Thoughts on travel insurance for a 3 month trip to Europe

I have Medigap part G so I have some foreign travel insurance

You are covered for "necessary" emergency care that happens in the first 60 days of your arrival abroad. It is not travel insurance, per se, and if you require emergency care in the 3rd month of your trip, you are not covered.

First thing, the length of your trip may knock you out of a lot of policies. Many have a limit of 60-day trips. You may want to explore an annual travel insurance policy. (When I did this I found the evacuation coverage was a lesser dollar amount than single-trip plans.)
Read any policy you consider before you chose it. If the policy does not say something is included, it is not included.

Medical evacuation: haven't seen a policy that allows the customer/patient to decide they can "quickly leave" a hospital to get care at home. The insurer will decide when and if you can be evacuated, in consultation with medical staff caring for you. Recently a friend spent about 10 days in a German hospital after developing blood clots in her lungs. She was not able to fly until this was under control. She did not require medical evacuation AND could not have used it.
Does the evacuation insurance provide for travel of a family member to come to you while hospitalized? Especially if you are a solo traveler, you may want to have this.

Re this: Medical evacuation outside of medijet, seems like this just comes with policies, but do I need to get from wherever whatever happens to a hospital?
If covere, it would be covered by medical insurance...ambulance, helicopter; not evacuation. Evacuation is from the foreign land to the homeland.

Trip cancellation/interruption, from my reading of policies I've had (Allianz), is for first and last day: getting to your first destination and returning home from your last destination.

Good luck with your search. Here's hoping you buy something good and never have to find out if it actually is.

Allianz has an annual policy that could be a work around for the 60 day limit.

I think MedJet, if you require hospitalization, will let you choose to go or not go, but don't trust me in that, read the fine print. Their policies, I believe, come with a cash advance. I have a policy, but just don't remember and never used it.

I also have an Allianz policy, but its an expat full medical policy. You could buy it and cancel it, but mine isn't cheap at about $250 a month. I know tgey have other, cheaper policies.

We carry an annual policy from Allianz and a MedJet Horizon policy. Allianz covers international travel for 90 days at a time. In addition our Medicare Supplemental Policy has some limited international coverage in terms of the amount they will cover. We are prepared to cover the medical costs and seek reimbursement from both insurers. Allianz will get us to a hospital where we are traveling and MedJet will to a hospital at home. Cost for two of us was +$2,000.

Do consider that things are probably going to be less expensive in Europe. I dont want to overly generalize, but so far my experiences have been remarkably good. I can not imagine any country's healthcare system letting you die till you pay. In the few countries I have had situations requiring care it as been very reasonable; like 10% of what it would cost in the U.S. The care in Hungary and Ukraine was every bit as good as in the US, in Romania it was a bit "iffy" but got the job done, In Hungary I use the private system and I have paid $350 for what would have been $6,000 cash in the US or if the insurance would have covered it my deductable is $250. I am signed up for a procedure that will cost about $6000 in Hungary but would not less than $3500 in the US with insurance IF the doctor and hospital do not charge more than what the insurance considers "customary and normal" and my experience is that I what ever the doctor and hospital charges the insurance company will find a way to exclude a large chunk making the Hungarian cost no more than the US with insurance.

The point is, buy coverage if it makes you more comfortable, but buy 10% to 25% what you would be comfortable with in the US. That and the evacuation policy will probably net you out the same as staying home and being sick.

Cost for two of us was +$2,000.

Wow. I know what portion of that is the Medjet, I can't imagine paying that much for a health insurance travel policy for 3 months.

Mister E makes an excellent point - Medjet makes a lot of sense, combined with a travel health insurance policy for much lower coverage limits given the economics of the lower overall costs in Europe vs the US...

Good luck.

Wow. I know what portion of that is the Medjet, I can't imagine paying that much for a health insurance travel policy for 3 months.

