Minimum Medical Insurance

Travel insurance has all different amounts for medical (not evacuation). My policy is through my TA through Allianz and has $50,000 medical. It does not sound like much to me if I am in the hospital.

What is the minimum that one should have? I'm thinking of maybe pricing out a medical only supplement and possibly purchasing Medjet Assist (our next cruises are to Hawaii and South Pacific and then next year a TA along with Med cruise).

There is no one size fits all answer. Personally, having spent over 30 years in the medical insurance field....I am not very comfortable with less than $100,000 of medical coverage (we have oft posted this on CC).....realizing that even that is a very arbitrary number. For a young and healthy family, $50,000 would be more acceptable then for a senior with past health issues. As to evacuation, we think some of this is a bit of a con. It is extremely rare for Med Evac costs to ever exceed $25,000 (and its usually a lot less). I once posted a challenge for anyone to give us a real example where it really cost more then $25,000....and we had no takers (or real examples). And even if one accepts that in the most extreme situation..evac might cost more then $25,000...it is hard to even imagine a situation where it exceeds $50,000. And yet, we have policies that routinely include $500,000 of evac insurance (this includes my own GeoBlue policy). The additional risk, to the insurance company, of raising the limit above $25,000 is very small....so the actuarial calculations make these high amounts more of a marketing ploy then reality.

But when you talk about Medjetassist (who we refer to as the Cadillac of evac plans) it is a different ball game. Medjet gives some additional rights to the insured (such as being flown to a hospital near their home) which can be very valuable. On the other hand, even Medjetassist requires you first be hospitalized...and does require physician approval for any evac.

As to cruising to Hawaii, we do not see any big deal for anyone with a US policy (even Medicare). If you were to get ill on a cruise between the West Coast and Hawaii...you are going to end up either in a west coast hospital or a Hawaiian hospital...where your US insurance will be fine. But once you leave Hawaii and head to the South Pacific (we have done a few of these cruises) you would certainly want some decent international insurance and evac coverage. The Med is a really interesting area because it is actually a pretty compact region with local healthcare ranging from World Class (such as in France) to near awful. But it is never a long evac flight to get you to excellent healthcare as places like France, Germany and the UK.

You might want to do as we do, and consider an annual travel medical policy (such as Geoblue) which would cover all of your travel (up to 70 days per trip with Geoblue) during an entire year. Our personal strategy revolves around an annual policy since we travel up to 7 months a year...and llive in Mexico for at least 2 months during the winter.

Hank

Hank, thank you for your informative post. GeoBlue is not offered in our state per their website. We are seniors in our 60's on Medicare. Our secondary insurance is not medigap but through my dh former employer so does cover international although I will have to check with them to see how much they cover out of the country (it would be emergency because obviously doctors and hospitals would be out of network).

On a previous trip to the BI last year (first traveling abroad) I purchased a medical only policy to add to the Allianz. It only cost $90 total for the two of us. I'll have to call the trip insurance store tomorrow to see how much it will cost us for our upcoming trip. I hate to overinsure however we are at an age where things can go wrong in an instant.

As for medical evacuation I think costs are not as high as many people think it could be because they are only evacuating you to the NEAREST hospital that can handle your issue, not to your home area. That is where Medjet Assist would work although in some thread here recently I read that it is not a quick solution and can take 2-5 days to get you evacuated.

I've been doing a bit of reading about trip insurance as far as medical goes. Apparently a lot of companies now have low medical amounts ($10,000, $25,000, $50,000 with a few at $100,00). Very few have more than $100,000. We have used the trip insurance store in the past purchasing Global Alert. Not only have they lowered their medical amount but they have increased their look back period from 60 days to 180 days for pre existing conditions.

I also checked out insuremytrip.com and found similar things there. Seems like the insurance landscape is changing.

I've been doing a bit of reading about trip insurance as far as medical goes. Apparently a lot of companies now have low medical amounts ($10,000, $25,000, $50,000 with a few at $100,00). Very few have more than $100,000. We have used the trip insurance store in the past purchasing Global Alert. Not only have they lowered their medical amount but they have increased their look back period from 60 days to 180 days for pre existing conditions.

