Another Travel Insurance - Specially medical insurance

[LivLove2Cruise]

I am looking to purchase travel insurance however, I mostly interested in medical insurance than anything else. I am not concerned with anything else such as trip interruption or baggage.  I had a friend who had a stroke in Jamaica while on vacation and it was a nightmare to get him back to the States.  Has anyone ever just bought travel medical insurance instead of comprehensive?  Am I making a mistake not getting comprehensive insurance? I am past the time period for cancel any time option. 

 

[Mum2Mercury]

Yes, what you want exists.  I know it's against board rules to recommend travel agents, and I think it may be the same for insurance -- but you can find such things easily through Google.  Do look for reviews before making your purchase.  

 

I just bought -- two weeks ago? -- exactly what you describe:  Medical and Evacuation insurance.  It cost just over $50 for me and my husband.  

 

Like you, we don't need comprehensive.  We drive to the port, so we're already have car insurance.  We manage our own suitcases, so very little chance of them being lost.  We are willing to accept the possible loss of our night-before hotel and cruise ticket price.  

[LivLove2Cruise]

Thank you!!

[torpeedo]

1 hour ago, LivLove2Cruise said:

I am looking to purchase travel insurance however, I mostly interested in medical insurance than anything else. I am not concerned with anything else such as trip interruption or baggage.  I had a friend who had a stroke in Jamaica while on vacation and it was a nightmare to get him back to the States.  Has anyone ever just bought travel medical insurance instead of comprehensive?  Am I making a mistake not getting comprehensive insurance? I am past the time period for cancel any time option. 

 

We also just need the Medical Insurance and have used GeoBlue Treker which is an annual policy with excellent coverage. They also do individual if you don't want annual.  There's a forum on cruise critic boards with a lot of info on cruise insurance an options. 

[SG65CB]

Another option is to purchase regular travel insurance that has the medical coverage you want, but don't insure the entire cost of the trip. This reduces the cost of the policy but does not reduce the medical care and evacuation coverage limits.

 

For example I buy a policy but instead of insuring the trip for the actual cost of $4,000 I will insure it for $500. The insurance costs a lot less and the medical coverage is exactly the same. The only thing you lose is the reimbursement if you have to cancel your trip. I would insure for $1 but the cost for this policy is the same for $1 to $500 of coverage (and the same for $501 to $1,000, etc.)

 

Edited to add: Since you are not covering the cost of the cruise for cancelation reasons you can wait to buy the policy until a few days before you leave. 

 

 

Edited March 7 by SG65CB

[joepeka]

1 hour ago, SG65CB said:

Another option is to purchase regular travel insurance that has the medical coverage you want, but don't insure the entire cost of the trip. This reduces the cost of the policy but does not reduce the medical care and evacuation coverage limits.

 

For example I buy a policy but instead of insuring the trip for the actual cost of $4,000 I will insure it for $500. The insurance costs a lot less and the medical coverage is exactly the same. The only thing you lose is the reimbursement if you have to cancel your trip. I would insure for $1 but the cost for this policy is the same for $1 to $500 of coverage (and the same for $501 to $1,000, etc.)

 

Edited to add: Since you are not covering the cost of the cruise for cancelation reasons you can wait to buy the policy until a few days before you leave. 

 

 

This is really a good option and something I had not previously considered for myself and DW, since medical and evacuation are our primary concern, like the OP. Thank you!

[LivLove2Cruise]

1 hour ago, SG65CB said:

Another option is to purchase regular travel insurance that has the medical coverage you want, but don't insure the entire cost of the trip. This reduces the cost of the policy but does not reduce the medical care and evacuation coverage limits.

 

For example I buy a policy but instead of insuring the trip for the actual cost of $4,000 I will insure it for $500. The insurance costs a lot less and the medical coverage is exactly the same. The only thing you lose is the reimbursement if you have to cancel your trip. I would insure for $1 but the cost for this policy is the same for $1 to $500 of coverage (and the same for $501 to $1,000, etc.)

 

Edited to add: Since you are not covering the cost of the cruise for cancelation reasons you can wait to buy the policy until a few days before you leave. 

 

 

This is brilliant. I never thought to reduce that actual cost of the my trip. I purchased the medical insurance before seeing this post - $62 for the three of us.  But I will definitely consider for the future. Thank you all for your assistance. 

[cyntil8ing]

If you have medical insurance that covers you outside of the country (unlike Medicare) you might consider evacuation coverage. Most times, travel insurance benefits are secondary to your own medical insurance anyway.

 

We have an annual family policy from Medjet Assist, which will transport us to our hospital of choice. It also covers us in the US, any time we are more than 150 miles from home and need a hospital. 

