Travel insurance

Here is a recent post, though I know there are older posts re. Insurance.

I feel like you would be the best judge of insurance need. Have you evaluated what you have already? Does your health insurance cover you out of the country? Do you purchase changeable airline tickets? Do you have a credit card with cancellation insurance? Some people are more risk adverse than others.

IMO, travel insurance is really pricey, and they tend to bundle in coverages that some do not need. You can look at insuremytrip and squaremouth.

I would be very cautious with any advice from a travel agent or others that advise travel insurance without suggesting that you look at the coverage you already have. Why in the world would you purchase insurance that duplicates what you already have?

The only time we have purchased travel insurance was for a cruise. We didn't buy it for our one RS tour. If we go on another cruise, I'm not certain we'd buy insurance since we now have a credit card with cancellation insurance.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/the-good-old-insurance-question

Get travel insurance. I've used both IMG Global or Allianz and both paid claims within 14 business days from date of filing.

Take a look at this forum post and the advice and links in it.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/travel-in-urance

(Travel-in$urance ended up being travel-in-urance)

In addition to determining if you need out of country emergency medical insurance, trip interruption insurance can be useful. Sometimes one can not board a flight for a period of time because of the medical emergency and staying overseas for however long can get costly.

We are getting older and are thinking of perhaps getting travel insurance.

Old enough to be on Medicare? I think the first thing to consider is whether your existing health insurance will cover injuries or illness while you're out of the country - and that should extend to emergency medical evacuation coverage to get you home under a worst-case scenario. Then trip interruption, as mentioned above. A single inclusive travel policy could provide better coverage than just paying for cancellation coverage for airfare, etc. You might also investigate what coverage you may already have from upper-tier credit cards.

We have used Allianz, not because it was necessarily cheaper, but for the peace of mind should a medical problem or other family emergency arise. In our minds, it is worth the cost.

After I wound up in a Belgian hospital for 5 days with a heart condition I didn’t know I had, and 4 years later my husband spent 3 weeks in a London hospital with a life-threatening illness, we would never travel internationally without trip insurance. We’ve used Travel Guard, which is great. Those folks saved our bacon getting us home from London. Be aware: your Medicare DOES NOT cover you internationally. Some Medigap policies do but not enough to cover an air evac if you need it. At our age travel insurance is quite expensive, so we cover only about half the cost of the trip, consider the rest a deductible, to get the medical coverage. Health care abroad is much less expensive than in the US, but getting you home is not. Unless you can cover a $150k air evac, get the insurance. Note: DO NOT enroll in EA+. When we needed them they told me they don’t do anything they advertise. “It’s just marketing,” they said. Direct quote.

It is not true that a person's medicare coverage does not cover international travel. Our supplement definitely includes health care internationally.

Jules m, Medicare does not cover health care costs overseas. Your supplement might, but not all do. Even then your lifetime costs are capped. A supplement is not Medicare.

Alan, I would argue that there is medicare and the medicare supplement. Personally, I feel its semantics. My main point is, people should not be purchasing travel insurance without looking at their current coverages. To flatly tell some one to buy the travel insurance, without knowing them and their situation seems a little irresponsible. Besides, what components of insurance would be necessary? There are a lot of people coming to the forum complaining about their travel insurance, and you have to wonder, did they even know what they were purchasing? Further, it would seem strange to me, that someone who only has medicare and no medicare supplement would even look at travel insurance.

Jules m, couldn’t disagree more. There are no semantics. Medicare is a Federal program and provides no coverage out of country. A Medicare supplement is a voluntary purchase through a private company. Many people don't buy such coverage for a variety of reasons or miss the enrollment period and then are later underwritten. The benefit minimum for each policy is regulated by the Federal government. Insurance companies may add benefits to entice customers. That is where you get some, very limited overseas coverage. I think on average it’s about $50,000 lifetime. Nobody has to purchase a Medicare supplement. Without it you would have no overseas medical coverage at all. Those folks should purchase at least a policy that covers medical expenses while abroad. The choice is theirs but I can tell you from having worked for two major insurance companies, people without coverage who have not purchased travel insurance are in a world of hurt if they become seriously ill abroad. I’m not talking about cuts and sprains- that care is cheap. I’m talking about inpatient hospital care. As for the OP’s concern-they seem to be focused on losing money paid for the trip. That is very much a risk tolerance issue as is all insurance purchase decisions but is small potatoes as far as I’m concerened. Personally I insure for things that are unlikely but potentially very costly-that is serious illness where my Medicare offers no coverage and my supplement not enough.

Alan, I've worked as an analyst in health care and for government health care programs, and both my husband and I have advanced business degrees. It was pretty clear in my post that I have a supplement and that does cover me out of the country.

I don't know why people would advise this OP with what to do without knowing details. The OP's main concern seems to be medical that would happen during a trip, or precluding the commencement of a trip, or that of a relative. Those items could be covered by a credit card with cancellation provisions and by their own health care insurance. We don't even know if this OP is on medicare or not. Another thing people should check is whether any trip insurance purchased would create difficulties with coverage they already have. Meaning, a determination of which coverage is primary. A person would not necessarily get to pick which insurance they want used.

When I did my insurance "shopping" for a cruise all I wanted was cancellation and interruption coverage. In most cases, there was a lot more bundled into a policy than I wanted or than I wanted to pay for.

For travel agents that sell these policies along with cruises or tours, it'd be interesting to know how much they make from selling the trip insurance with the travel.

I'm not arguing against getting travel insurance. I'm saying check to see what coverage you already have. I'm not against insurance, in fact, we have quite a large umbrella coverage for any liability. Just make a decision with all the necessary information and access the amount of risk you want to take on. Or not.

It was pretty clear in my post that I have a supplement and that does cover me out of the country.

Yes, but your coverage, if it's Plan F or G, is most likely limited to a lifetime $50,000 cap, may be subject to a 20% deductible, and does NOT cover emergency medical evacuation - which I believe is a major motivation for those of us that do purchase medical travel insurance. In addition, it's possible to find policies where coverage is primary - I'd rather have the problem of sorting out which policy is going to cover a loss, rather than having to cover it out of my own pocket.

Frankly, my initial concern with the OP was that she was primarily concerned with a medical event before departure that would cause them to cancel the trip, and not with a medical event encountered on the trip. That's why I asked whether they were on Medicare.

@Mark, I just signed up for medicare, and talked to organization I'm using for the supplement although its the same supplement my husband has. I'm currently looking at the document that outlines my coverage. I do not have a lifetime limit, and I do have evac. With some changes to copays and deductibles, and maximum out of pockets (which all actually improved) the coverage remains quite similar to the coverage we've had for years. (I'm pretty excited to get some coverage for fitness clubs!)

I am going to get additional details on the evac. Having worked in healthcare and have a general idea of health care service around the world, if I'm injured or sick in certain countries, my preference would be to be flown to a different country or home.

My husband and I always look at these types of situations, analytically. What are the risks? How likely is an event to happen? If it does, do we have enough liquid funds to cover the situation, what is the cost of the insurance, etc. For our liability coverage, the risk is quite low, but if someone falls down our stairs or something else and we are deemed responsible, that could amount to millions.

There is not enough information from the OP to advise.

@Jules M- is this a Medicare supplement or a Medicare Advantage plan? I’ve never seen a Medicare supplement (Medi-gap policy for those on traditional Medicare) that has such rich benefits.