Insurance help please

We have Princess insurance on a cruise we are taking in January. To be honest, we usually do not buy insurance (husband not a believer). It is a WC. The question I have is I have read that so people by medject insurance. Should we have it in addition? Do you need both, why?It seemed like Princess protection covered evacuations. Should I only get medjet? Is medjet like princess care only better ? Please any insight would be so appreciated.Cindy

We have Princess insurance on a cruise we are taking in January. To be honest, we usually do not buy insurance (husband not a believer). It is a WC. The question I have is I have read that so people by medject insurance. Should we have it in addition? Do you need both, why?It seemed like Princess protection covered evacuations. Should I only get medjet? Is medjet like princess care only better ? Please any insight would be so appreciated.Cindy

Best to post this on the cruise/travel insurance board.

We always buy MedJetAssist in addition to the regular insurance.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=635

It all depends on your itinerary and the state of your health. The Princess protection is fine in most cases - some people will say never buy the cruise line insurance, private is better/cheaper, but if you're over age 65 or so, the cruise line insurance is often much more affordable.

The MedJet question comes into play if you're cruising in remote places which might not have quality medical care available in ports of call, or the very remote chance that you'd need to be evacuated from the ship by helicopter. The evacuation insurance provided by Princess could be inadequate to cover the actual total evacuation cost. If you think your health is high risk, or if your ports include some questionable health care standards, then the MedJet or another supplemental 'medical only' policy is probably a good call. It's usually not very expensive - since we're doing 3 cruises in the next year, we bought an annual medical policy through Allianz for $250 for the 2 of us. It gives us an additional $100K evacuation benefit.

Be aware that Medjet is a transportation plan, NOT a medical or insurance policy. In order to use it, one must first be hospitalized. At that point, a member can call and ask to be medically transported to a hospital of your choice. Note that you must be stable enough to be transported. Also note that they do not conduct ship evacuations.

The reason many people like it is for the choice of hospital benefit. (The evac coverage in most medical plans is to the 'nearest suitable hospital' which is often going to be in a foreign country; Medjet will get you home if that is where you want to be). But you will still need a medical plan to cover the initial accident/illness and hospitalization.

Medjet is in addition to your travel insurance. It covers you from the hospital (over 150 miles from home) to your home hospital or the hospital of your choice.

Here's why you need/want medjet insurance.

Almost all travel insurance policies cover "evacuation" insurance....that gets you from wherever you are to the nearest medical facility that can handle your medical emergency. If the local hospital can't handle the emergency, your travel insurance will get you the nearest hospital that can treat your condition.

Here are the issues that medject fixes:

1) the remote hospital says they can handle your emergency issue but you know or think that on the off chance they can, they will use obsolete medical practices....and you want to be treated by the best...at home.

2) you are in the remote hospital and they can treat you but you are looking at a month's stay....and you want to recover at a hospital local to your home.

3) your remote doctor and/or your insurance claim worker don't feel that it's medically "necessary" for you to be transported anywhere else....you will get "adequate" treatment where you are. They decide, based on your condition and their assessment if you should stay at that remote hospital.

Here's the difference with Medjet. If you are in a foreign hospital (note...IN not discharged), you request that medjet evacuate you to your local hospital. Once you have done this, the only OK needed is that the remote hospital and/or medjet has to agree that you are medically able to fly....even if that means a doctor/nurse flies with you. Once they get the OK that you are stable enough to fly, they evacuate you. YOU decide when you want to be transported to a home hospital....not the insurance rep or the remote doctor. Big difference!

Hope this helps.

It all depends on your itinerary and the state of your health. The Princess protection is fine in most cases - some people will say never buy the cruise line insurance, private is better/cheaper, but if you're over age 65 or so, the cruise line insurance is often much more affordable.

 

The MedJet question comes into play if you're cruising in remote places which might not have quality medical care available in ports of call, or the very remote chance that you'd need to be evacuated from the ship by helicopter. The evacuation insurance provided by Princess could be inadequate to cover the actual total evacuation cost. If you think your health is high risk, or if your ports include some questionable health care standards, then the MedJet or another supplemental 'medical only' policy is probably a good call. It's usually not very expensive - since we're doing 3 cruises in the next year, we bought an annual medical policy through Allianz for $250 for the 2 of us. It gives us an additional $100K evacuation benefit.

This is not correct.......

Medjetassist arranges to have one transported from ANY hospital back to their home country/state/hospital.

Regardless of medical necessity, if a member is hospitalized 150 miles or more from home, Medjet will arrange medical transfer to the hospital of their choice within their home country with no pre-existing condition exclusions (under age 75), health questions, deductibles or claim forms. There are no monetary limits to the program's benefits and no restrictions on the amount or type of travel taken annually.

