Insurance for foreign travel

[Glynda]

Just a quick update after a week at home. I FEEL GREAT! More stamina, sleeping better. I've been to my 'regular' doctor. He agrees 100% with the diagnosis and care I got in Germany. He DID order a repeat of a blood panel and set me up with a local cardiologist- and get this- a 'pacemaker group' or clinic or something. Who knew there is such a thing. That's next week, so stay tuned.

One group I've neglected to mention that I think deserves high praise. AMAWaterways and 'Friends of Dave' https://www.rivercruiseking.com/. We were on their river cruise called 'Castles and Wine' when I just ran out of breath and couldn't keep up. The Cruise manager INSISTED that I 'Just go get a scan' and assured me that he'd stick with me as long as necessary and get me to and from the hospital. He said this was the best medical facility we would be close to and that we were moving into an area with not as good care. As soon as I was admitted, he took Paula back to the boat to pack up for both of us and the local agent (you know that person who is on your local papers every time a cruise ship docks- that you ignore- well this is what they do) picked Paula and our bags and got her into a hotel near the hospital. AMA called EVERY DAY. The local agent and his wife came to the hospital to visit 3-4 times including taking us to an excellent 'Weinstuben'- gourmet restaurant IN the hospital grounds (it has the second largest winery in Germany- and endows their nursing home and hospice care).

Today, the doorbell rang and there was a guy with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for us from AMAWaterways President and owner. If we ever consider another European- or S.E. Asian river cruise, there is no doubt in my mind that AMAWaterways is one we would more than just consider.

Still no bills.

Jim

That's amazing and though I had already chosen AMA for when we do a river cruise, that just cements my decision.

 

[Passepartout]

That's amazing and though I had already chosen AMA for when we do a river cruise, that just cements my decision.

Not least of which was the handwritten note from the Owner/President personally wishing me well and speedy recovery. They didn't miss a day contacting Paula from Basel Switzerland (their head office) while I was hospitalized, and stuck with us until we were safely headed home. And we hadn't even bought their insurance!! Amazing, family owned company. I can't say enough good things for our care. Had it not been for the AMA cruise manager, Raul, and the rest of the AMA team, the outcome may have been very different. I am beyond grateful.

Jim

 

[Icc5]

All the details are in post #1, and in #11. Global Alert, through www.squaremouth.com per trip based on trip cost. The cost of this trip policy was $720 for both of us.

Jim

Thank you Jim.

 

[JudyH]

Thanks so much for all this. Glad you are healing well.

 

[Passepartout]

Thanks everyone for the good wishes. I feel GREAT. The pacemaker seems to be doing exactly what it is supposed to. My new local Cardiologist looked over the notes from Germany and just said, "See you in 6 months".

Came home yesterday to the first bill from the German hospital. I was put in a 'deluxe' semi-private room initially. I chose to stay in that room instead of a 4 bed 'ward' for 73 Euros a day extra. It had snacks, bottled water/juices, coffee, kuchen every afternoon, a fridge and table and chairs. Much nicer. The travel insurance said they wouldn't cover it. We have turned it into our home Medicare Advantage insurance. Their claims agent said it looks like they would cover it. I'm OK either way. We've also turned in the bills for Paula's hotel room and meals to the travel insurance. Stay tuned. More as this develops.

Jim

 

[47vampire]

Glad to see you made it home and for sharing so much. I learned a few years back when injured on a dock in the Bahamas how hard it could be to get care outside of the US and how basically I had to pay and submit for reimbursement which covered some but not all. Covered far less than if I had been in the US. Now my husband is on Medicare and I didn't really realize all of this but had been buying travel insurance when making travel reservations but now I will look a little deeper. We next 2 trips are out of the US. Again, such a great travel education from fellow tuggers. THANKS

 

[MLR]

Have read these posts with interest. So sorry to hear of your health issues and happy that you are feeling better and that you had the travel insurance. We always purchase it for our trips - ever since we turned 65 and know that Medicare and supplement is not enough in foreign countries.

We traveled to MX for our son's destination wedding in May WITHOUT travel insurance. We were BOTH sick with the flu the entire trip - got propped up with meds for the ceremony and went right back to bed. Decided we would never travel without the ins. again. Just happened that hubs was hospitalized for stuck kidney stones and a huge pecan sized bladder stone. Spent two agonizing days in hospital. Better now. But afterwards we realized that it could have easily happened in MX with no travel insurance. That would have been awful. So, never again.

Appreciated all the comments on experiences and we buy the insurance and never know if it really 'pays when needed' or not. Dealt with Squaremouth as well but will look into the one the poster mentioned since we have the Chase Sapphire travel card as well.

