Huge Dilema

[Manitoban]

My husband & I booked a Caribbean cruise through RCI (for a great price) in April 2011 for January 15, 2012. My sister booked a single for herself on the same cruise a week later. In July I experienced back pain, which hasn't gone away. Went to a neurosurgeon in October and found that I needed surgery. The surgery was booked for Nov 1st, the last day that I could make final payment on the cruise. After talking to the doc and medical staff, it was decided that I would have enough time to recover from surgery and still go on the cruise January 15, 2012, so therefore I made my final cruise payment and purchased trip insurance through insuremytrip.ca for the 3 of us on the same policy. All good so far, except that my surgery was cancelled due to lack of available beds! I still haven't got a new surgery date. What do I do at this point? Would this be called a pre-existing condition even though I didn't have any problems when I originally booked the trip or is it based on when I purchased the travel insurance? Not sure how long to delay before cancelling the trip. Very frustrated as we've been looking forward to this for a long time!

[klfrodo]

You would really need to address this to our Canadian friends since your laws are much different than for us in the States.

If you were from the US, I believe most policies would consider this a pre-existing condition since you bought the policy AFTER you knew of the condition regardless of when surgery was scheduled. Still using the caveat of being from the US, had you purchased the insurance when you first made a deposit,, THEN had back issues requiring surgery, you would have been covered.

[6rugrats]

OP - I have no idea what your policy says. Insuremytrip.ca sells lots of different policies. You'd have to tell us which one you purchased to receive more accurate information.

 

That said, with any US policy I've had, this would be considered pre-existing; it's based on the date you bought your insurance policy, not the date you bought your cruise. And, when you purchased this policy, you knew you had this condition.

 

It would be like crashing your car, on which you had no insurance, and then getting on the phone to purchase a policy. It wouldn't cover that accident.

 

You must have already made your final payment, correct? You are already too late to cancel with RCI and get all your money back. I don't know what decision you should make, but if you want to cancel to get any money back, you need to do so ASAP.

[Keith1010]

As noted above, if this was in the USA then it would be considered that you had a pre-existing condition and the insurance would not cover this unless you purchase the insurance within usually 14 days of making the initial cruise deposit. You'll need to verify how it works in Canada.

 

If you know you will be unable to travel then your best bet would be to see if you cancel the cruise now how much of your final payment you would get back from RCI or if you don't get it back how much credit they give you towards another cruise. You'll need to check with RCI on how that works.

 

I am so sorry that you are faced with this situation.

 

Again, check your insurance first and then check how RCI the cancellation rules work with RCI.

 

Keith

[LiftLockCouple]

For Canadian policies the pre-ex condition is calculated from the date of departure from home ( not the country ). In most cases the required stability periods are 60 days or longer ( pre departure ) depending on the policy. In this case because surgery has been determined to be required, it would be my interpertation that the condition is unlikely to be covered through most if not all conventional policies. Having said that, there are companies such as Primelink underwriters or Travel Underwriters that might issue a personal policy to cover your back as long as the DR has not advised against travelling. I am not in the insurance industry in any way so my antedotal reference point is a co worker who was able to get a personal policy for a new diagnosis of high blood pressure within the normal stability period. I believe Primelink can be contacted directly but it is my understanding that Travel Underwriters has to be contacted via a broker. Another option is to approach the insurance people at CARP and go from there. I suspect you will end up talking to Primelink anyway but am not sure.

 

There is only one Canadian company the i know of that offers pre-ex condition waiver and that is Travelsafe. You have to buy the policy within, I believe, 21 days of deposit. Travelsafe is actually an American company but they offer a policy to Canadians as desribed with $1M medical underwritted by Co-Operators of Canada.

 

Good luck

[cruiseco]

For Canadian policies the pre-ex condition is calculated from the date of departure from home ( not the country ). In most cases the required stability periods are 60 days or longer ( pre departure ) depending on the policy. In this case because surgery has been determined to be required, it would be my interpertation that the condition is unlikely to be covered through most if not all conventional policies. Having said that, there are companies such as Primelink underwriters or Travel Underwriters that might issue a personal policy to cover your back as long as the DR has not advised against travelling. I am not in the insurance industry in any way so my antedotal reference point is a co worker who was able to get a personal policy for a new diagnosis of high blood pressure within the normal stability period. I believe Primelink can be contacted directly but it is my understanding that Travel Underwriters has to be contacted via a broker. Another option is to approach the insurance people at CARP and go from there. I suspect you will end up talking to Primelink anyway but am not sure.

 

There is only one Canadian company the i know of that offers pre-ex condition waiver and that is Travelsafe. You have to buy the policy within, I believe, 21 days of deposit. Travelsafe is actually an American company but they offer a policy to Canadians as desribed with $1M medical underwritted by Co-Operators of Canada.

 

Good luck

 

For more input on Prime Link see here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1518189

[LiftLockCouple]

For more input on Prime Link see here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1518189

 

Scary stuff. I have posted this on the Canadian Trabvel Insurance thread as well. There have been similar stories about RBC insurance which were published in the Toronto Star. In the case of the OP, she might still get a policy to cover her back but as these stories illustrate, full disclosure is required.