The Allianz premium was $1400 for two for one year. My wife and I travel more than 4 to 6 months internationally out of the year. So as long as we return to the USA every 90 days we are covered internationally. If you were to shop travel insurance on a trip by trip basis it will more than likely be considerably more than our annual premiums for both Allianz and MedJet. If you are employed then your health insurance more than likely will cover medical costs in a foreign country.

My Blue Cross/Shield covers me overseas, but I also buy American Express coverage for medical evacuation and coverage overseas.

I usually pay about $60 for my wife and self for a month's coverage (1 million dollars)

I just looked at a 90 day Allianz plan with $10K medical, cancelation insurance and some sort of evacuation (but didnt read the details) and it was under $500.

Ed, your cost and mine are the same for annual Allianz AllTrip Premier coverage (plus Medjet Horizon). Yes, it could be cheaper by buying a different plan with lower medical coverage and/or reducing trip cancellation/interruption coverage and/or buying Medjet Assist. I find it odd that people are so quick to criticize without knowing which insurance is best for a individual. I do my research ad nauseum to choose the coverage that makes me comfortable.
When I buy insurance for next year, I will evaluate what coverage I need or want at that time. The insurance cost is only a fraction of the trip cost, especially when divided between multiple trips.

A lot of YouTuber's that do travel content have mentioned SafetWing, https://safetywing.com/, for health coverage. When I retire in the next 5 or so years, I plan on doing a multi-month trip throughout Europe.

Enjoy your time.

horsewoofie, I hope you didn't think I was critical? Not at all, just throwing out options for the OP. My insurance is about $250 a month, plus MedJet. It's what I needed to be comfortable the 7 or 8 months I am in Europe each year. Maybe next year I will re-evaluate.

It's what I needed to be comfortable the 7 or 8 months I am in Europe each year.

Mister E, how are you able to spend that much time in Europe without running afoul of the Schengen rules?

Great thoughts here! Becky, point taken about medical evacuation in that you may not be able to be evacuated in which case you are still in Europe and incurring medical expenses. Also, good points about costs being less than the US, but still think I will go for 100k.

I have been using squaremouth to do comparisons. One thing that came up was extension of coverage. Seems like it might be a good idea to have a policy that covers this in case you are in the hospital and can't get home by original planned trip end date.

Right now best prices/best coverage seems to be Tin Leg, IMG and AXA, but devil is in the details and still looking at that. Has anyone had experience with AXA? This is from Nationwide Insurance Co.

debbie

Jojo, I keep moving .... quickly .... weaving in and out .... and having Residency in a Schengen country doesn't hurt.

But prior to getting Residency, what many overlook, is a third of Europe is not in Schengen ... the third I enjoy most.

Tin Leg, IMG and AXA.

We have used them all, never had a claim. During covid times they were very good at allowing us to make numerous changes to our trips. Since things kept getting delayed.

One thing if you are going to go through Squaremouth set your medical coverage as Primary to get your quote.

Thank you everyone who provided input. I ended up purchasing from IMG, primarily because they were the only policy of reasonable cost that provided good medical coverage and had a 20 day period from first non refundable purchase to purchase date of insurance policy in order to get the pre-existing condition waived for medical. 250k for medical 500k for medical evac. It does not have insurance for medical evacuation for non medical reasons, but does include 40k in car rental insurance and I will be doing some car rental. The next option would be 7 corners which has double the medical and evac coverage, plus evac for non medical reasons, no car rental. Not sure if it is worth the extra $130, but I do have a day to think about it. At this point I do not think I am going to purchase medjet as it would add another $350 to my cost since my trip is 81 days and I would have to purchase an annual policy.

Since I will be doing multiple trips during the next year, currently in Denmark, Italy in October, Oaxaca in December and Ireland in May 2024, I purchased a very extensive policy from Allianz for a full year. Medical emergency including air , trip interruption, every conceivable issue I might encounter...$800 for a year.