Pre-existing Conditions for Travel Ins. What Qualifies?

[1985rz1]

32 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Totally agree - MedJet is not the miracle solution that one would hope for it to be.

We have traveled with MedJet for many years and fortunately never needed them  ...... until we did and they were not there for us.

We were on the second half of a Northwest Passage cruise when M became very sick. It was another full day of sailing till we could disembark and it was a tiny Inuit settlement. Needless to say that there was no hospital or anything even close to that in that settlement. We had the ship contact MedJet a day in advance during sailing for assistance with evacuation and they flatly refused.

At this point we made our way home on our own straight to the hospital's OR.

As this was an exceptionally expensive cruise I decided to take out additional insurance which ended up covering all of our expenses.

You might think - how often will I find myself in the same situation. I think you might be unpleasantly surprised how something like this may happen to you.

There are a number of places in the third world that either do not have a hospital or have one that I would not trust spending first 24 hrs of my illness in as that is often the most critical and crucial time for severe illnesses. I am sure many of us have seen images of ERs and hospitals all over the world during this pandemic and hoping never to need them.

We now travel without MedJet as they were not there when we needed them but always with adequate insurance.

Not a good story, but enlightening.  Thanks for sharing.

[the mice]

6 hours ago, avalong said:

How did you get a better rate than the AARP rate?

Also, if you have a Morgan Stanley account with associated Morgan Stanley Reserved, you can get a much bigger discount on Medjet.   Reserved also provides discounts on other travel services such as Canyon Ranch, Crystal Cruises, American Cruise Line, Backroads, Linblad/Nat Geo, and lots more shopping, tickets, wellness, travel, etc.    

[Flatbush Flyer]

53 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Thanks!  Facing this soon myself.

Personally, now that I am facing the ultra-geezer qualifications, I trust that I will still qualify for the “good looking discount” to which will be added the “dreamy blue eyes” rider.

[avalong]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

Totally agree - MedJet is not the miracle solution that one would hope for it to be.

We have traveled with MedJet for many years and fortunately never needed them  ...... until we did and they were not there for us.

We were on the second half of a Northwest Passage cruise when M became very sick. It was another full day of sailing till we could disembark and it was a tiny Inuit settlement. Needless to say that there was no hospital or anything even close to that in that settlement. We had the ship contact MedJet a day in advance during sailing for assistance with evacuation and they flatly refused.

At this point we made our way home on our own straight to the hospital's OR.

As this was an exceptionally expensive cruise I decided to take out additional insurance which ended up covering all of our expenses.

You might think - how often will I find myself in the same situation. I think you might be unpleasantly surprised how something like this may happen to you.

There are a number of places in the third world that either do not have a hospital or have one that I would not trust spending first 24 hrs of my illness in as that is often the most critical and crucial time for severe illnesses. I am sure many of us have seen images of ERs and hospitals all over the world during this pandemic and hoping never to need them.

We now travel without MedJet as they were not there when we needed them but always with adequate insurance.

Food for thought. Thanks.

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Totally agree - MedJet is not the miracle solution that one would hope for it to be.

We have traveled with MedJet for many years and fortunately never needed them  ...... until we did and they were not there for us.

We were on the second half of a Northwest Passage cruise when M became very sick. It was another full day of sailing till we could disembark and it was a tiny Inuit settlement. Needless to say that there was no hospital or anything even close to that in that settlement. We had the ship contact MedJet a day in advance during sailing for assistance with evacuation and they flatly refused.

At this point we made our way home on our own straight to the hospital's OR.

As this was an exceptionally expensive cruise I decided to take out additional insurance which ended up covering all of our expenses.

You might think - how often will I find myself in the same situation. I think you might be unpleasantly surprised how something like this may happen to you.

There are a number of places in the third world that either do not have a hospital or have one that I would not trust spending first 24 hrs of my illness in as that is often the most critical and crucial time for severe illnesses. I am sure many of us have seen images of ERs and hospitals all over the world during this pandemic and hoping never to need them.

We now travel without MedJet as they were not there when we needed them but always with adequate insurance.

 

This was obviously an extremely distressing, and medically worrisome [huge understatement!] situation.

 

However, it sounds like the problem was that there was no nearby hospital of any type?

 

However, MJA's terms are clear:  One must be admitted to a hospital as an inpatient (not ER, not observation, etc.) for their services to kick in.

 

If that was the "problem", then that's beyond unfortunate, but I wouldn't characterize it as their not being there for you when they should have been.  That particular situation is not one that they've agreed/claimed to cover.

I think another "glitch" (if one wants to call it that) is that one must have an airport reasonably nearby for fixed wing aircraft can land.  If you are on a tiny island, even if there is a "hospital" there, I don't think MJA's terms require them to get you from that location.

 

There may be other competing rescue services these days that don't have some of these restrictions, but I'm not all that familiar with them.  (For example, we aren't likely to need to be evacuated from a ledge on a mountain, although I think at least one of those services may somehow be able to do that... or something similar.)

 

I started looking into some of those other services when MJA put a halt on carrying patients with Covid (and I remember being very unpleasantly surprised by that at the time).  One new service apparently would do that, but then MJA got their act together.  Plus, we weren't going anywhere for quite a while, so it didn't matter to us.

 

GC