 

I also checked out insuremytrip.com and found similar things there. Seems like the insurance landscape is changing.

You are right, and its a real cause for concern. We recently became aware of the Nationwide Plan (a popular option for those on very long World Cruises) and they still have their coverage at $100,000 or $150.000 (Luxury Plan). The irony is that as costs increase, insurance limits are decreasing! But actuaries used to calculate loss-ratios with the knowledge that the first $25,000 is where insurance companies ran the greatest risk and made the most payouts. Claims over $25,000 used to be pretty rare...so the extra cost to provide high limits were reasonable. But now, one can easily run up a $50,000 or higher bill in a relatively short stay...if it includes CCU, ICU, and/or Surgery. So I guess the insurance companies are decreasing their financial exposure...rather then implementing big rate increases. We noticed that GeoBlue increased our premiums from $350 - $450 over a single year...but they still maintained our $250,000 coverage limit.

Hank

All these people who are on Medicare with a medigap policy possibly don't realize how little medical coverage they have. We are on Medicare but instead of medigap we have coverage through my dh old work. However, even though they cover internationally, it is of course out of network. We would pay, I think, 20% of what they cover 80%. 20% could be a LOT! Also, what about what they won't cover???!!! Too vague. I already purchased cruise insurance through my TA for my October cruise which only covers $50,000. Trip Insurance Store says I can purchase a policy from Travel Insured which will give me $100,000. I assume that is an additional amount on top of my $50,000 through Allianz. Hopefully nothing happens but if it did after my own insurance who would pay first Allianz or Travel Insured?

I think I may rethink things for my April cruise. I haven't bought insurance yet. If I do through TA then it covers pre existing conditions but only $50,000 of medical so I have to purchase more insurance. If I do it through Princess then it is only $20,000 of coverage which is even worse!!

You said you once tried to find out what people actually spent for medevac but no one replied. I bet in the future we may see threads of people complaining that their medical coverage on their trip insurance was not enough!

You definitely need to check the fine print as to what your employment insurance would cover as a backup to medicare when overseas. I do alot of international travel for work plus lots of cruising for pleasure.

Last year I had BC/BS policy that gave me the same coverage using the in-network facilities of Geo Blue. This company switched to UHC. No in network facilities and of course they only pay per their coverage procedure schedule once the $8000 out of network deductible is met -- yikes:mad:

Hopefully nothing happens but if it did after my own insurance who would pay first Allianz or Travel Insured?

You might run into the Coordination of Benefits issue - it's where one plan finds out about the other and the two plans end up pointing fingers at one another saying "That one is next/primary". SO, to avoid that headache, you have to designate one plan as primary or just buy from one source.

If you need medical evacuation from the South Pacific to the East Coast it will be in excess of $100,000. A few years ago we organized an air ambulance from NY to India and it cost $250,000. It would have been about $175,000 but the family wanted a plane that could make it on one stop.

A helicopter medical flight in the US averages between $15,000 and $25,000. I would always look for a $250,000 minimum for evacuation.

Good to know this kind of info. Thanks. My trip insurance policy has $1,000,000 in medical transportation. It is the medical that is only $50,000.

If you need medical evacuation from the South Pacific to the East Coast it will be in excess of $100,000. A few years ago we organized an air ambulance from NY to India and it cost $250,000. It would have been about $175,000 but the family wanted a plane that could make it on one stop.

 

A helicopter medical flight in the US averages between $15,000 and $25,000. I would always look for a $250,000 minimum for evacuation.

The reality is that other then Medjetassist, not many policies would pay for that kind of transport. The idea behind most evacuation policies is to get the patient to the nearest excellent facility...not home. Medjetassist does give you coverage to a home hospital...which is why it is popular with many travelers and often thought of as the Cadillac of evacuation policies. And whether any insurance would take into consideration a family wanting one-stop...is questionable.

Hank