Travel insurance

You need to determine which options you need

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You are new here, so I will be gentle...provide more information and you will get better responses.

What do you want to insure? Health, trip interruption/cancellation, medical evacuation, etc...

Mimaloney,

I went on the insurance journey some months ago. I think you need to ask yourself …

• Do I even need insurance?
• What do I need to insure?
• Why do I want insurance?
• What is the risk?
• What is the benefit?
• What is the cost?

There is

• Trip cancellation insurance
• Flight insurance
• Health insurance
• Car insurance
• Medical evacuation insurance
• Other Med Evac plans or memberships

See the RS article. https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-insurance

Personally, after I read an earlier version of the RS article, I thought I’d get cancellation coverage, but when I looked at the details and price, I decided against. Too unlikely I’d need it and WAY too expensive. Then after digging deeper, because of our travel style - nearly two weeks of biking on a 30 day visit - and our 70+ age - I started thinking about potential injury. A bike fall and then hit by a car? OK, what about med evac?

Your own health insurance (and NOT Medicare) may provide you some coverage, perhaps $50K for a stay of up to 60 days. Look at your coverage.

Your credit card may cover the collision damage waiver (CDW) on a car that you rent. Rental cars in Europe will likely come with ample liability coverage, since national law (eg German or Italian) may require that coverage.

For my own journey on this, see my forum post in the past year, replies, and my sharing of my process; it may help you:

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

We got Med Evac. It happens to have some health insurance coverage as well. Low cost. Lots of bang for the buck. I got flight insurance for our one way biz class flight from the US but not for our economy (and miles plan) return flight. No insurance for hotel stays, since those were not prepaid and I could cancel. No insurance for our cycle trips. And no CDW for the car we are using right now to drive through some diverse towns in SW Germany, including the Black Forest. Our Costco credit card has that covered!

We’ve travelled to Europe 7 times previously over 25+ years without worrying about insurance ‘til now. Hopefully we won’t need what we got, but for a little over $200 for the two of us, and given the risks of close to two weeks of cycling with the potential for a very expensive med evac flight, this seemed like a no-brainer.

Happy travels.

Your own health insurance (and NOT Medicare) may provide you some coverage, perhaps $50K for a stay of up to 60 days. Look at your coverage.

I have Original Medicare and a supplemental medigap Plan G that includes a lifetime cap of $50K of foreign travel emergency coverage on the first 60 days of a trip with a $250 deductible. Longest trip abroad I have taken has been about 3 weeks. I have never used this coverage (not needed it), hope to never need it, but it does exist. I will have to pay out of pocket whatever costs I incur abroad, and deal with the insurance claim at home. But this is true for many travel insurance policies, so beware if you buy such insurance.

I also use Medjet for evacuation. Other than any coverages already included with credit cards, that is it for travel insurance for me. I basically "self insure" for the rest of it, been doing that for over 40 years, and see no need based on my personal risk tolerance to do anything differently now. YMMV...

What is your risk tolerance? That is for you to decide, not me, or anyone else.

Do you plan on buying air tickets that are fully flexible (you can change them). This i dont do, and it's worked out to my cost benefit ... so far.

Do you plan on booking hotels with generous cancelation policies? This I probably shouldn't as i have canceled three reservations in 20 years.

I think trip insurance is cheaper than the 2 options above. At least it's worth checking. But I never buy just the same. So far, I am ahead on savings, but someday I will probably take a $2000 hit ... but I think it will still be ahead.

Medical is another issue. Buy insurance that is widely accepted in Europe. Allianz, for instance. Your US policy may reimburse you when you get home, but you will have to pay the bills in Europe unless you have a local policy and go to one of their providers. And evacuation insurance, so if it's bad, your US policy can take over in the US.

My view is you insure for unlimited loss i.e. for loss that can ruin you. Health care and being airlifted home are those kind of costs. We knew of someone years ago who had to mortgage their home to bring their daughter home from Cairo after she was hit by a car and seriously injured.

luggage, even the cost of tickets is a loss anyone can bear -- no one wants to lose those costs, but if you can afford the trip you can afford that loss. by not buying travel insurance for 35 years of travel we probably paid for a trip or two.

During most of our travels we had health insurance at home that covered emergency care traveling and we just got a policy for medjet that covered being transported home.

Now that we are old we have an annual policy from Allianz. A few years ago I had a trip policy from them and they paid the hospital directly when I broke my elbow and reimbursed for follow up care on the trip. so our experience with them was good. Now we have an annual policy and hope to never test how well it works.

So check the insurance you now have. Even Medicare medigap policies cover emergency care abroad usually for about 60K. But the huge expense is likely to be airlift home that can go well over 100K.