Again, hoping for a full recovering to good health for you.

 

[MLR]

I agree with 47vampire. TUGgers are a great help when it comes to travel. Yes, we buy the medical (no out of pocket and what we call 'bag and tag' which will airlift us home if needed). Otherwise, in MX esp., you can be held hostage until someone pays - and not everyone has a credit card limit high enough to handle it. :0( So, if you are uninsured OR on Medicare - buy the insurance. It seems like a lot of money but not if you need the insurance as the original poster did.

 

[TXTortoise]

Excellent thread and so happy you were where you were in Germany.

This is probably the best summary I’ve read that speaks to medical vs evac policies. While most travelers on TUG are doing more traditional types of trips, having an event in any third world country or remote location can be complicated.

https://expeditionportal.com/buyers-guide-travel-insurance-rescue-and-medical-evacuation-services/

 

[melow]

Hello Jim...thank you for the travel insurance education you provided me (and, of course, others) during such a stressful time of your life. Amazing you managed to carry on a conversation while all that was going on. I am from Okemos, MI and am new to TUG but not to timeshare, first purchasing in 1982. I've always subscribed to Timeshare Today and found TUG by accident. Gracias a dios that I happened to find your thread on this subject. How fortunate I have been not to have had any medical problems during all my traveling years, especially since I never took out insurance! And am happy I traveled so much in my younger years since joint problems are impeding my current travel. I refuse to have knee replacements. However, I am just getting ready to book flights to Panama City, Panama, for a week's worth of stem cell treatment at the Stem Cell Institute; and because of you, I will perform my due diligence and obtain the proper insurance coverage. Thank you again. So happy you are home safe and sound...or maybe even sounder?

By the way, anyone interested in Stem Cell info should go to cellmedicine.com for a discussion of Dr. Neil Riordan's ( Dr. Riordan also has offices in South Lake, Texas) treatment of the degenerative and autoimmune diseases (Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, M.S., Heart Failure, Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Injury, Lupus) which is done in Panama with adult stem cells...which can't yet be used in the U.S. The US requires the Stem cells be only taken from your own bone marrow. This is the clinic where Mel Gibson's Dad was treated. He turned 100 last month..the video is on UTube...he was at Mayo, needed heart surgery...valve replacement....but with stem cells, the heart valve healed itself..Dr. Riordan believes this will be standard treatment in 20 years...but I don't have 20 years and I have more traveling to do.

And another quirk here..the gentleman at the Institute who arranges patients' hotel accommodations is an Irishman who used to work near my timeshare resort, Fitzpatricks Castle Holiday Homes in Kiliney outside of Dublin.

And one more "By The Way"... thanks for remembering Gilda. We went to school together...24 girls in our class at the Liggett School in Detroit...and then on to Michigan for undergrad til she took off for Toronto. GO BLUE. But young people today don't even know who she was.. so they took her name off Gilda's Clubs because of this. It's always something!!

Anyway..after this little epistle...my best to you and your better half (I'm also a lawyer, but lost the one who watched over me 4 years ago.).
Mary Elizabeth Low

 

[Karen G]

Jim, I just now read through this whole thread and I'm so thankful for your successful outcome, health wise and insurance wise! I was on a trip myself when this whole saga began and I wasn't aware of what you were going through. I'm glad TUG Brian mentioned it in the TUG Newsletter. So glad you are feeling better than you were before you went on this trip and I so appreciate all the good information you've shared. Best wishes for continued good health and travels.

 

[topcop400]

I’m so glad you were seen before you had a cardiac event that took your life. Things could have been so much worse! I bet you are glad to be home.

 

[GrayFal]

I also read thru your thread. Tom and I just purchased yearly travel insirance as he is now on medicare
When did we get sooooo old?

 

[Passepartout]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes. Today, after Brian linked my thread in the weekly newsletter, I re-read some of my posts. It was clear that I was not at my best. Mis -spellings, typos, just sloppy typing, but please understand, I was NOT at my best and was on a tablet with a virtual keyboard.

The important points are, (a) buy your travel insurance immediately when you put down your FIRST deposit on travel. This will ensure that pre-existing conditions are covered, and (b) make sure that the medical portion of your coverage is PRIMARY. This way the travel insurance can be billed directly by the provider, and you won't have to have forms translated, declined, re-submitted to another carrier and ultimately you having to pay.

So far I don't know what will be paid on my claim, but I'm fully repaired, got great care, and what could easily have caused my earlier than necessary departure has been postponed for a while, a good, long while, I hope.

