What is a reasonable amount of med-evac & emergency medical ins?

[Mary Ellen1]

Hi there,

 

How much insurance do I need???

 

All I want to insure is the (hopefully) remote possibility that DH or I might have an accident or medical issue while out of the country. We don't need or want cancellation insurance. We're in our early 50's.

 

On a recent cruise, a teenage member of our party broke his knee & had to be flown home from the first port. We never used to buy insurance, but that incident brought home to us that we were CRAZY to not have some kind of coverage.

 

Any advice for how much med-evac & medical insurance is reasonable?

 

THANKS! :)

[D4]

I usually select at least $100,000 emergency medical coverage, but it depends on where we are cruising to. (For example, I buy more coverage if it's a South American cruise vs. a Caribbean cruise.)

 

I'm not picky on medical coverage because we have good medical insurance that is not restricted to the USA. So I select my travel insurance policy based on the other coverages and terms that matter most to me and take whatever medical coverage comes with it.

[Keith1010]

Some of this comes down to how much risk you want to take, your age, your medical history, the length of your cruise and where you are sailing.

 

I try to get a policy that provides $100,000.00 in medical coverage plus an additional amount for medical evacuation. My last policy had the $100K plus $500K respectively. I didn't need $500K but that is what it included.

 

We've found that the major part of the insurance is the trip itself and finding a policy that includes a lot of medical doesn't substantially add to the premium.

 

Keith

[sirwired]

As a side-note, being flown home because of a broken knee would probably not be covered by a medevac policy. I think it would more be trip interruption return air coverage, as you do not require any sort of specialized transportation other than a bunch of legroom for an uncomplicated broken bone.

 

Unless you need an annual policy, you can probably get everything you need by buying a comprehensive policy and setting the "Trip Cost" to $1.

 

(As a side-note, never set the trip cost to $0; it can change the effective date of your policy from the policy purchase date to the date of departure... this, in turn, messes with pre-ex exclusions.)

[Mary Ellen1]

Thanks, D4 & Keith1010. :)

 

As a side-note, being flown home because of a broken knee would probably not be covered by a medevac policy. I think it would more be trip interruption return air coverage, as you do not require any sort of specialized transportation other than a bunch of legroom for an uncomplicated broken bone.

 

Unless you need an annual policy, you can probably get everything you need by buying a comprehensive policy and setting the "Trip Cost" to $1.

 

(As a side-note, never set the trip cost to $0; it can change the effective date of your policy from the policy purchase date to the date of departure... this, in turn, messes with pre-ex exclusions.)

 

Very informative post. Thanks Keith! I had no idea about the ramifications of setting Trip Cost to $0 vs. $1. Interesting...

 

I don't buy trip cancellation insurance, by the way, because I figure we're self-insured against cancellation at this point. With ~10 cruises of not buying it, that has saved us around $1K -- I can *almost* cruise for that price if I get an inside cabin. So now we get a medical/med-evac policy only for around $45-ish. To your point, I'll make sure it includes trip interruption/return air as well!

[Keith1010]

YOu are very welcome, Mary Ellen1

 

Keith

[Mary Ellen1]

 

Very informative post. Thanks Keith! I had no idea about the ramifications of setting Trip Cost to $0 vs. $1. Interesting...

 

I don't buy trip cancellation insurance, by the way, because I figure we're self-insured against cancellation at this point. With ~10 cruises of not buying it, that has saved us around $1K -- I can *almost* cruise for that price if I get an inside cabin. So now we get a medical/med-evac policy only for around $45-ish. To your point, I'll make sure it includes trip interruption/return air as well!

 

Of course, I meant to say here, "Thank you, sirwired!"

 

Thanks to all who answered. :)