will not cover trip delays, cancellations, etc. If that's what you want and need, great, but be sure you are very clear on what you are purchasing.

Agree that travelers need to know what policty fits their needs.

There are Annual Policies that offer Cancellation/Trip Interruption coverage both through Trip Insurance Store and Allianz.

https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/find-a-plan/annual

http://www.annualtravelinsurance.ws/roamright-multi-trip-annual-trip-cancellation-insurance/

Your link didn't work. Below is the link to the Trip Insurance Store website. I've been buying our travel insurance through them for several years.

 

https://tripinsurancestore.com/

Thanks for the link. Always nice to have many choices.

We are content self-insuring for other things like trip cancellation, trip interruption, luggage, etc.

Yes! This is the line that always gets blurred in this discussion. When people talk about "insurance" they should start with WHAT they are trying to cover!

Yes! This is the line that always gets blurred in this discussion. When people talk about "insurance" they should start with WHAT they are trying to cover!

Yes I have found that out thanks to cruise critic. We usually drive to the ports, and we usually look for bargain basement prices. So the trip cancellation isn't critical. The medi-vac is more important.

We bought the cruise care from Royal on our cruises up to November. So I will decide before the next final payment date.

I use travel guard from aig it covers anything 150 miles away from home. It was really close to the insurance I was getting for each trip.

We have a geo blue annual policy for medical.

This cruise we had a medical emergency and 4 people had to cancel. We are filing a claim with our credit card insurance. We are supposed to be covered for up to 10K and our claim is for about 4K so we shall see what happens.

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We have a geo blue annual policy for medical.

This cruise we had a medical emergency and 4 people had to cancel. We are filing a claim with our credit card insurance. We are supposed to be covered for up to 10K and our claim is for about 4K so we shall see what happens.

 

 

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Sorry to hear you had to cancel. What credit card did you use? Hope your claim is settled quickly. Please come back and update us on the outcome.

Last year we did a GeoBlue policy for Medical and we added an April annual policy for additional medical and $5K in "trip interruption" insurance as well as things like baggage loss and flight delay. Thee was some debate about whether we could have two annual travel insurance policies but you can as long as they don't have the same underwriter. GeoBlue is primary insurance and April was secondary so it was clear in which order the policies would need to pay for medical or evacuation.

We were a little nervous about this because we had absolutely no trip cancellation insurance. Thus we were "self insured" in case of a last minute problem. We tend to do longish trips of anywhere from one to two months often involving multiple cruises and some land tours. I was not able to find any reasonable policies that cover trip cancellation because of the duration of our travels.

This year we decided not to renew our annual policies. Instead we will insure our upcoming trip through Nationwide. this is a 2 month+ trip and Nationwide has a very reasonable cruise specific policy called "Luxury Cruise". It covers a long duration trip like this as long as you take at least one cruise and don't return home. It also has some cruise specific coverage like missed ports and non-refundable shore excursions. Best part is it does have pre-existing conditions coverage as long as you buy it before final payment of the last cruise you take during the trip!

In any case we are giving this a try since our next trip is not planned until April of 2017. If we like it we may go back to insuring on a trip by trip basis. Also we have decided to only insure about 50% of the trip cost. That keeps the premium very reasonable and is better than self insuring 100%!

Great question which has been discussed on the Cruise/Travel Insurance blog. Much depends on one's personal risk tolerance and philosophy. Like the OP, we are seniors who do a lot of cruising (70-100 days a year) and also significant non-cruise international travel. Many years ago we made a financial decision NOT to purchase cancellation insurance, as we thought most policies were overpriced for the product. DW and I decided to self-insure our trip costs (no cancellation insurance) since it was money we were going to spend anyway, and losing the money would not be a severe financial hardship (although it could sure hurt if it happened with one of our expensive long cruises). Liability for trip cancellation is limited (by the cost of the trip) and we are OK taking that risk. But medical liability is unlimited (the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the US) and a risk we are not willing to take. So, in addition to our Medicare Supplemental Policy which does give us some coverage....we purchase an annual GeoBlue Policy which gives us $250,000 or major med coverage and $500,000 (a ridiculous limit that is a brilliant marketing ploy) of trip evacuation coverage. The policy costs us about $450 a year (total cost for the two of us) and covers the first 70 days of any trip throughout the entire year. As a result, we currently limit our trips to 70 days.....but are actually out of the country 6-7 months a year (usually on 2 month trips).

If we were to take a trip longer than 70 days, we would consider a single trip med policy to give us the additional days of coverage.

Hank

While your own medical insurance MAY reimburse, really suggest you contact your insurer and have them provide you with the covered and not covered services and what if any countries medical care systems are excluded. If you are not as protected as you think you are, get a supplemental policy (sometimes even offered by your primary carrier).

Also, the medical insurance that RCCL and other lines make availiable provides for THE PATIENT BE EVACUATED TO THE NEAREST APPROPRIATE MEDICAL FACILITY. First be clear that a spouse or other traveling companion are not covered. Also note that the cruise line decides whats appropriate and to be evacuated to a hospital in many countries is equal to very little care. Once on shore, the cruise line has no further obligation so to be take to a hospital in places like Haiti, does the patient no real service. Get a policy, by the year that with one toll free phone call, arrangements are made to evacuate you and your traveling companion (if u have one) to a medical facility in an area of your choosing.