Travel insurance for Seniors

It varies by the state you live in.

Go to Insuremytrip and compare different companies. Then buy directly from the insurance company you choose.

I have an annual travel policy with Allianz. I've had them for years. I've never made a claim but the give me the coverage I need.

I am 76, my wife is 74 ... I don't think there is a "best" option for seniors. That said, we have travelled yearly for many years and have always purchased travel insurance to cover our pre-paid travel expenses and provide medical and evacuation coverage. Trip cancellation for cause (i.e. serious illness, death of a family member, etc.) and trip interruption are always included as a standard feature. Trip cancellation "because I've changed my mind and don't want to go" adds a significant premium to the price. We use insuremytrip.com to find our policy of choice. You put in some basic information, and the site comes back with a list of travel insurers and policy options. Then it's up to you to compare and decide which policy suits you the best. As you compare, make sure you notice which policies provide primary versus secondary medical coverage. Hope this helps.

Do a search on this board and you'll see a lot of opinions. Here's one thread that outlines my opinion on the advantage of getting a term policy for the duration of your trip. As you can see, other people have a different opinion.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/budget-tips/travel-health-insurance-maybe-avoid-annual-policies

I also use insuremytrip to compare plans. They have been very helpful answering my questions via chat

have always purchased travel insurance to cover our pre-paid travel expenses

There is a subtle, but important distinction here for the independent traveler.

Travel insurance is often priced by the cost of the trip, provided by you. It is easy if you are taking a fully inclusive tour, it is mostly what you had to fork over to the tour company.

But if traveling independently, with hotels that can be cancelled, meals you will not pay for, other money you will not spend if you have to cancel, then your liability, or risk, is much lower. Insurance only pays for actual losses, not estimated cost. So while you may be looking at spending $10,000 for a two week trip, worst case, you may only have an exposure of a couple thousand. No need to pay premiums on $8,000 you in no way can lose.

You may even want to check things like credit card benefits for cancellation protection/trip insurance. It is possible that there are other ways to mitigate loss of travel expenses, and then purchase a policy specifically for Medical and Evacuation, rather than trip insurance with a side benefit of medical.

As mentioned above, what drives the price of the premium is for the most part the amount of cost you want to cover in case of cancellation.
If all you lose is your plane tickets (assuming there is no way to get it refunded or changed for a small penalty) state only the expected loss you will actually lose in case of cancellation.
The important thing is to cover emergency medical expenses and evacuation costs (which are expensive, but not necessarily likely to happen). Since the probability of a medical emergency or evacuation tends to be low, the insurance companies evaluate that risk as low, much lower than the probability of having to cancel a trip, therefore the cost to cover medical and evacuation costs is not that huge, but of course it changes with age, so the older you are the higher the risk of getting hospitalized abroad, and the higher the premium.

Below are some notable names:

Faye
Generali
Travelex
AIG
Allianz
IMG
World Nomads
Geo Blue

You should also consider Evacuation Insurance. MedJet will get you home instead of "to the nearest facility." If you had to pay out of pocket, the cost skyrockets to over $100,000
https://medjetassist.com/aarp-discount
.
Fortunately, I have never had to file a claim (except for a unique bad experience with Travel Guard and I will never use them again). Post covid, I have bought Allianz Prime or Premier comprehensive travel insurance, sometimes an annual policy, sometimes a one-trip policy depending on trip dates. Allianz has been recommended on the forum many times. I always buy a MedJet evacuation policy, but now that I'm 75, there is a surcharge and additional documentation needed. I will use them for my September trip.
https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/find-a-plan

BCBS Global Solutions (formerly GeoBlue) has been recommended on the forum also. I had an annual medical policy two years ago because I could buy at any time without losing pre-existing coverage. I bought a small Allianz Basic annual policy to cover trip cancellation/interruptions. BCBS is basicly only medical. I also bought MedJet annual too. Overkill, but I travel solo and that's my comfort level.
https://bcbsglobalsolutions.com/individuals-and-families/

The devil is in the details. Read the policies carefully.
There are lots of conversations about travel insurance on the search feature. This link is for the past year:
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=travel+insurance&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Buon Viaggio!

