International travel & insurance

[smurray5991]

I've used TravelGuard and CSA in recent years. World Nomads is actually underwritten by TravelGuard I believe.

Typically the cost of all these policies is a function of the length of time you're traveling, your age, and whether you're being covered for trip cancellation or interruption or not (since premiums rise with the dollar cost of what trip costs you want covered).

For me personal, I'm most interested in emergency medical evacuation insurance -- if anything serious happens in a developing country, I definitely want to get to a modern hospital.
Because my mother is elderly and has health issues, having trip interruption insurance is important for me, too, since you never know when I have to cancel a trip either before departure or while en route in order to come back for her, potentially losing thousands in airfare or anything else I've pre-paid.

 

[kevink]

Have traveled extensively internationally and currently live in Mexico full time as an expat but travel from here. World Nomads is excellent for general travel/medical cover. You can also check out TripInsuranceStore.com for a bunch of other options. Be aware there are age limits on all of these policies...after age 65-70 it can get to be a real bear (so do the big trips now!).

CDW cover through credit cards can be good, but read the fine print. If renting here in Mexico buying liability coverage is a must....ditto in Europe, in my experience.

 

[explanade]

I believe I read some language about preexisting conditions for the medical coverage in the DAN plan with TravelGuard as the underwriter.

If you need an evacuation, how would you even alert the authorities that you have that kind of insurance? Seemed like these kinds of policies are about paying upfront and then getting reimbursed.

Plus, you may not be in a condition to tell anyone that you want medical evacuation.


Or even if you're traveling in a G8 country where you'd have no problem with receiving treatment, again, how do you pay for services?

 

[retiredncolorado]

Explanade,

You bring up good questions. I am not sure.

Also, the policy details on the DAN policy does state pre-existing conditions are excluded. I believe if the pre-existing condition is under control (Blood Pressure, cholesterol) with medications then there is no problem.
I wonder if other policies have similar conditions.

Last year we were in Mexico for three weeks and when coming back we were in customs and a lady in line said that she slipped at the pool of the resort she was staying in and broke her wrist. She went to the hospital and was treated. When she was getting discharged the hospital wanted payment for services in cash. I believe the amount was around $10,000. She said she didn't have the cash and the hospital said she would be held until she paid the bill. If she didn't pay they were going to call the police.
I believe she paid the bill using multiple credit cards. She said she had to submit the paperwork to her insurance and they would reimburse her.

I imagine that is how these policies work.... But am not sure and now very curious.

 

[someguy]

Going off explanade and retiredncolorado, I'm curious if anyone has actually had to use any of these insurances? For example, KevinK, you said World Nomads is excellent -- is that based off first hand knowledge?

 

[braumeister]

Going off explanade and retiredncolorado, I'm curious if anyone has actually had to use any of these insurances?

I don't know which one it was, but I saw a fellow traveler come down with an agonizing back problem (recurrence of an old condition) during a trip in remote Denali last year. He was unable to continue and also unable to be driven out.

As it happened, there was a physician in the group who was able to certify his condition, and he had a helicopter come in and take him to a hospital in Anchorage. He was told that his medevac insurance would completely cover the cost.

It didn't occur to me at the time to ask him what company he got the insurance from, but at least it was good to see that it worked.

 

[someguy]

That's good to hear. It seems to me this is a case where the likelihood is quite low but the cost if it does happen is quite high -- IOW, perfect for an honest insurance company/product.

I don't know which one it was, but I saw a fellow traveler come down with an agonizing back problem (recurrence of an old condition) during a trip in remote Denali last year. He was unable to continue and also unable to be driven out.

As it happened, there was a physician in the group who was able to certify his condition, and he had a helicopter come in and take him to a hospital in Anchorage. He was told that his medevac insurance would completely cover the cost.

It didn't occur to me at the time to ask him what company he got the insurance from, but at least it was good to see that it worked.

 

[explanade]

Well the DAN insurance has a number you can call to ask questions.

But I guess they also have a number for the insured to call? Maybe you have to get some kind of reauthorization to hire that kind of service?

If you're in a foreign country, especially a third-world country that you want to be medically evacuated from, where would you even go to call for such a service?

Maybe you call the insurance and they approve and either arrange it or tell you where to call?

 

[smurray5991]

Well the DAN insurance has a number you can call to ask questions.

But I guess they also have a number for the insured to call? Maybe you have to get some kind of reauthorization to hire that kind of service?

If you're in a foreign country, especially a third-world country that you want to be medically evacuated from, where would you even go to call for such a service?

Maybe you call the insurance and they approve and either arrange it or tell you where to call?

Most of the travel policies I've seen have some kind of 24 hour medical assistance number that provides a range of help for getting medical care around the world. From what I understand they get you connected with medical care, arrange evacuation if needed, and keep in contact with your family at home, etc. I assume the injured person does have to pay costs up front and then get reimbursed later, however.

In general, I assume these policies must work okay in developing country settings, since many US federal government agencies that do temporary travel to the developing world get MEDEX or some other travel policy for their staff; and USAID funded NGOs and some contractors use MEDEX as well. (Or at least that's my hope!).

As for experience with actually using such a policy, over the last 25 years my elderly mother has had to use them both to cancel a few trips before she left because of her own or my father's medical issues, and needing reimbursement for non-refundable airfare, etc..
And recently she had medical care on board a cruise ship outside the US which she had to pay for out of pocket and is now getting reimbursed for (involving submitting first to Medicare/secondary insurance to get a denial of claim, and then submitting to the travel company). In all cases there was no problem with the claim.

Finally, one point about pre-existing conditions. If you are getting insurance in connection with a cruise or tour, usually they will remove the pre-existing condition waiver if you purchase the insurance within a certain number of days after booking the trip.

 

[aida2003]

I hope Athena won't mind that I'll quote her here since it pertains to this topic:

There's more than you'll ever want to know about travel insurance on cruisecritic.com; they have a separate Discussion Board on that topic.

http://www.early-retirement.org/for...ile-out-of-the-country-72136.html#post1452686