[Bocker3]

1 hour ago, SG65CB said:

Edited to add: Since you are not covering the cost of the cruise for cancelation reasons you can wait to buy the policy until a few days before you leave. 

 

 

Doing this will bring in the pre-existing medical conditions clause.  If you buy within X days (usually between 21 and 30), they are covered.

 

Also - you can insure a trip for $0 and still be covered for medical, evac - even lost baggage - basically anything that isn't marked as a % of your insured amount.  At least you can with the insurance I use thru USAA.

[GeezerCouple]

There is no restriction on CC about discussing travel insurance companies, agents, or brokers.  (Travel agents are different, of course!)

 

We STRONGLY suggest that you contact a specialist, an agent or broker who can help you select the best policy/coverage for your needs.

 

We recommend 

www.TripInsuranceStore.com - as do many others here on CC.

There is no extra cost to use them, and they can also help if needed should there be a claim.

 

But please *CALL* them so they can explain a lot of details and also ask you questions to help them to select the most appropriate choices for you.

We've used them (TIS) to purchase policies from Travel Insured.
We've had several claims, including some large ones, and all were paid without quarrel, and that's what matters in the end...

 

GC

[cruise_co]

I have some pre-existing conditions so we buy a cheap, bare bones cruise policy from insuremytrip.com with a low medical and then supplement with a policy from GeoBlue and we have a yearly medjet subscription.  My medicare advantage plan also covers out of country emergency medical, so we are probably over covered.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, cruise_co said:

I have some pre-existing conditions so we buy a cheap, bare bones cruise policy from insuremytrip.com with a low medical and then supplement with a policy from GeoBlue and we have a yearly medjet subscription.  My medicare advantage plan also covers out of country emergency medical, so we are probably over covered.

 

I'm not sure just what point you are making, or referring to from posts above.

 

Is it about your pre-existing conditions and thus a need to buy "a cheap, bare bones cruise policy ... with a low medical"?  If so, if you start the insurance coverage within 10-20 days of your *first* payment (e.g., the initial deposit, and the timing depends upon your state of residence), then there are many policies available that will waive any "pre-existing condition exclusions" so you don't need to worry about that at all.  You do need to be "fit to travel" on the day you start the coverage.  [What we do is to make a deposit when all is well, and then the next call we make is to start the travel insurance, before there's any chance to have some medical issue interfere, etc.]

 

Also, about the Medicare Advantage plan and out of country coverage, I obviously can't speak about your specific policy, but my understanding is that these MA plans usually have a $50k *lifetime* cap on the out of country medical coverage.

So if you have other coverage, try to make sure it is *primary*, so the MA coverage is not involved while you do have other coverage.  If the other coverage is "secondary", then they'll only pay after the "other" coverage has paid... thus using up some - or all? - of that limited MA coverage.

 

We also have had the MedJetAssist annual plan.  We've never needed it, but there was one time when I was in hospital overseas, and we actually started considering... should we call MJA??  That was just about when I started to improve, thank goodness.  But it was VERY comforting to know that possibility was "there" if we had decided to use it.

GC

[cruise_co]

52 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

I'm not sure just what point you are making, or referring to from posts above.

 

Is it about your pre-existing conditions and thus a need to buy "a cheap, bare bones cruise policy ... with a low medical"?  If so, if you start the insurance coverage within 10-20 days of your *first* payment (e.g., the initial deposit, and the timing depends upon your state of residence), then there are many policies available that will waive any "pre-existing condition exclusions" so you don't need to worry about that at all.  You do need to be "fit to travel" on the day you start the coverage.  [What we do is to make a deposit when all is well, and then the next call we make is to start the travel insurance, before there's any chance to have some medical issue interfere, etc.]

 

Also, about the Medicare Advantage plan and out of country coverage, I obviously can't speak about your specific policy, but my understanding is that these MA plans usually have a $50k *lifetime* cap on the out of country medical coverage.

So if you have other coverage, try to make sure it is *primary*, so the MA coverage is not involved while you do have other coverage.  If the other coverage is "secondary", then they'll only pay after the "other" coverage has paid... thus using up some - or all? - of that limited MA coverage.

 

We also have had the MedJetAssist annual plan.  We've never needed it, but there was one time when I was in hospital overseas, and we actually started considering... should we call MJA??  That was just about when I started to improve, thank goodness.  But it was VERY comforting to know that possibility was "there" if we had decided to use it.

GC

I mentioned GeoBlue because the policies we have purchased do not have pre-existing condition limitations.  It takes the place of the medical part of cruise insurance.  And it is quite affordable.

