Lost with all the choices, please help!

[acceber32]

Hi, I have been searching and reading so much information on travel insurance but I am still a bit lost as to what kind I should get.

First, let me explained that this is the first time I will be buying travel insurance. In the past, I never put much thought into it and we have always been covered by for some things.

Second, let me explain our vacation. We are flying out of Kentucky to Orlando, spending two days at Disney and then going on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Carnival cruise and flying back to Kentucky. During this time we will be renting a car to get to the port from Disney. Our ports of call are Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Third, I have checked with our insurance provider (Humana, through our employer) and our health insurance will cover international (if they accept Humana its in-network and if they don't then we pay out of network). And our car insurance covers us for our rental car.

Traveling will be myself (27), my husband (30) and our son (who will be 17 months at the time of our vacation). We have no pre-existing medical conditions that would cause us not to be able to travel and we made our initial payment back in August.

So, with all that being said, here are my questions:

1) Do I still need to get travel insurance? The plans that I have looked at are only reimbursing half if you cancel. Is that normal? Are there plans that cover all of it?

2) What kind of coverage should I look at getting? I guess my main concern is that if something happens I would want enough for medical evacuation. How much should I be looking at getting for that?

3) Would my health insurance pay first or would the travel insurance?

4) If my insurance says deductible then 15%, would the travel insurance cover any of this that we would have to pay out of pocket (once again, my concern here is medical evacuation). I realized that medical evacuation is very rare but now being a mommy has my brain working much differently than it ever used to. If for any reason anyone of us needed something I would not want to be put in a position to worry about my loved one or myself and then the expenses as well.

Any thing else you can contribute or think that I might have left off that I should know or consider?

Thank you so much for your help! Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated. These boards are so amazing and I am always impressed with the vast knowledge of information I can receive from them.

[Host Caroline]

I would suggest you go to a site like insuremytrip.com and compare the policies... they have a very good "compare" tool.

Your Humana insurance would be first pay on a lot of the insurances there, your "travel/cancellation" insurance second.

With a 17 month old and the "anything can happen" to anyone mentality there is no reason IMHO Not to get cancellation insurance. If you want to gamble and wait till final payment you can do that but I would never ever go w/out insurance.. you never know when a broken arm, appendicitis, car accident (heaven forbid) etc. will occur, or a serious illness of a parent. Just too much of a gamble IMHO.

Medivac is very very expensive, would never ever go with less than 50,000 and usually 100,000 is what we get in Caribbean. You can also insure your entire trip incl. the Disney portion. Rental car ins. we don't get bec. our own policy will cover.

There are so many good discussions on this board but in the end, you need to deal witi your medical carrier and travel company for definitive answers.

[6rugrats]

1. I am not sure you can even get cancellation insurance from anyone at a reasonable price now. Many policies only offer this option if you purchase within 15 days of the date you made your initial deposit. I don't know of any plan that will cover all your trip costs. Even if you purchased your coverage through the cruiseline (I don't recomend this), lots of them don't give you your money back; you just get a credit for a future cruise.

 

2. For Medivac insurance, I agree. Not less than $50,000 and preferably more. I doubt your regular health insurance has any kind of Medivac coverage.

 

3. Impossible to answer. In my state, health coverage through travel insurance is always primary. Usually when you purchase travel insurance, you will be offered an option to make the travel insurance primary. If it's not, many places will not bill your insurance (including any medical treatment on the ship) and you must come up with the money, and then bill insurance yourself. This can be very costly.

 

4. If your regular health coverage is primary, and a deductible is witheld, yes, you can submit the remainder of the bill to the travel insurance. However, I'm not sure why you are talking about medical evacuation in regard to health insurance.

 

I would never book a trip when traveling with children without purchasing insurance. It's not that expensive, and kids can get very sick quickly, causing you to cancel your trip. Also, as stated, there's no way you can predict what will happen. We've had two very unexpected deaths in the family this year, that's caused us to cancel one trip. We would have lost a lot of money if we hadn't had insurance.

 

Good luck, and have fun!

[cruiseco]

Hi, I have been searching and reading so much information on travel insurance but I am still a bit lost as to what kind I should get.

First, let me explained that this is the first time I will be buying travel insurance. In the past, I never put much thought into it and we have always been covered by for some things.

Second, let me explain our vacation. We are flying out of Kentucky to Orlando, spending two days at Disney and then going on a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Carnival cruise and flying back to Kentucky. During this time we will be renting a car to get to the port from Disney. Our ports of call are Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Third, I have checked with our insurance provider (Humana, through our employer) and our health insurance will cover international (if they accept Humana its in-network and if they don't then we pay out of network). And our car insurance covers us for our rental car.

Traveling will be myself (27), my husband (30) and our son (who will be 17 months at the time of our vacation). We have no pre-existing medical conditions that would cause us not to be able to travel and we made our initial payment back in August.

So, with all that being said, here are my questions:

1) Do I still need to get travel insurance? The plans that I have looked at are only reimbursing half if you cancel. Is that normal? Are there plans that cover all of it?

 

What plans are you looking at? All that I'm familiar with will reimburse you 100% of your loss if you cancel for a covered reason. If you spend the extra money and buy a plan that has a "cancel for any reason provision" there are some differences -- cancel for a covered reason and get 100% reimbursement. Cancel for a reason that's not normally covered by the plan and the coverage will be between 50% and 90% of your loss depending on the plan and when you cancel.

 

 

2) What kind of coverage should I look at getting? I guess my main concern is that if something happens I would want enough for medical evacuation. How much should I be looking at getting for that?

 

I'd want a minimum of $50K. More is better.

 

3) Would my health insurance pay first or would the travel insurance?

 

Depends on the plan you purchase. A "primary coverage" plan pays before your regular health insurance. A "secondary coverage plan pays after your regular health insurance. Both are available.

 

4) If my insurance says deductible then 15%, would the travel insurance cover any of this that we would have to pay out of pocket (once again, my concern here is medical evacuation). I realized that medical evacuation is very rare but now being a mommy has my brain working much differently than it ever used to. If for any reason anyone of us needed something I would not want to be put in a position to worry about my loved one or myself and then the expenses as well.

 

For the major travel insurance plans there is no deductible for the emergency evac coverage. In fact, in the the event of an evacuation you definitely want to contact the travel insurer first. Having someone else make these arrangements can nullify your emergency evac coverage.

 

As far as bills for medical services (not evac) your travel insurance will cover any expenses not covered by your regular health insurance (deductibles, co-payments, etc) up to your coverage limit.

[acceber32]

Thank you all! I think I have finally decided on a policy from TravelGuard. Now to sit back and wait for my vacation to begin!