I've purchased MedJetAssist before trips to locations where the medical care was iffy. But now that my partner is older, I think it's an excellent idea, for the reasons mentioned above.....they will fly you back to your HOME hospital, not merely cover you when you are in a hospital in or near, the scene of your accident or illness....

I've never used it, though. thank goodness. Would love to her from people who have.....

There are 2 other things to consider when previewing policies. For most policies, you have to get the policy within a certain time period (2 to 4 weeks) of your first covered trip purchase. The second consideration is pre-existing conditions. Some policies require purchase 180 days before departure to cover pre-existing medical conditions. Any new medical condition is covered once you purchase, i.e. for cancelation purposes.

Last year I turned 75 and our insurance costs more than doubled.

Leonard, if I understand your days correctly, I think your timing is off.

Most travel insurance will cover pre-existing health conditions IF bought within +/- 14 days of the first money paid for the trip. You don't need to buy insurance until you have a non-refundable purchase, ie hotel, plane, tour etc. Example: I bought refundable plane tickets and reserved five cancellable hotels without paying a deposit so there is nothing for insurance to cover. Today I paid a one-night non-refundable deposit on the sixth hotel. The clock is now ticking to buy travel insurance to cover pre-existing conditions. The 180 days is the company's look back period for pre-existing conditions.

If you miss the deadline to cover pre-existing conditions, you can still buy travel insurance but without that rider. As I said in my earlier post, BCBS Global will cover pre-existing almost anytime before your departure. I researched and bought an annual policy two years ago; other policies may vary.
As always, read the policy details carefully. Every company and type of policy is different.

This is a confusing and important topic.
My main concern is health insurance and transport home if needed. My Medicare supplement does cover up to 50,000 dollars in emergency care (which I believe is a lifetime limit). But is that enough coverage?
I also have an annual MedJet policy (transport only; and as long as one is medically stable).
I looked into Alianz annual policy but there was a 45 day limit. What does one do for longer trips?
Will continue to follow this topic. Thanks. Regina

The confusing thing for me is when you have multiple coverages. Who pays and when? For example, we have trip insurance through Allianz for our Spring trip. Our credit card has travel insurance. Our MediCare supplement has emergency medical coverage. I wonder if I make a first claim with one company, does that invalidate the other insurance or does it add on.

If you have Trip Insurance, the policy will state if it is primary or secondary coverage. You won't get double reimbursement without perjuring yourself.
In 2019, my wife got sick in Türkiye. Our trip insurance was secondary. Our Medicare Advantage reimbursement us.
In 2025, my wife got sick in Scotland. Our trip insurance was primary and reimbursed us.

This topic was a real challenge to me, last year. What helped me … and what I learned on my forum journey … was to consider what I needed to insure against.

As a fellow 70+ traveler who had never gotten travel insurance before, I did not initially understand what I really needed to cover. RS’s piece linked here led me to think it was trip cancellation coverage that I should get, but insights from this forum, reflections on the experience of friends, my questioning the “what if” potential and looking at what could be cancelled led me to simply get medical evacuation coverage, instead.

So begin with what do you need to cover …

• How far out is your trip ? (not far, for you)
• Why are you even considering trip cancellation? How likely is that to occur? Most trip cancellation plans require you to get that around the time you book your travel. Do you have tix yet? Did you book airline tix refundable or non refundable? Hotels booked? Paid yet or can you cancel as short as 2 or 3 days in advance?
• How is your general health (good)
• Do you have a supplemental medical insurance plan above and beyond Medicare? If so, check that policy coverage. It may well give you $50,000 coverage for medical and hospital care in Italy.
• Are you planning to rent a car? If so, Italian law requires the rental company to provide liability coverage, but you may or may not want to get the Collision Damage Waiver depending on what your credit card offers. Many credit cards automatically cover that for you.