Again, THANKS!

Jim

 

[skimeup]

Good heavens what a saga! So glad it all has a happy ending and so wonderful of you to share your experience with the hospitals and especially, for tuggers benefit, the experience with the insurance company and medicare. Please keep us updated as bills come in and get paid. Especially interested in what medicare and medigap covers. Do they consider themselves secondary and your travel insurer primary or how does that work? What was maximum coverage?

This caused me to review the Global Emergency Travel Insurance I bought through Interval International. It covers emergency travel over 100 miles from home, concierge services to locate doctors, and emergency evacuations to local hospitals (think if you are in the mountains) or to get you home from somewhere that doesn't have adequate medical care if need be. Nice but doesn't cover any medical itself. Some coverage for travel for companion or family. You can read it here: https://www.skymed.us/SkyMedService...spx?mn=492486221585246924&msav=GETSii20120201 All the same, I am glad I have it for travel in the USA over 100 miles. Accidents and illnesses can happen here, too, and medicare will cover the medical stuff!

Somehow I had thought it covered more - I thought it covered me for illness when I was in Mexico not too long ago. Glad I didn't get sick! Off to Barcelona in October - I'll definitely purchase coverage. After all, at 75 I do have to consider not just my mortality but the possibilities of illness and broken bones. So glad to have gotten information on various insurance companies through this thread.

Speaking of broken bones, my friend was on a trip on the Silk Route in China and managed to fall and break his femur (thigh bone). The guide got him to a local hospital three hours away (over bumpy roads - so you can imagine how much morphine they gave him.) Local hospital treated him and helicoptered him to a state of the art facility in Beijing. After he was stabilized, he was sent home with a travel nurse and Kaiser took over. All covered by his travel insurance. I am checking on who the insurer was but he tells me he didn't pay a thing and his docs said his care could not have been better. Guess I'll need to check out squarepoint. Fortunately my only pre-existing condition is hypothyroidism.

 

[acaseyc]

We have On Call International travel insurance always included in our MF payment every year from our timeshare in Mexico. It applies only on travel to that timeshare. Includes 12 pages of benefits, which I have printed out and goes everywhere we go in my carry on suitcase. They have 24 hour worldwide assistance. It is a requirement that they must be notified before care is given. For an extra $15 a year for both of us, their coverage includes ALL our trips 100 miles or more away from home ! What a buy! We have only had to use it once, and not for a big emergency, thank goodness.
We too are on MediCare, which does not cover foreign travel. A word of warning to the wise: be protected !
Best wishes to you Jim for return to good health, and to Paula who is supporting you.

 

[Passepartout]

We have On Call International travel insurance always included in our MF payment every year from our timeshare in Mexico. It applies only on travel to that timeshare. Includes 12 pages of benefits, which I have printed out and goes everywhere we go in my carry on suitcase. They have 24 hour worldwide assistance. It is a requirement that they must be notified before care is given. For an extra $15 a year for both of us, their coverage includes ALL our trips 100 miles or more away from home ! What a buy! We have only had to use it once, and not for a big emergency, thank goodness.
We too are on MediCare, which does not cover foreign travel. A word of warning to the wise: be protected !
Best wishes to you Jim for return to good health, and to Paula who is supporting you.

On Call Int'l was who apparently was who was notified by AMAWaterways as I was enroute to the hospital. The hospital had their claims forms by the next morning, and it was On Call that provided the Rescue Nurse and arranged our flights home. We had bought the insurance from Global Alert, (through squaremouth.com) but they apparently use On Call to provide services. Interesting.
You get into this and it's like peeling an onion. Lots of layers of responsibility.

On Call just handled the medical and evacuation portion of my claim. All other, TRAVEL related stuff, the trip cancellation, trip delay, trip interruption, if there had been lost luggage or a myriad of other travel loses are covered by other entities.

Thanks for posting.

 

[marijalas]

The whole reason for posting all this is as a cautionary tale of what CAN happen when traveling, along with accidents and unexpected occurances. We, along with lots of TUGgers are just on Medicare - that doesn't cover medical outside the US. My supplement SAYS they will ' cover up to what Medicare covers as long as you provide itemized invoice in English.' Great! Just try to get that translation done across medications and procedures with different names.

This care I am getting would be entirely at my expense without travel medical insurance. For this trip, it was about $720, for two, to cover $14,000 of trip cost. Then you have to dig for the medical and evacuation benefits. When done, they may pay many hundreds of thousands.

When planning a trip, and buying insirance, it's about more than the low cost.

