Travel Insurance for 2 Seniors

[awesome grandma]

My husband and I, 67 and 68, are cruising on Carnival March 2025. The quotes from Insuremytrip is more than double the Carnival Trip Protection, obviously because of our ages. What has been other senior’s experience with obtaining a reasonably priced cruise insurance? 

[klfrodo]

Let's see if we can help break down a few of the differences.

 

Carnivals Trip Protection (notice that they don't call it travel insurance):

     1. Does not include any medical pre-existing conditions waiver.

     2. Medical coverage is maxed out at $20K

     3. Medical coverage is "secondary". They reimburse after your primary has paid or denied the claim. In the case of denial from primary, you must provide proof of denial before secondary will consider.

     4. Carnival does not consider age a factor when pricing.

 

3rd party providers of Travel Insurance:

     1. If purchased in the allotted time frame, they will waive any pre-existing conditions for the traveler and non-traveling family members.

     2. Policy can be selected that has max limits of $100K, $250K, and higher.

     3. Since many facilities outside the US require payment up front before service begin, many (not all), insurance providers may work directly with the hospital to advance payment so treatment may begin.

     4. Many policies are "Primary". If you have a medical claim, you only deal with them.

     5. Policy holder age does become a factor when setting prices.

 

[CDNPolar]

Read the policy inclusions and exclusions.  

 

Travel insurance is not - in my opinion - about getting the cheapest price, it is about covering you for what you need to be covered for.

 

As we age, we are subject on some policies to answer medical questionnaires and with other companies, we are not required to.

 

Questions to ask yourself and then apply to the policy language:

 

1) Do you have pre-existing conditions as outlined by the policy as pre-existing?

2) Do you meet the stability period and the stability requirements for a pre-existing condition?

3) Will the policy cover the pre-existing conditions if you don't meet the stability period?

4) Can you risk travel without medical coverage if a pre-existing condition is the reason for medical attention?

 

These are not exhaustive, but again, it is not the price of the coverage, it is what the coverage is.

 

I find that this is a very competitive market out there for insurance, and in my opinion if one company is significantly cheaper, there must be a reason - which translates to less or more restrictive coverage. 

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, awesome grandma said:

My husband and I, 67 and 68, are cruising on Carnival March 2025. The quotes from Insuremytrip is more than double the Carnival Trip Protection, obviously because of our ages. What has been other senior’s experience with obtaining a reasonably priced cruise insurance? 

 

CDNPolar has answered your general question very well:

 

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

Travel insurance is not - in my opinion - about getting the cheapest price, it is about covering you for what you need to be covered for.

 

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

These are not exhaustive, but again, it is not the price of the coverage, it is what the coverage is.

 

I find that this is a very competitive market out there for insurance, and in my opinion if one company is significantly cheaper, there must be a reason - which translates to less or more restrictive coverage. 

 

And in some cases, there are many complaints about an insurer either generally denying claims or making the claims process extremely difficult/tedious.

 

Work with a travel insurance agent or broker who can help you understand the specifics. Terms in insurance policies may not be defined the same way as in everyday life, or restrictions may be in the "fine print".

 

Better yet, work with a broker who can help you select from policies from several different insurers, to try to get the best policy for *your* particular needs for this particular trip.

 

We are among many here on CC who work with 

www.TripInsuranceStore,com

but CALL them; do *not* rely upon the online summaries.  It's often the fine print that will matter.

They can also help with a claim if desired.

 

We learned about them here on CC, and had a large claim on our very first insured trip!

We've since had several other claims, all paid promptly without quarrelling.

(We went through TIS with a policy from Travel Insured, but the best policy for us may not be the best policy for you.)

 

Keep in mind that to get the best choice of types of coverage, it's often important to start the insurance coverage within 10-20 days of the *first* payment (it varies by state of residence).  If you've already missed that deadline, there are still many good policies available.

 

Enjoy!

 

GC

 

[crystalspin]

5 hours ago, awesome grandma said:

The quotes from Insuremytrip is more than double the Carnival Trip Protection, obviously because of our ages.

I would think if the quotes for travel insurance that includes MEDICAL is double cruiseline trip protection it's obviously because the former provides much more coverage.

 

ETA And I say that as someone who just bought and claimed on Holland America CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) plan. It's all in what circumstance you need to protect.

Edited March 12 by crystalspin

[Globaler]

I would also include it depends on if you are only insuring your cruise or are you traveling in addition to your cruise.  In that case, it’s probably better to get coverage for your total travel time and not just cruise ship insurance. BTW we use World Nomads.