Travel insurance

[jin]

Any recommendations on the best place to buy travel insurance? We are staying at a timeshare in Mexico in 1 mos and my father in law has recently been diagnosed with metastatic cancer and we may need to cancel the trip or leave abruptly. We also have several other trips planned for 2013 that have already been scheduled. Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Kal]

A friend just returned from Mexico (Cabo) by Medivac. She fell and broke her hip. For various reasons the hospital did not give her any treatment or pain meds while there (24-hour period). The Medivac was covered by her timeshare travel insurance but coverage was only to the US border. Her cost from the US border to home was $12,000.

I would definitely obtain trip insurance with good medical coverage and Medivac. Read the policy very carefully. I always get trip insurance and the last claim, which was relatively small, required an unreasonable amount of documentation (nonsense paperwork) and justifications. The daily limit is very important as that's the most they will pay. If the covered event lasted 3 days, you cannot exceed the daily limit each day even if the combined costs do not exceed the aggregated 3 day amount.

Read the fine print, especially pre-existing conditions and don't make ANY assumptions.

 

[Passepartout]

The best place to buy is of course, online. Buy what suits your needs. There is a sticky at the top of the Travel Info forum, and a link that allows side-by-side comparison. What will be the sticking point with your situation (as I see it) is the per-existing condition and diagnosis of your FIL. Some require that the insurance be bought and paid for within a couple weeks of making a deposit for travel.

We usually use TravelGuard for 'big, expensive' trips and haven't sweated just a week in Mexico. We do insure longer stays, and now, since we are on Medicare and have no insurance out of USA, we insure more of them.

So it goes.

 

[mnmrsjjp]

Be careful to look for coverage for pre-existing conditions. Some companies cover pre-exisiting conditions if you buy the coverage within 10 days of paying for your airfare. If you already bought your airline tickets, you probably won't be able to get coverage for pre-existing conditions.

 

[WinniWoman]

We use CSA for most vacations and Vacation Guard for our own timeshares. Read the fine print in anything you are considering buying. And pay attention to the preexisting conditions, etc. as mentioned in other posts.

 

[Quiet Pine]

I'm pretty loyal to Travel Guard because they took care of DH 8 years ago on the Amazon River in Brazil--helicopter to Manaus, 5 days in a hospital, flight back home. But I always check InsureMyTrip.com to compare coverage and costs.

 

[x3 skier]

We use Travel Guard for long trips and out of country ones but nothing for short ones. Our medical insurance covers most of things if needed like when my wife was hospitalized in Germany for pneumonia. Their variety of policies allows us to pick and choose coverages.

I also have taken to buying the add on insurance on airline tickets offered by Delta, for example, for travel delays when I am flying in the winter and during hurricane season. It is relatively cheap. Saved me ~$50 net in Feb when a flight was cancelled and I had to keep a rent a car an extra day. I got a check within a week after submitting the claim.

Cheers

 

[SuzanneSLO]

We use Travel Guard for long trips and out of country ones but nothing for short ones. Our medical insurance covers most of things if needed like when my wife was hospitalized in Germany for pneumonia. Their variety of policies allows us to pick and choose coverages.

I also have taken to buying the add on insurance on airline tickets offered by Delta, for example, for travel delays when I am flying in the winter and during hurricane season. It is relatively cheap. Saved me ~$50 net in Feb when a flight was cancelled and I had to keep a rent a car an extra day. I got a check within a week after submitting the claim.

Cheers

I really like the explanations given at tripinsurancestore.com. The owner of that site, Steve, recently wrote about an issue that sounds very similar to the OP: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/blog/im-sorry-about-marys-brother/

Bottom line according to Steve: "In other words, if the person with the pre-existing condition has already had “a turn for the worse” prior to you buying your travel insurance, there won’t be any coverage."

-- Suzanne

 

[presley]

I have an annual Travel Guard policy. It will cover any trips greater than 100 miles from home. It also covers preexisting after a period of time.

 

[x3 skier]

Bottom line according to Steve: "In other words, if the person with the pre-existing condition has already had “a turn for the worse” prior to you buying your travel insurance, there won’t be any coverage."

-- Suzanne

If you tried that, it would look like fraud to me. But I am not a lawyer, thank heaven.

Cheers

 

[patty5ia]

Travelguard medical only without trip insurance. I always use it for trips out of the country.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

If you tried that, it would look like fraud to me. But I am not a lawyer, thank heaven.

Cheers

I dont think it is fraud just because it is excluded from coverage.

For example, if you buy a policy that provides no coverage relating to skydiving and you are injured in a skydiving accident, then you have not defrauded the insurance company by participating in the excluded activity; they just won't pay your claim.

Obviously, it would be fraud if the doctor falsified the family member's medical records in the case of the OP or your claim for the sky-diving injury stated stated that you fell off a ladder. -- Suzanne

 

[vlapinta]

is vacationguard the only one that covers a timeshare week exchange. Trying to decide which one to buy for our trip to Hawaii which includes a timeshare exchange.