Trip insurance

Catharine · February 5, 2016

Wondering about insurance for RV trips. Has anyone had to use it and was there a problem if getting you medical help, but the trip insurers were not using your preferred providers. In other words, did you get stuck with owing a bunch because the trip insurance did not cover it all and it was not your preferred providers so your medical did not either.

Kirk W · February 5, 2016

Are you asking about some special insurance purchased just for a specific trip, or about using your existing insurance while traveling? Travel insurance is insurance that is intended to cover medical expenses, trip cancellation, lost luggage, flight accident and other losses incurred while traveling, either internationally or within one's own country. It is usually purchased because one is traveling outside of the coverage area of their existing insurance. We have purchased this when traveling outside of the US and did on one occasion use ours quite effectively. We also purchased it recently for a month long trip outside of the US but made no claims.

Insurance for your RV and tow vehicles should be just fine as you travel and there should be no need for any special insurance on those, unless you plan to travel into Mexico or farther south. Most vehicle insurances do cover you while in Canada if you travel that direction. For travels inside of the contiguous states there should be no need for extra coverage on your vehicles. We have had a automobile and RV insurance claims while traveling as fultimers and have never had any difficulties caused by our travels.

Health insurance could be an issue with the advent of the current Affordable Healthcare Act because it has caused so many insurance underwriters to pull back in coverage and if your health coverage is an HMO or similar policy, that may be restricted as to the length of time that you are allowed to be covered when outside of your normal coverage area. This could be a problem. That never existed in the past and I think that for health issues you might benefit by reading the RVer's Guide to the ACA from the website of Kyle Henson. If Kyle happens to be monitoring this perhaps he will join in as he gives some excellent advice on healthcare insurance issues.

If you are Medicare eligible, then you have no problems as we have been using Medicare and our supplemental coverage while traveling the country for more than 8 years now. All that it entails is to make sure that you use doctors and medical facilities that accept Medicare payments and most do.

If none of this hits the issue which you are asking about, do return and give us a followup to point us in the direction that you are asking about.

Catharine · February 6, 2016

I was referring to trip insurance such as Good Sam sells. They will bring your RV home as well as kids, pets, whatever. They also will get you medical treatment. I guess you should just arrange it yourself but perhaps there could be a situation where someone needs to have them arrange it. And that is what my question concerned. If they arrange it, not sure how that can work unless they cover all expenses.

Kirk W · February 6, 2016

We have never carried that sort of coverage so can't address it. There are several companies that do offer it and many members of the forums have such. FMCA members get Medical Emergency and Travel Assistance Program with their membership. Another that some RV folks suggest and recommend is Sky Med and I have seen them at RV rallies and shows. I have also seen MASA at some shows but know nothing about them.

2gypsies · February 6, 2016

We've never bought into this type of insurance. One thing we did do is to make sure that both of us knew how to drive the RV, set it up with the hookups, etc. so if one couldn't drive, the other could. As full-timers, there wouldn't be a necessity to get us 'home'. The RV was our home. Dialing 911 would get us to a hospital and our medical insurance would pay for our care. Over our 16 years of full-timing we've had our share of illnesses and surgeries, including cancer. We had no problem dealing with it. We were able to go to our medical facility of choice. It was easy to recoup in the RV because of the small space. Physical therapists will even come to your RV for treatment.