Travel Insurance- anyone changing their mind with in the last week?

[CoachT]

And I have zero sympathy for someone who doesnt take out insurance and gets burned!

[Catz24031]

Living in the UK we have always purchased travel insurance whether holidaying in Europe or like last year our first cruise in the Caribbean. It just gives us peace of mind. Have only claimed once when our hotel room was burgled.


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[Esilef]

[quote name='bchalker']Well if you have medical insurance you certainly dont need travel insurance to cover medical bills in Hawaii.[/QUOTE]

As Australians we need travel insurrance to cover medical & unexpected travel incidents in the USA & other countries.

In Australia we have top private health insurrance & ambulance cover even though the public health system is so good & free.

We travel overseas every year & don't leave home without our travel insurrance.


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[Guest maddycat]

We always buy travel insurance. We won't travel with out it. We buy it shortly after booking a cruise so that it covers pre-existing medical conditions.

[csk]

We always buy travel insurance for our cruises, not really for the money we paid for the cruise, but worry if we have to be evacuated or stay in a hospital outside the US. It is for us peace of mind

[DebJ14]

[quote name='skagen']Unrelated to the illness, but having flown out of MSP in blizzard conditions and easily making the flight, I am more resolute in continuing to skip the insurance...[/QUOTE]

You are very lucky. My son had to fly through MSP early last month and Delta canceled his flight due to weather. They rebooked him on several later flights, but he didn't clear the waitlist on either of them. He was on his way to a job interview in Wisconsin and couldn't afford not to get there. They could only give him a confirmed seat the next afternoon, which was too late. He had to rent a car and drive 4 hours so that he would be there for his 8am appointment. Thankfully, he got the job.

[eamcclen]

[quote name='DebJ14']You are very lucky. My son had to fly through MSP early last month and Delta canceled his flight due to weather. They rebooked him on several later flights, but he didn't clear the waitlist on either of them. He was on his way to a job interview in Wisconsin and couldn't afford not to get there. They could only give him a confirmed seat the next afternoon, which was too late. He had to rent a car and drive 4 hours so that he would be there for his 8am appointment. Thankfully, he got the job.[/QUOTE]

What a horrible way to travel for an interview. Glad he got!


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[DebJ14]

I urge everyone to remember that even if you have travel insurance you will most likely have to pay for medical care out of country up front and then file for reimbursement. There is a great blog online detailing the travails of a family when the father had a heart attack on vacation in Mexico. He had travel insurance, but the hospital worked up an estimate and the wife had to pay $20,000 up front before they would do the angioplasty and put in the stent. He had a blockage in the artery that causes those "widow maker" heart attacks. The final bill was $28,000 so she called AMEX to get the limit raised so she could pay the extra $8,000. They were reimbursed after presenting the receipts to the travel insurance company. FYI, the care he received at the hospital in Cancun was top notch and his doctors in the US were impressed. So, not only do we buy travel insurance for every trip, but we travel with several credit cards with high limits, just in case and take several thousand in "emergency cash" over and above what we expect to spend on the trip. We also notify the credit card companies of our travel plans and notify the bank that we may use the debit card out of the country as well. If you want to read her account you can find it here:
[url]http://iberostarrocks.com/2010/10/04/medical-emergency-in-mexico-the-heart-attack-trip/[/url]
I often cringe when I read comments from people who don't use credit cards and wonder just what the heck they do in case of emergency. We always provided our kids with cards on our accounts that have high limits so that in case of emergency they could get care or at least get a flight home. We let them keep them until they were established in their careers and established credit ratings that allowed them to also get high dollar limits on their cards. Edited February 3, 2014 by DebJ14

[30thbirthdaygirls]

Always buy and check the travel insurance yourself to know what is and is not covered!

My sister went to Fiji for a work trip which they sorted out all travel including travel insurance, big mistake! She ended coming off a scooter that her boss hired and was kind enough to offer to drive it back to hotel when he couldn't drive it back after drinking (I would have just left it there). The insurance did not cover scooters and she had no idea. She smashed her foot, ankle and had a deep laceration to her leg, the insurance company when contacted took 3 days of avoiding her to finally inform them they would not cover her so she (in this case her work) could fly her backtrack o get medical attention. it then took another 2 days to get her out of the 3rd world shack of a hospital which she compared to a unsanitary shearing shed! When she finally got back she had caught an infection, had lost a lot of blood and they had to wait several days before they could even attempt to take her into surgery, she was lucky she didn't have blood poisoning. She ended up having to have her foot amputated and will have long ongoing medical expenses for the rest of her life, she has to sell her house and change her car as they were deemed unsuitable for her disability. She is a single low income earner so my parents have had to dig deep into their savings and have had to put off retiring. so unless you have at least $250,000 of your own savings to cover immediate costs of emergencies don't skip out on the small cost of piece of mind!!!!

