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Do I have this right Re: RCI cruise care?


39august

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As I understand from the explanation of a customer service rep for Cruise Care from RCI, preexisiting condition is considered to be the 60 days prior to buying the insurance, regardless of initial payment. So, if an insured's medical treatment or condition has not changed in the 60 days prior to purchase, then any problem due to his/her medical condition will be covered. That is so different from other travel policies, most of which require purchase within 14 days of initial deposit in order to cover pre-existing conditions. So am I correct in my understanding? The RCI rep was quite adament that this is correct.

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You have the idea of a ore-exisiting condition exclusion correct, but not how 3rd-party insurance offers protection from them.

 

Many (though not all) 3rd-party policies have similar criteria for pre-existing conditions as your CruiseCare policy. But what many 3rd-party policies add is that if you buy your policy within a certain time, it doesn't matter if you saw your doc the day before you bought your policy and he told you you had, say, diabetes; as long as you are cleared to go on your trip as of the day you bought the policy, you are covered, even if an eventual cancellation is due to the diabetes.

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sirwired, Is that common industry wide? I ask because our TA purchased a policy for us while we were actually on our last cruise that excludes pre-existing if not purchased within 14 days of initial deposit, but then in other language waives that exclusion if you were in healthy enough condition to travel at the time of purchase, which obviously, we were! Do most travel insurance policies include this waiver? I always buy travel insurance and have had to make two cancelation claims due to MIL's health. No problem either time. But I just recently became interested in the pre-existing exclusions due to a change in husband's medications.

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Many 3rd-party policies have a Pre-ex exclusion waiver available for prompt purchasers. I don't know if that extends to "most", but it's certainly not uncommon.

 

I don't know of any 1st-party (as in, sold by the cruiseline directly) that have a pre-ex exclusion waiver, but many of them are converting over to "Any Reason" cancellation policies, which makes any condition of any kind moot.

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but then in other language waives that exclusion if you were in healthy enough condition to travel at the time of purchase, which obviously, we were!

 

I have never seen any plan that waives their pre-existing condition exclusion based solely on your being able to travel as of the date of purchase. Either you're reading that wrong or it was explained to you incorrectly.

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Nope, not reading it wrong. It is clearly stated. There is also the condition that it was purchased before or within 24 hrs. of final payment. I was amazed that such a policy existed also. My TA found it for me. It's a Stonebridge policy.

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Nope, not reading it wrong. It is clearly stated. There is also the condition that it was purchased before or within 24 hrs. of final payment. I was amazed that such a policy existed also. My TA found it for me. It's a Stonebridge policy.

 

I'm familiar with all of the Stonebridge plans (this one sounds like CSA or HTH) and none of them have that provision to the best of my knowledge. Can you post the insurer/plan name because if this is so then it will be of huge interest to anyone that has a pre-existing condition and has missed the normal time period to get covered for pre-existing conditions (either 14 - 21 days from initial payment or as in the case of CSA/HTH no later than 24 hours after making the final payment).

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UNfortunately I did not start looking into travel insurance until all travel plans were finalized (which took 16 days:()

 

Travelguard has 14 days period. which policy allow for 21 days period for exclusion waiver.

 

While travellers' themselves dont have any medical consition. We were trying to insure against trip cancelleation in case of MIL/FIL health (both are healthy touch wood but at age 80+ anything can happen) Bythe way, what is pre-existing condition. If FIL/MIL (non-travelling close relative) sudnly develops say heart condition (and had bypass say 15 years ago) that would be a non-covered or covered incident?

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UNfortunately I did not start looking into travel insurance until all travel plans were finalized (which took 16 days:()

 

Travelguard has 14 days period. which policy allow for 21 days period for exclusion waiver.

 

 

Look at TravelSafe Classic Plus, which gives you 21 days from the date of your inital deposit.

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Sorry, the only name on the policy itself is Stonebridge and the e-mailed certificate says CSA. I questioned the coverage when my TA explained it and called CSA myself. He pointed out the waiver on pg. 14 and sent a hard copy of the insurance policy to me at my request so I could read the waiver myself. (hard to read thru' the e-mailed copy I had on line.)

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Sorry, the only name on the policy itself is Stonebridge and the e-mailed certificate says CSA. I questioned the coverage when my TA explained it and called CSA myself. He pointed out the waiver on pg. 14 and sent a hard copy of the insurance policy to me at my request so I could read the waiver myself. (hard to read thru' the e-mailed copy I had on line.)

 

Just to be clear, this is the portion of your earlier post that I was referring to: "but then in other language waives that exclusion if you were in healthy enough condition to travel at the time of purchase, which obviously, we were!"

 

I am questioning that the policy you purchased (or any plan) has the provision that the pre-existing condition exclusion can be waived solely by being medically able to travel at the time of purchase with no other conditions or requirements.

 

The reason is this: With many plans, and especially many plans from Stonebridge including the CSA plans, the pre-existing condition exclusion also applies to non-traveling family members. Take for example the following scenario:

 

I have booked a cruise at $5000 per person for the two of us and have absolutely no intention of wasting my money on travel insurance. Neither my nor mt wife have any pre-existing medical conditions.

 

It's now bout 10 days prior to sailing and my Mother-In-Law has a heart attack yesterday. According to the doctor, in a week she may be okay or she may be dead. Either way, she now has a pre-existing medical condition. What to do? Well, since both my wife and I are medically able to travel we could rush out and buy this plan, get the waiver of the pre-ex exclusion, and still be covered if we have to cancel or cut short the trip due to the MIL's heart attack. I've transferred $10,000 of risk to the insurer at the last minute by paying a much smaller premium. No insurer is going to take that bet.

 

I think that when the TA was explaining the CSA plan's coverage to you he/she mis-read or mis-understood the coverage. Here's the waiver from the plan that is normally sold through TAs (the Freestyle plan) but it's identical to all of the other plans from CSA that have a waiver of the pre-ex exclusion:

 

"WAIVER OF THE PRE-EXISTING CONDITION EXCLUSION

The Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion is waived provided you

meet all of the following requirements:

1. the payment for this plan is received prior to/or within 24

hours of your final payment for your Covered Trip; and

2. you are not disabled from travel at the time you make your

plan payment."

 

I think your TA told you that the pre-ex exclusion is waived if you meed requirement (1) OR IF you meet requirement (2). That's not the case. You have to meet BOTH of these requirements.

 

As long as you have not already made the final payment for this upcoming cruise it's a moot point -- you meet both requirements to get the waiver so you're good. But if the policy was purchased more than 24 hours past making the final payment you need to call CSA directly (not your TA) and review your pre-ex status, especially the situation with any non-traveling family members that may have some health problems because with CSA they're also in the mix.

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