Jim

Your situation sounds like Worst Case Scenario. So sorry for your trouble. Glad you had excellent care and are healing. Thank you for your information.

 

[Passepartout]

Your situation sounds like Worst Case Scenario. So sorry for your trouble. Glad you had excellent care and are healing. Thank you for your information.

Nope. Worst Case would have been if this happened in some 3rd world country, or if I had had my way and done nothing, saying I'll just rest and my heart, just chugging along at 40 BPM with pneumonia, had stopped. How many times have we heard, "So and so said he didn't feel good and went to bed & died in his sleep of an 'apparent heart attack'"?

On many levels, I was very lucky and was surrounded by people who cared.

Jim

 

[Coach Boon]

Glad to hear everything and I do mean everything worked out well for you Jim. I've read your comments on TUG many times. More importantly is your story on travel insurance.

I'm curious to know if not buying travel insurance is an American thing. Canadians never leave home without travel insurance. This could be down to the fact that sooo many of us travel to the US or stay for long periods of time (snowbirds anyone)? We're well aware of the high costs of a US hospital stay.

I'm no insurance expert perhaps we could get one to do an article for TUG members?

Rule #1 is always have travel insurance regardless of your age. I think Jim's experience clearly demonstrates that.
Rule #2 be aware of what you're buying. Pre-conditions may exclude your coverage completely.

I don't buy travel/health insurance for specific trips. I have a yearly plan bought from CAA (AAA) to cover my business trips which can happen on short notice. Its good for 10 day stretches but easy to extend for longer stretches. My son who is traveling the world for about a year has a special travel/health insurance just for those kind of travelers.

Certain Amex cards also have travel/health insurance. I don't rely on it but its nice to have just the same. You have to book your tickets through them. They even have a list of English speaking doctors in just about every country. I'm sure other premium cards offer the same.

Last points:
Read Rule #1
Safe travels to eveyone.

 

[gsedlock]

Jim, thank you so much for taking the time to write this thread and respond to all of the posting. I have, at times, been cavalier about travel insurance. No more!

So glad that you have recovered and are doing well.

Greg

 

[LauriBuck]

Has anyone used the travel insurance offered through Veteran's Advantage. It's available to Veteran's and their family members. You have to have a membership to Veterans Advantage - available to Veterans and family members. My husband has had a membership for a while to Veteran's advantage. We haven't used it much, but we have gotten a few discounts on United Airlines (5%). I'm thinking about getting their TravelProtection policy. It's only $20/year per family member and covers $50,000 Medivac insurance if you're more than 100 miles away from home. It costs around $60/year to be a member of Veteran's Advantage and half of that for each family member added.

 

[Passepartout]

Today, we submitted a bit over $10,000 in claims for non-medical losses. 5 days of the cruise, Paula's hotel, meals, loss of the original airfare home, and some other odds and ends. I'll post with the outcome.

Jim

 

[Sandy VDH]

Insurance is a tricky business. There are so many conditional situations. On purchasing based on where you live what kind of coverage does your state allow. It also depends on the situation that happens, where it happens. When we sell travel insurance, we are advised NOT to act as an expert, we are to utilize the insurance providers and let them answer the question. All insurance policies sold also give you a 10 day review period. When you get the insurance coverage document, that is when you need to review it. I just went through this trying to purchase an annual policy. Depending on their state of residency, coverage is normally Secondary but some states will only let Primary coverage be sold in that state (eg NY), a similar policy has different riders depending on residency of the individual who purchases the product.

ADVICE, Read your Coverage within the cancellation period, usually 10 days. Make sure you review it and it provides the coverage and the limits you require. If not cancel it and purchase something else.

 

[dreamin]

I just wanted to add that you must contact your travel insurance provider within 24 hours of seeking medical assistance or they may not cover your expenses (according to the small print in the policy). In an emergency situation the hospital will provide the care but they will be asking for insurance coverage as soon as you are non-critical or by contacting family members. In Jim's case, he said AMA contacted the insurance company enroute to hospital.

I had to be treated for bronchitis twice while travelling in Portugal in February. The hospital would not direct-bill the insurance company so I had to pay around 500 euros and was reimbursed in full when I submitted the expenses on my return home. I was well enough to phone my insurance provider and had pre-approval from them.

Not ALL Canadians get travel insurance, although they should. It was publicized after the Las Vegas shootings that some young Canadians who were hospitalized due to their injuries did not have medical insurance and were struggling to pay the US hospital bills. Some had GoFundMe accounts set up. Accidents can happen to all ages, not just us 65+ travellers!

Best wishes, Jim, during your rehab and full recovery. Your posting was so valuable to all travellers.