Needless to say it took me months of umming and arrrhing which travel insurance to chose for my first cruise this march and it has made me rather nervous going away on my first holiday without my husband and kids as I can't afford to put myself at risk as I am normally the main carer for them as my husband is not normally home half the year due to his nature of work.

To clarify, work cover did help a little not much, Medicare kicked in once back but there is so much out of pocket still. Would have helped if she had private health as well as there is still long waiting lists/times even with her condition.


I ended buying an annual comprehensive worldwide cover through covermore as it also covered my domestic travel and I could put my kids on it, it was more expensive than just the trip but no single trip cover covers domestic flights to connect and domestic accommodation. We do travel domestically and internationally to Singapore to visit family regularly so it covers two birds with one stone. They also give you a free global sim which has much cheaper phone costs to call home (not that important but will come in handy when I can get a local sim on my cruise).

Buy insurance or suffer big time I say, no one expects to have accidents or fall sick.


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[Coralc]

[quote name='Ashland'][B]"Shingles" :eek::eek:..Luckily we have gotten immunized against this very painful viral disease.[/B][/QUOTE]

You have to be 60 for insurance to pay for the vaccine or to receive it (and pay for it) at a drugstore in CA. We are 54/55, and DH has had them as well, about a year ago on his body. Mine were on my face, in my mouth, and in my ear, all on the right side. It was horrible, and pretty much ruined the cruise.

Our doctor said he will write prescriptions for the vaccine, and we can pay for it at one of the stores.

We are very happy to do this, because I have no interest in experiencing this lingering pain ever again.

[DebJ14]

[quote name='time4u2go']I'm curious...how do you know this? Do you have a reference for this statistic somewhere, or is it just your opinion?[/QUOTE]

Our policy with Aetna specifically states that it will not cover any treatment out of the country. We know because we ran into a problem when a procedure was mistakenly coded as taking place out of the country.

It took us a year to get them to pay the surgical center here in Houston, that is in network, the $15,000 for our son's arthroscopic knee surgery.

[sWEETKNEEZ2]

I just update ours due too the recent issues at Toronto airport and our weather has been crazy here, since we are leaving early in the morning the day of the cruise I thought it would be better safe then sorry !

[DebJ14]

[quote name='Coralc']You have to be 60 for insurance to pay for the vaccine or to receive it (and pay for it) at a drugstore in CA. We are 54/55, and DH has had them as well, about a year ago on his body. Mine were on my face, in my mouth, and in my ear, all on the right side. It was horrible, and pretty much ruined the cruise.

Our doctor said he will write prescriptions for the vaccine, and we can pay for it at one of the stores.

We are very happy to do this, because I have no interest in experiencing this lingering pain ever again.[/QUOTE]

The year before he died my father in law got shingles. He made it to 87 without ever getting chickenpox. He was in agony and the blistering rash was awful. It spread to his eyes, which caused a whole other set of problems. We couldn't figure out where he got it, since he rarely left the house. After questioning by his doctor the cause became apparent. The doctor said it was triggered by his exposure to a great grandchild who had just had his chickenpox vaccine. Apparently, that vaccine is with a live virus and the little tykes shed the virus for awhile. So, avoid any recently vaccinated rugrats. Edited February 3, 2014 by DebJ14

[Coralc]

We've already had chicken pox, as has 99% of the (exposed and vaccinated) population. The shingles vaccine is also a live virus. Strangely, if you have shingles (or presumably the vaccine) you will give someone who hasn't been exposed, chicken pox, not shingles if you are in close contact with them.

[Esilef]

[quote name='DebJ14']Our policy with Aetna specifically states that it will not cover any treatment out of the country. We know because we ran into a problem when a procedure was mistakenly coded as taking place out of the country.

It took us a year to get them to pay the surgical center here in Houston, that is in network, the $15,000 for our son's arthroscopic knee surgery.[/QUOTE]

OMG so glad I choose to fly home from Hawaii to have arthroscopic knee surgery to remove broken bone. My out of pocket expense was under $500 aud.

It took my travel insurrance company over 6 months to pay my American hospital bills.


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[waterbug123]

[quote name='CoachT']And I have zero sympathy for someone who doesnt take out insurance and gets burned![/quote]

Not asking for sympathy nor would I, so absolutely fine that you wouldn't offer any. :D

[time4u2go]

[quote name='waterbug123']Not asking for sympathy nor would I, so absolutely fine that you wouldn't offer any. :D[/quote]
Same here. And I bet the same is true for most everyone else that doesn't buy insurance.