New Zealand trip: Travel Insurance?

I’m not familiar with Redpoint Travel Protection but what insurance policies will cover varies by company so you want to be sure the one you buy will cover you if you’re going to be participating in sports and particularly what some companies call “extreme sports” AND EXCLUDE FROM COVERAGE such as skiing, bungee jumping and scuba diving. If you are, you’ll want to look at World Nomads Insurance which is highly-rated and covers a lot of activities your run-of-the-mill Travel Insurance policy might exclude. www.InsureMyTrip.com breaks down coverages ( including World Nomads) and categories for a lot of the travel policies offering coverage to Americans traveling overseas.

The main thing to know is you need coverage for medical treatment in case you have an accident overseas; coverage for medical evacuation in the event you’re trekking in some remote location and an accident or medical emergency arises; and coverage for the cost of returning home sooner than planned. Airlines will often require that an injured or ill passenger travel in first-class so their needs are accommodated on the return flight. (Think if your leg is in a cast ) Buying that ticket alone can easily run into the thousands of dollars.
The right travel insurance will let you relax and do what you want to do in New Zealand without worrying about unforeseen expenses that cannot be predicted.
Have a great time in beautiful New Zealand!

Hi Kenko,
My husband has spent the last two weeks poring over insurance policies: he's a corporate attny and couldn't make any sense out of them. Yes, we need enough medical coverage: but we have Medicare + Supplement (which pays 80% of costs after deductible). But I think it's out of pocket until one returns home & puts a claim in.
So how much medical coverage does one need & how does one get medical coverage? We did not see it in any of the insurance policies we saw.
Our credit card covers medical evacuation, cost of returning home plus (I believe) some portion of the trip.

We are beyond the 2 week limit for booking the insurance (because we booked the air on 8/29--who books a tour before making sure flights are secured?) & we were unable to get any advice on this until your helpful post.
We will probably stick with what we've got and hope for the best.

All suggestions welcome!

If you are injured in an accident, New Zealand will cover all or some of your treatment costs - even as a tourist - through their ACC: https://www.acc.co.nz/. This doesn't cover treatment of illnesses nor medical evacuation, but is something to take into account when evaluating what additional coverage you may want.

I will also add an anecdote, not related to New Zealand. On a recent trip to Switzerland, my travel partner purchased a basic policy through Generali, primarily thinking of any costs related to COVID (the test-to-return was still in effect when we booked the trip). She received minor cut/scrape injuries flipping over on the summer luge, and went to the urgent care type facility at the Lucerne train station, which cost her about $400, paid through her credit card. She filed a claim online upon our return, with a photo of her bill and answering a few questions about the particulars of the accident. Generali paid 100% of the cost in just six days, deposited to her credit union via Zelle.

Josh: thank you. What an encouraging story. The travel insurance was so restrictive and the language so confusing, we decided to stick with the coverage we have on our credit card.
As for medical coverage, we have a Supplement that purports to evaluate claims & pay 80% for overseas care, after we return to US and file a claim. We are thinking about getting additional coverage just in case...these coverages do not have such strict deadlines as the TS companies.
I will check the NZ site you provided for their coverage.

I don't have conventional Medicare, but I don't think it covers other countries, nor does it provide evacuation. If your Supplement has any foreign coverage, it may have a low maximum limit.

You don't say if Cancelation coverage is part of the Redpoint package, which affects decision-making. And you need to study pre-existing condition coverage (medical and cancellation), since you missed the time window.

Edit: Being an attorney is perfect for reading these policies. Because you say you've never bought travel insurance, I wonder if you have realistically evaluated your actual risk exposure. (I am simply referring to the fact that some people buy insurance that they don't need. But evaluating your risk tells you what you DO need.) But as an example, one we've used often, Travelex, I once called to talk to a human, and it was worth it. I learned that (for THAT policy), pre-existing conditions for non-traveling family members (that is, my elderly mother) were NOT triggers for preventing a Cancellation claim. That is not clear in the pretty much, plain-English, policy.

OTOH, when I tried to get $130 for a cruise ship doctor bill, they promptly responded to my claim by saying they could not process it until I sent them a Medicare "refusal". (See first paragraph.) I just wrote it off.

Hi Tim- you are correct Medicare pays nothing but our Medicare supplement G will pay 80% on medical costs (though we pay oop) then present claims when we return. Plus a helpful poster on this site shared an NZ site that extends free medical treatment (for accidental injuries only) to their citizens and visitors as well. Liking this country more and more.
Travel insurance industry is notorious for denying claims-hidden exclusions buried in fine print illegible to all except lawyers.

No experience with that particular company, however, we've used TravelGuard numerous time and have been very pleased with the service when we had claims. It has been our experience that the cost of travel insurance is minor compared to the overall cost of the trip. It's just a matter of how much out of pocket risk you are willing to assume. Almost all travel policies include some medical and medical evacuation coverage. But many of them will only evacuate you to the nearest suitable facility. There is a company named MedJet Assist that will bring you all the way back home if you're hospitalized more that 150 miles away. With medical evacuation being so expensive, and being of the medicare age, you might want to google them and see if that type coverage is something you might need. Just food for thought.

JosiePosie, without looking it up to make sure, I think the Medicare supplement pays 80% for up to $50,000 (or 80% of up to $50,000). That is different than paying 80% of whatever your cost might be (with no upper limit).

Then you have the issue of any currently existing health conditions that they might exclude coverage for since you are more than 14 days past your initial payment. However with no pre-existing conditions, you should still be able to purchase medical insurance without trouble.

I always buy Generali Travel Insurance’s standard policy. Generali offers excellent coverage and has a good track record for paying claims as a previous post outlined. Only one of Generali’s 3 policies covers pre-existing conditions which may have time limitations as to when you can buy it. Their standard policy does not have any such time limits as to when you can buy it.
As for Medicare Part G supplemental coverage— it has a $250 deductible. It will only cover medical expenses such as doctors, hospitals and medications— but not any of the other expenses you can incur when two people are traveling together overseas.
That $250 deductible, which you must pay if you’re submitting a claim, is more than the $150 I recently paid for the coverage of the standard policy. That policy has no deductible for the comprehensive coverage it offers including MedEvac expenses up to $250K; buying new flight tickets at the last minute to return home for both you and your travel partner; having the cost refunded of the airline tix you cannot use; the additional costs of hotel stays by your travel partner during the time they’re waiting for your release from the hospital while you’re recovering—— Medicare G is not going to pay for any of these costs, leaving you to pick up the tab for possibly tens of thousands of dollars if the worst should happen.
Another way of looking at this is that you will have to pay a $250 deductible for $40K of medical expenses ( 80% of $50K= $40K ) capped for your lifetime when you could buy Travel Insurance coverage for about $150 that will cover what could potentially amount to more than $300,000 in accident/sickness benefits just for one incident occurring while traveling.
If you are really concerned about opening yourselves up to financial risk from an accident or serious illness while on vacation, you will recognize that the medical expenses are actually not the greatest threat to your financial security. It’s the other expenses that Medicare part G will not cover that are the greatest threat to your financial security. And for less than just the cost of a Medicare part G DEDUCTIBLE all those costs can be covered by buying a Travel Insurance policy.