My conclusion was that our health was good and trip cancellation coverage was way too expensive. The risk-benefit ratio made no sense to me in our circumstances. Hotels could be cancelled easily. We have supplemental medical insurance and I checked the policy and saw we had international coverage. We did plan to rent a car for a few days and our Costco credit card did pick up the CDW in Europe.

In our case, we were planning to cycle 13 out of 30 days. What if we got into an accident. Then I heard about med evac potentials from the forum. So, we chose a med evac policy for the two of us that cost just a little over $200. BTW, the policy that we got through Allianz had another $50K in medical coverage included. Our forum journey from a year ago, with many links in it, is here.

Fred

Thanks for your post. It clarifies some things and also makes me consider travel insurance from a different angle. We book almost exclusively, accommodations, tours, restaurants, flights with good cancellation policies and I keep a "cancel by" spreadsheet. It's really the emergency medical and the med evac that I am looking for. I still wonder if it invalidates other mixed coverage if I buy an med evac plan on top of the insurance I already have.

Can I ask a favor of everyone talking about insurance? Medicare, as in Medicare Part A and Part B, does not cover you outside of the US.
Please use the terms Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement when discussing what insurance coverage you may or may not have outside the US.
Terminology can be very confusing for new retired travelers trying to learn about travel insurance

Example: I have Medicare Supplement F through AARP (now a closed plan) which covers $50,000 lifetime benefit out side the US.

EDIT to avoid misunderstanding: Besides my Medicare Supplement, as noted in my up-thread posts I purchase travel medical and trip cancellation/interruption insurance and Medjet evac. Over-insured but it’s my comfort level as a solo traveler.

Katiecm … and tapdcr (OP)

My forum journey - a little less than a year ago - linked at the end of my earlier post, above, has LOTS of links to other forum posts and articles from other sources that provide evaluations, ratings and further discussion.

To me, at the end of my process, I figured some hotel costs and rebooking a flight is peanuts when compared with the fractured femur that one friend suffered and that required a 7 week extension in France for her and her husband before she was safe to fly home.

What if you look left, rather than right, when you step off a sidewalk in London traffic? Or have a heart attack and need a medical flight home? That was the type of concern that led us, at age 70+ to get the insurance that we got for our 2025 trip that included cycling … as opposed to not getting coverage in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2023 and 2024.

Horsewoofie. Exactly right to remind people that straight Medicare provides nothing for coverage for international travel. I suspect the same is true for Medicare Advantage. But many seniors - especially those with travel budgets - do have a supplemental health insurance policy.

As for European medical care expenses, my understanding is that they tend to be modest to insignificant - even for Americans, compared to what we pay in the US - even when you do have Medicare or other insurance coverage for heath care costs at home. Still may be a great decision to get some coverage if you are only on plain old Medicare or any other plan that fails to cover health care costs abroad.

Mr. E are you in on this thread and might you share your knowledge?

We may have the best medical care in the world, but we also have the worst health care system with the worst overall health outcomes of just about any developed nation, in terms of life expectancy, and infant mortality.

In life, especially modern life, there is no end to the risks that cannot be reduced to algebraic tranquillity. Each of us must make choices depending on our circumstances. My wife and I are 79 and 75 and have made over 80 round trips from the US to Europe over the decades, mostly to Italy and most lasting from 3 to 8 weeks. We've never purchased any kind of travel insurance for air travel, hotel, or car rental and never had any need for it - not even for lost baggage or a botched flight. Even when Covid hit we were able to cancel everything, though we did hear the wind of that bullet. Since Covid we've started buying changeable airline tickets as a nod to human transcience. My point would not be that there are no risks, but that the most likely outcome by far is that your trip will be pleasant in every way and that any wrinkle will be easily handled physically and financially without an insurance broker.