Insurance

Checkout Insuremytrip.com for travel insurance.

My wife is on Medicare with a supplement and we're going with GEOBLUE Voyager Choice on our upcoming trip. Medicare is not good outside the U.S., which also means it's no good in Canada or Mexico. The price is nominal.

My Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is good worldwide.

I agree that you should look at Insuremytrip.com and compare different plans from different providers. I've used TravelGuard myself for my last few trips. I used their 'annual' plan in 2012 which covered all the trips I took in the 12 month coverage period (one 9-week trip and 2 shorter trips) and found it very competitively priced. Fortunately I haven't had to deal with making any claims so can't speak to that part of it.

Whatever replies you get from folks, remember that the "proof" of good travel insurance comes when one has to make a claim and see how the agency handles it. It should not be based entirely on price. You might want to also check out TripAdvisor and see if they have a section on travel insurance. I go to Europe every summer and because I am on Medicade, I always take out travel insurance and include medical evacuation just in case. I have used Travel Guard. I like their policies, ease of subscribing, prices,
but, since I have never make a claim, thank goodness, I can not rate their performance. Good luck and happy travels.

The other place to use to compare various companies and policies is www.squaremouth.com. And before anyone starts in with how they never buy insurance and have never needed it, I want to tell about some friends' experience. They went to Paris for Christmas last month. Just walking along, the woman somehow tripped and sustained a compound fracture of one of her leg bones. After surgery, they needed a business class ticket for her, at the very least, so that she could keep her leg elevated. The insurance they had purchased paid for b.c. tickets for all three of them.

It's true that Medicare itself doesn't cover care outside the U.S., but if you're on Medicare and you have a Medicare supplement policy with Plans C, D, F, G, M, or N, you'll be covered for up to $50,000 of emergency medical care outside the U.S.

If you are mainly concerned about medical evacuation insurance, a good source is Divers Alert Network (DAN). For $55 per year (in US), you get a family membership which includes up to $100,000 of evacuation assistance coverage, for both diving and nondiving medical emergencies, whenever you are at least 50 miles from home.

We routinely renew our membership each year and have no worries for even trips within US. This was recommended to us by a friend who broke a leg in Switzerland and had to be evacuated home, and DAN gave her very good service.

https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/membership/Travel_Assist

This is actually the only travel insurance we need, as we have the Medicare supplement that covers foreign medical costs; we fly practically free using frequent flyer tickets; and we don't prepay any lodging or tours.

If trying to compare policies is confusing, call InsureMyTrip and talk to a rep. They can help with specific questions and recommendations for your particular situation. I recently got a policy through them. It took a few emails, but I was able to compare the policies online while talking to the agent and select that way. What they can do is send you an email with a link to the policy basics side by side and you can go through them section by section to ask questions and get clarification. The agent I last worked with, Monique, seemed very knowledgeable and was very patient with me.

One thing I learned this time of consulting them was that the company I used twice before had a limit of 31 days for coverage, door-to-door. That technicality could void any claims you might have to make if you go over 31 days even slightly for any reason. (Sounds like Schengen, eh?) So this time I got a policy that has no such limitations.

I already knew about the pre-existing condition waiver. That's important to us because we both have health issues that could cause us to have to cancel. I got insurance pretty early this time because I just did the deposit for an RS tour and you have to do it within 21 (usually) days of your first payment on the trip in order to get the waiver.

I was considering the "cancel for any reason" options, but the new thing I learned is that it's not as cool as it sounds for too many reasons to go into here.