cruise travel insurance

[trostberg]

I am on Medicare and have a supplement.  Does the travel insurance provided by the cruise line provide adequate coverage if you would have a medical issue while traveling in Panama or the Mediterranean?     I do not have any chronic issues but have had hip replacement this past year.

 

Thank you

Teri

[2gypsies]

Read this and your cruise line policy:    

https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/travel-outside-the-u.s.

[Kirk W]

There are several factors to consider. If you have supplement plan G, that does cover medical needs when outside of the US where Medicare might not. Medicare did cover Pam when she was referred to a doctor in Ketchikan AK by the ship's doctor. The prescription that she got in Ketchikan was covered by the cruise insurance for the part not covered by our Medicare part D. That was with Princess Cruise Lines and it was an additional policy that we paid extra for. You probably need to look at the policy coverage from the cruise line you will be traveling with. Your travel agent can probably also help. 

[einmann]

In 2019 my wife suddenly developed symptoms similar to a heart attack while we we were on a Princess cruise from California through the Panama Canal to Florida. We were off the coast of California when it happened. The doctor in the ship's infirmary took an EKG reading and decided that it was NOT a heart attack. 4 hours and 1 omeprazole later my wife was back in our stateroom and was fine the next morning. The total bill came to $1300 charged to our shipboard account - which was secured and paid by my credit card. We had travel insurance through Princess. The impression I got was that the documentation of services rendered that the insurance company required would have been very difficult to provide had she gone to a hospital at any of our ports of call. However, the ship's infirmary provided exactly what was needed - they had been through this many times before. Ultimately I had to file a claim with Medicare to have it denied before Princess' tavel insurance would pay. But they paid 100%. I'm sure I got a few more gray hairs and ate a bottle of antacids before we finally got the reimbursement.

One thing that also worried me was what might have happened and what it would have cost if it had been an actual heart attack and we had been stranded in some port-of-call in Central America or the Caribbean with questionable hospital facilities and doctors; and what it would have taken to get my wife to a hospital back home. That could have been a very expensive nightmare and I have no idea what the travel insurance would have actually covered in that situation. But I suspect I would have had to pay for everything - cash up front. And then, after jumping through a lot of hoops to get the  documentation that the insurance company required,  hope and pray that the insurance would reimbursed me.

[trostberg]

I see FMCA sent out information on a group called MedJet that also covers transport if you have COVID internationally.   This might be a good investment.  Anyone have experience with them?

[Kirk W]

Is this the FMCA areucle that you saw? Here is an article from Forbes Advisor that evaluates several plans that you may want to consider. Emergency Medical Evacuation Insurance In Travel Insurance Plans

We are not very experienced in international travel and have not had any need for emergency return, even within the US so can't really give any advice but you certainly do bring up a point that perhaps we should all consider when traveling internationally, In reading through some of the offerings mentioned, I also noticed that some of them have age restrictions.

[trostberg]

Thank you.   I did not see an article from FMCA just an email giving an FMCA discount.  Some plans in the past have excluded COVID.   Nice to see this is a current article.

Safe travels

[Kirk W]

International travel is somethng that we have been considering so I'm glad that you brough it up. It got me to looking into something that I probably should have done before this. For now we are still hesitating to travel internationally but we have been looking into some European possibilities, river cruises and such. Not sure that we are ready year, but we are getting antsy.