As the premier global air-medical transport membership program in the U.S., they provide a calm path through the chaos. If you are hospitalized more than 150 miles from home, MedjetAssist will facilitate getting you back to your home country hospital of choice from virtually anywhere in the world.

When others say no, we say yes.

Most likely, you already have basic safety nets, such as travel medical insurance, health insurance or platinum cards. These are good to have, but they cover much less than most people realize. A MedjetAssist medical transport and travel protection membership picks up where safety nets like these drop off.

It’s not travel health insurance. It’s better.

Here’s why.

MedjetAssist is a travel protection membership program. It’s not a travel health insurance, medical evacuation insurance company or platinum card service. No deductibles. No claim forms. No caps on air medical transport costs. No need to have a hospital transfer deemed “medically necessary.” No unexpected air ambulance transport fees. No need to depend on arbitrary “hard triggers” to initiate a crisis response in a global rescue or travel security situation. Just unrivaled control over your travel health and safety.

MedjetAssist: Your path to safety when moments count.

When the unexpected happens on your trip, you don’t need frustrating fine-print restrictions or costly fees in the way of your medical care or crisis response. You just need a calm path out of the chaos — and that is what MedjetAssist provides.

"DH doesn't believe in insurance".

He needs to get over that.

I've seen people sitting in the waiting area 15 minutes from boarding...being rolled out on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

I've read on CC multiple times about people being unable to take the cruise due to last minute deaths in the family, need for surgery, delayed flights, even several who had a sick pet. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

One poster couldn't find her passport while checking in at the port. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

You never know what will happen.

If you pay off the mortgage on your house, will you continue to buy insurance? Or will it be an expense that you don't believe in?

Thank you all so much for your analysis it was very helpful. I will look at the itinerary again. I don't think we are in that remote places, rather cities. However, we will weigh the advantage of having medjet for being able to choose our home hospital. Once again thank you. Cindy

About 10 years my Mom and Dad were boarding the Grand Princess in Ft Lauderdale for a cruise. Shortly before sailing Mom fell in the cabin and broke her hip. She was transported to the local hospital and surgery went OK. She does did not react well to going under anesthia and like a previous surgery it would take her months to get back to normal.

Doctors would not release her and she and Dad were stuck in Florida, home is in California. Either Dad stayed for what could be several months living in a hotel with Mom in hospital/therapy, or they come back to CA. The only way the doctors would allow this was on a medical flight, basically from a hospital in Florida to one in CA.

Afterward I saw the flight bill and it was close to $150K.

All expenses were covered along with hospital bills etc by insurance. Without it costs would have been over $200K and that was from still within the US mainland. Once in CA she did end up staying under care for another almost 3 months. Without insurance it would have been devastating.

I also can't say enough about how well both she and Dad were treated by Princess, they went well above and beyond taking care of them while in Ft Lauderdale.

Thank you all so much for your analysis it was very helpful. I will look at the itinerary again. I don't think we are in that remote places, rather cities. However, we will weigh the advantage of having medjet for being able to choose our home hospital. Once again thank you. Cindy

It has nothing to do with remote places specifically.

Thanks Colo Cruiser for explaining MedJet - I really thought they did help in the case of a ship evacuation. Just out of curiosity, who/what does pay in such a case?

We have Princess insurance on a cruise we are taking in January. To be honest, we usually do not buy insurance (husband not a believer).

Our experience was in 2010. We were on a 15-day cruise from LA to FLL. Healthy, no unknown medical problems. Just the usual that happens as you get older. Two nights before disembarkation, my brother-in-law experienced a perforated bowel out of the blue. He'd had a physical just the months before. He was in critical condition on the ship until he could be disembarked. A medical evacuation wasn't possible. He was in the hospital in FLL for a month. Still in critical condition, he was stable enough to be flown by MedJetAssist back to California.

The onboard Medical Center bill for 24 hours of care was $8,000. The Princess Care Team arranged hotel rooms at $100/night (during both the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl that January) and Princess insurance covered almost the entire hotel bill. Except for a very minor amount, cruise, MedJetAssist and medical insurance covered, we wound up spending/paying less than we would have spent just living at home. My guess is that insurance paid for over $100,000 in medical, hotel and transportation expenses.

If you can afford $100,000 without batting an eye, then maybe insurance isn't for you. But insurance is for the unexpected.

Thanks Colo Cruiser for explaining MedJet - I really thought they did help in the case of a ship evacuation. Just out of curiosity, who/what does pay in such a case?

Your travel insurance or you pay for any evacuation costs from the ship...as well as any medical bills while on the ship. Having said that, if the US Coast Guard transports you in an emergency, they do not charge for the service. Several other countries handle evacuations the same way....but then there are some where either the official folks are unavailable so they hire a private company or they charge for the evacuation. That's where it can get expensive....I've seen a number of $20K for an estimate of what the US Coast Guard would charge if they charged.