 

My advantage plan does not have a lifetime cap.

[aero777]

On 3/7/2024 at 9:45 PM, GeezerCouple said:

We also have had the MedJetAssist annual plan.  We've never needed it, but there was one time when I was in hospital overseas, and we actually started considering... should we call MJA??  That was just about when I started to improve, thank goodness.  But it was VERY comforting to know that possibility was "there" if we had decided to use it.

GC

GC, do you still carry MedJet coverage even though you have medical evacuation through TIS?

[GeezerCouple]

5 minutes ago, aero777 said:

GC, do you still carry MedJet coverage even though you have medical evacuation through TIS?

 

We aren't traveling just now (but may be about to again), so we don't have any Travel Insurance that is active.

 

However, a couple of clarifications:

TIS (www.TripInsuranceStore.com) is a travel insurance broker.  They sell policies from a selected number of vetted insurers.  They aren't an insurer themselves.  In fact, we purchase MedJetAssist *through* TIS, along with regular travel insurance.

 

As for having other "medical evacuation" coverage, none of the general travel insurance policies we get (or have ever considered) would include what MJA provides, which it that if the traveler is admitted to a hospital as an inpatient, then you can request that MJA medivac you to the hospital of *your* choice (assuming you are at least 150 miles from home and are stable enough for a full medically-staffed evacuation, etc.).

We would almost definitely prefer to be back at "our" hospital, with "our" medical team, who are familiar with our specific medical backgrounds, etc.

 

GC

[aero777]

11 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

We aren't traveling just now (but may be about to again), so we don't have any Travel Insurance that is active.

 

However, a couple of clarifications:

TIS (www.TripInsuranceStore.com) is a travel insurance broker.  They sell policies from a selected number of vetted insurers.  They aren't an insurer themselves.  In fact, we purchase MedJetAssist *through* TIS, along with regular travel insurance.

 

As for having other "medical evacuation" coverage, none of the general travel insurance policies we get (or have ever considered) would include what MJA provides, which it that if the traveler is admitted to a hospital as an inpatient, then you can request that MJA medivac you to the hospital of *your* choice (assuming you are at least 150 miles from home and are stable enough for a full medically-staffed evacuation, etc.).

We would almost definitely prefer to be back at "our" hospital, with "our" medical team, who are familiar with our specific medical backgrounds, etc.

 

GC

Ok I see what you’re saying, MJA kicks in if you’re merely admitted as opposed to the medically necessary or similar language of most policies. Good to know.

Hope you are able to get back to traveling again soon!

[GeezerCouple]

27 minutes ago, aero777 said:

Ok I see what you’re saying, MJA kicks in if you’re merely admitted as opposed to the medically necessary or similar language of most policies. Good to know.

Hope you are able to get back to traveling again soon!

 

Right.

And the key language that would matter, aside from needing to be "admitted as an inpatient" to qualify for the MJA medivac is that there is *NOT* the typical language of most regular travel insurance policies that state something like you would be transferred only IF the local facilities were not *medically* satisfactory, in which case you'd be transferred to the nearest *appropriate* (etc.) facility.

 

Well... what WE consider to be medically appropriate may not be what the beancounters consider.  Plus, that also puts the local medical staff in the potentially awkward situation of declaring or agreeing that THEY are NOT able to provide medically appropriate care!

 

We used to get the annual MJA policy, given that we usually took at least two major trips a year.  In addition, the annual policy would then also be "waiting" in case there were last minute or shorter trips such as to visit friends/relatives, or perhaps a business trip (for any that were at least 150 miles from home).

 

We came very close to calling MJA once when I was in hospital overseas, and things weren't improving (and we were, um, less than thrilled with the facility, although all did go well).  Just about the time DH and I decided, "yup, maybe it's time to call them..." I barely started to improve, so we waited.  And things calmed down.

Then, we had to arrange (with help and suggestions from TIS) about how to recover and get to the final week of our planned trip.  We obviously could have just headed home and gotten money refunded for that last prepaid week's stay at a wonderful resort, but we really want to try to get there.  So I spent that week mostly relaxing on the shores of Lake Como, where we had already chartered a small boat for a day.  I mostly just sat there as we were shown around some of the sights.  We didn't do much else, as I wasn't up to it.  But it was a great place to relax and recover. 🙂 

 

GC

[klfrodo]

MJA kicks in as long as you're 150 miles from home.

So, living in Seattle, If I travel anywhere in the States and find myself hospitalized for some reason, MJA will kick in to get me to an inpatient facility near my house if stabilized of course. I usually don't get travel insurance if I want a weekend getaway to Vegas, or LA, or go to STL to see my grandkids, etc.