Travel Health Insurance

Mona,

Unfortunately I don't think the fact they have dual US/Canadian citizenship has a bearing on this situation. I haven't checked recently, but I'm familiar with the usual terms of travel medical insurance policies and I expect that all of them will have exclusions for Covid-19. Given the fact that they live in one of the worst affected provinces (and cities) of Canada, and want to spend an extended period of time in the U.S., I doubt they will be able to get any insurance.

Travelling without medical insurance would be a big mistake as if they were to contract the virus, the hospital bills could bankrupt them. They could also put the health of their parents at risk. If I were in the same situation, I'd use Skype or FaceTime until the situation improves.

You might give Steve a call at Tripinsurancestore.com and ask. They are very knowledgeable about the companies they represent and will give an honest answer. No affiliation, I'm just a satisfied repeat customer of theirs.

Tom_MN if you are referring to this website https://www.americanvisitorinsurance.com/blog/visitors/travel-insurance-for-coronavirus-covid-19.asp that lists 3-4 companies I think it will just be up to her due diligence to vet each one, read all fine print and make calls to ask questions. And yes I’ve been very careful to say travel health insurance not travel cancellation insurance.

Thanks to all so far for your help.

I have seen several traveler insurance policies for cancellation/interruption that do not cover anything related to covid-19 because it is a known risk, like terrorism and so on, and they don't like to cover things that have a high possibility of occurring. So if you book travel arrangements now and you cannot take the trip because of lockdowns or other things preventing you from going, they will not cover that because you (should) know the possibility exists of not being able to go.

However, I have not seen any travel medical insurance plans that specifically call out covid-19 and refuse to cover you if you get ill from it. That is unless you enter an area that is restricted or locked down due to the disease without proper permissions.

This of course is all from the view of a US citizen purchasing insurance for going elsewhere. Not sure about the reverse. Which means the terms of any insurance will have to be carefully reviewed before purchase to make sure it covers what is needed, just like anytime you buy insurance.

It sounds like your person living in Canada presumably is covered by a Canadian health insurance program for services in Canada. If they want medical insurance for services delivered outside of Canada, ie. the USA, they need a MEDICAL insurance policy that would pay for a Canadian resident receiving medical services outside of Canada, ie the US. They would likely want insurance that would cover evacuation/transportation back to Canada should they need continuing medical care. For Americans, that would be some kind of Medical/Evacuation insurance. The policy should be underwritten by a Canadian underwriter.

The coronavirus exclusions that you are seeing are likely exclusions regarding travel expenses beyond medical treatment. Those are comprehensive travel policies for transportation and cost of accomodations.

Medjet Assist, a major player in the evacuation-insurance market, has a COVID-19 policy on its website here: https://medjetassist.com/medjet-blog/blog/2020/01/24/medjet-services-alert-coronavirus

The key point, I think, is that the company will not transport you while you are actively infected.

We have been trying to find this information as well. We have annual policies through DAN, and they, like most others, specifically exclude pandemics. So Covid is not covered. We are postponing our trip this summer and are replanning for summer 2021. We still need health insurance for the trip, and would like something that does cover Covid just in case.

They’ll need to continue on with FaceTime. Thank you all for your confirmations. Covid-19 and dementia are heartbreaking.

The starting point of you question appeared to be medical (health) insurance for Candian residents traveling to and in the United States. Many of the responses applied more to American residents traveling to other countires.

There may also have been some confusion about comprehensive travel inclurace that includes medical and medical evaculation coverage.

Looking at the AIG Travel Guard website, AIG clarifies the COVID-19 coverage with respect to trip cancellation, interruption etc being a known (not unforeseen) hazard and therefore not covered. However, AIG reaffirms that COVID-19 does not affect Medical Benefits.
https://www.travelguard.com/covid19notification

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared
Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic. Therefore, any losses for trip
cancellation, trip interruption and/or trip delay caused by or
resulting from quarantine due to COVID-19 is not considered
“Unforeseen” and will not be covered under the terms and conditions of
this insurance policy.

However, this does not affect any Medical Benefits available under
the insurance policy. If you contract COVID-19 prior to departure, you
would be covered for Trip Cancellation, if you have a confirmed and
documented diagnosis and/or you are medically unable to travel at the
time of departure due to COVID-19. If you contract COVID-19 while on
a covered trip, you would be covered for Medical Expense and Trip
Interruption/Curtailment benefits if you have a confirmed and
documented diagnosis.

Thanks for more information and links for this relative to pursue. If she is able to reliably acquire health travel insurance by some means, I’ll report back to this thread.

Tom_MN, Insurance can cover or not cover whatever the company issuing the policy wants it to.

I am going through that with my current medical insurance even at home. Many things that were covered under my former employer's policy are not covered under the policy I now have -- even though they are from the same insurance company.

So beware what you purchase and make sure it covers what you need it to.

I took a look at the Travelguard policies. A glaring issue is that the highest medical coverage was only 50k, which is a drop in the bucket if you get really sick. My husbands coworker came down with Covid while we were all overseas, but thankfully he made it back to the US (but not home) before symptoms really started, so his care has been all within the US. He was admitted to ICU on Jan 31 and spent 2 months in the hospital, another few weeks in respiratory rehab, was at a relatives for a couple weeks and then is now back in ICU. So 50k would have been used up probably on his first day. That little amount of coverage is not something I personally am willing to gamble on.

Mikliz97 I agree that $50,000 is totally inadequate. Thanks for noticing this. I hope for the best for your husband’s colleague. This is a serious situation still for many people.