.............To be honest, we usually do not buy insurance (husband not a believer)...........

Wow! He's a gambler and likes to live dangerously.

Exactly what Pam said.

I'll give one other reason to have insurance. 4 years ago we had booked a 15 day Hawaiian cruise on Princess. Two weeks before the cruise, and, long after final payment, I ended up with a pulmonary embolism. I got out of the hospital literally 2 days before we were suppose to leave on the cruise. The doctor had already told us there was no way I should be traveling for at least 3 to 4 months. The Princess Platinum insurance covered 100% the refund of the cruise fare. Losing a couple hundred dollars on insurance versus losing $6000.00 of cruise fare, which would you rather do? YMMV

Your travel insurance or you pay for any evacuation costs from the ship...as well as any medical bills while on the ship. Having said that, if the US Coast Guard transports you in an emergency, they do not charge for the service. Several other countries handle evacuations the same way....but then there are some where either the official folks are unavailable so they hire a private company or they charge for the evacuation. That's where it can get expensive....I've seen a number of $20K for an estimate of what the US Coast Guard would charge if they charged.

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"DH doesn't believe in insurance".

He needs to get over that.

I've seen people sitting in the waiting area 15 minutes from boarding...being rolled out on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

I've read on CC multiple times about people being unable to take the cruise due to last minute deaths in the family, need for surgery, delayed flights, even several who had a sick pet. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

One poster couldn't find her passport while checking in at the port. No insurance means all that $$ for the cruise is GONE.

You never know what will happen.

If you pay off the mortgage on your house, will you continue to buy insurance? Or will it be an expense that you don't believe in?

I've read many horror stories of people traveling without trip insurance and when they fall, or get sick, they're up a creek without a paddle. One mishap can actually bankrupt you unless you have deep pockets. We always get TravelGuard gold Plan, it has air evacuation included with the plan. Pure foolishness not to carry the insurance.

It has nothing to do with remote places specifically.

Actually Medjet can be fairly worthless is some remote places. For example if you are in a location that does not have a runway that can handle the jets Medjet uses. In that case you have to arrange for your own transfer to a hospital that is located close enough to a runway at your own expense.

There was an interesting posting about a person that was hospitalized on a Caribbean island that did not have a runway and was told by Medjet that they could not evacuate them, until they were moved (at they own expense to an island with an adequate runway). So before it was useful they had to be admitted, transferred to another hospital, be admitted at the new hospital.

It is most useful if you are in a hospital in a major country or city and want evacuation back home.

We dropped medjet after reading all of its limitations.

We have Princess insurance on a cruise we are taking in January. To be honest, we usually do not buy insurance (husband not a believer). It is a WC. The question I have is I have read that so people by medject insurance. Should we have it in addition? Do you need both, why?It seemed like Princess protection covered evacuations. Should I only get medjet? Is medjet like princess care only better ? Please any insight would be so appreciated.Cindy

Please let your husband read this. My wife got sick on our cruise and from the time she got sick until the time we got home all our bills came to over 10K. Don't leave home with out it.!!!

Tony

Any traveller who gets sick and and needs to be hospitalized would prefer to be in a hospital of his choice, treated by his own physician, and be accessible by his concerned family and friends. Medjet Assist will transport fom port city the hospitalized traveler to make this happen.

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I just saw a request asking for donations yesterday for a grandfather who was vacationing in Italy with his family when he nearly drowned in a swimming pool. His wife pulled him out and he was taken to the hospital. He is, unfortunately, in a vegetative state and the family wants to bring him home for additional treatment. He won't be released from the hospital to fly home until the family can pay I think it was $137,000 or something close to that, so for a few hundred dollars, I would get additional insurance. I'm doing a Panama Canal cruise in January and will get Medjet. I don't anticipate needing it but since I will be outside of the US, I want to be able to fly home if needed.

Thank you again for all your experiences and information.

If you can stand one more example - we cancelled our B2B Alaska cruise one hour before the shuttle was scheduled to take us to the airport, due to sudden abdominal pain (turned out to be a rupturing cyst, but we didn't know that at the time). DH was more concerned about me than losing the cost of the trip, but since I'm the one who books our travel I had said "yes" to insurance options so we recovered the money and rescheduled the trip. Never needed it before, but SO glad we had it!

We have MedJet as our safety-net for domestic road-trips as well as international travel.

I went cheap once, then it was on my mind the whole cruise, "what if". Never again, if I can't afford the insurance I can't afford the cruise.

framer

If someone is properly insured (through employer as an example) out of country, I can see why one would decline insurance. My insurance only covers 50% out of the country, so I am one who does buy insurance.

I can afford to lose the cost of the trip, I can't afford a medical emergency outside of the US. That would bankrupt me.

BTW, if you are a member of AARP, they offer medjet at a discount.