Trip Insurance

[Fifis Mama]

Trip Insurance - yes or no?

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Maybe

Sent from my IPad using DisBoards.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Trip Insurance - yes or no?

For us, yes.

The biggest thing we're interested in is the medical coverage. Many US health plans do not cover "out of country". And once you board you are "out of country". Medical evacuation from a foreign country can be super expensive, so we include that also. The other stuff: trip interruption/delay/cancellation, baggage loss/damage/delay, we figure out how much we don't want to lose if something were to go wrong and insure that much.

Oh, and 3rd party insurance is the way we go, not DCL. 3rd party insurance usually costs less and covers more.

 

[cypressmom]

Yes

 

[MillauFr]

Absolutely not.

 

[Fifis Mama]

For us, yes.

The biggest thing we're interested in is the medical coverage. Many US health plans do not cover "out of country". And once you board you are "out of country". Medical evacuation from a foreign country can be super expensive, so we include that also. The other stuff: trip interruption/delay/cancellation, baggage loss/damage/delay, we figure out how much we don't want to lose if something were to go wrong and insure that much.

Oh, and 3rd party insurance is the way we go, not DCL. 3rd party insurance usually costs less and covers more.

Which 3rd Party company? I'm debating... It's just my DD and me and we leave in about 1.5 wks... There are Tropical Storms brewing... Supposedly not headed towards us, but is it worth the risk?

 

[NancyIL]

Which 3rd Party company? I'm debating... It's just my DD and me and we leave in about 1.5 wks... There are Tropical Storms brewing... Supposedly not headed towards us, but is it worth the risk?

Once a storm has been named, insurance won't cover you if the weather affects your trip.

**To clarify - you won't be covered for weather delays if you buy the insurance after the storm has been named.

 

[Ravenne]

For us, yes.

The biggest thing we're interested in is the medical coverage. Many US health plans do not cover "out of country". And once you board you are "out of country". Medical evacuation from a foreign country can be super expensive, so we include that also.

If medical coverage is important to you, then you need to check into getting the insurance as soon as you book your trip. The reason is, the medical waiver is only included if you purchase the insurance within a certain amount of time after you booked your trip, typically 14-21 days. Otherwise, you can still get medical coverage (and other coverage), but the waiver is not included, meaning the insurance company can look into your medical records for any reason to deny your claim. With the medical waiver, the insurance company cannot look into your medical record for a reason to deny your claim. It may or may not matter, but it is something you should consider and know about since it is time sensitive.

 

[woody73]

For many years we did not get trip insurance.

Now, we get trip insurance for two reasons. First, for medical evacuation. Second, for trip interruption in the event a family member at home has an emergency.

Woody

 

[sayhello]

If medical coverage is important to you, then you need to check into getting the insurance as soon as you book your trip. The reason is, the medical waiver is only included if you purchase the insurance within a certain amount of time after you booked your trip, typically 14-21 days. Otherwise, you can still get medical coverage (and other coverage), but the waiver is not included, meaning the insurance company can look into your medical records for any reason to deny your claim. With the medical waiver, the insurance company cannot look into your medical record for a reason to deny your claim. It may or may not matter, but it is something you should consider and know about since it is time sensitive.

Sorry, but what you've written here is not totally correct. It's not a *medical waiver*. It's a *pre-existing condition* waiver, and it only involves any new conditions or changes to an existing condition or the treatment of an existing condition that occurred for a period of time ("look-back period") prior to your purchase of the insurance. Usually, it's 3 to 6 months prior to your purchase of the insurance. They can't hold something that happened to you 3 years ago against you. Basically, they are trying to prevent people from buying the insurance *after* something happens that would cause them to cancel their trip or need medical care during their trip.

So say you purchase a policy today (Sep 10, 2013) and the policy you buy has a 3 month look-back period. Anything that happened before June 10th, 2013 would not count against you as a pre-existing condition. If you were diagnosed with a heart condition in August of 2013, and have to cancel because of a heart attack, that would likely be considered a pre-existing condition because the diagnosis was during the look-back period. You might not be covered *for that condition* unless you had a pre-existing condition waiver. You would still be covered for other medical conditions. Also, if you are a diabetic, but your medications and treatment hasn't changed in 3 years, it's not considered a pre-existing condition, so anything relating to your diabetes would likely be covered.

If you buy most insurance policies withing 14-21 days of putting down your first deposit, and that policy offers a pre-existing condition waiver, then you don't have to worry about most conditions that would occur or change during the look-back period, because that condition would be waived.

Also, the insurance company can't "look into your medical records". They'll only have access to records you send to them, or give them access to for the particular claim you make. Whoever treated you will need to fill out paperwork, and certify whether or not you'd been previously treated for the condition or not. They will only look into the condition that you are filing the claim for, or that you are listing as the reason you canceled your cruise.

Sayhello

 

[Ravenne]

Sorry, but what you've written here is not totally correct. It's not a *medical waiver*. It's a *pre-existing condition* waiver, and it only involves any new conditions or changes to an existing condition or the treatment of an existing condition that occurred for a period of time ("look-back period") prior to your purchase of the insurance. Usually, it's 3 to 6 months prior to your purchase of the insurance. They can't hold something that happened to you 3 years ago against you. Basically, they are trying to prevent people from buying the insurance *after* something happens that would cause them to cancel their trip or need medical care during their trip.

How I explained it was how it was explained to me by an InsureMyTrip.com rep. You certainly explained it more in depth and clearly though, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

Also, the insurance company can't "look into your medical records". They'll only have access to records you send to them, or give them access to for the particular claim you make. Whoever treated you will need to fill out paperwork, and certify whether or not you'd been previously treated for the condition or not. They will only look into the condition that you are filing the claim for, or that you are listing as the reason you canceled your cruise.

I can't say I have a whole lot of trust in honesty for most insurance companies, especially when incidences like this occurs: http://consumerist.com/2013/04/23/t...uestion-to-ask-doctor-in-order-to-deny-claim/

 

[Susan2771]

Always. It's the fraction of the cost of the trip and considering how much a medical emergency can cost or if we get delayed or our trip gets interrupted, it is worth the complete peace of mind.

 

[Bonniec]

One thing to add about DCL insurance, they will credit your cruise if you can't sail. They are more expensive and don't cover pre-existings. But if something happens and you can't go and the insurance company they use denies you, Disney will still credit your cruise. For us, that made the most sense so I stuck with DCL.

 

[NancyIL]

How I explained it was how it was explained to me by an InsureMyTrip.com rep. You certainly explained it more in depth and clearly though, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

I buy my insurance from the Trip Insurance Store (www.tripinsurancestore.com). The web site alone has a wealth of information, and the agents really know what they're talking about.

If you don't purchase the insurance within 10-21 days after making your first trip deposit to get the waiver of pre-existing conditions, there are several policies from CSA and HTH that will do so as long as you buy the insurance within 24 hours of making the final trip payment. Note that the date you pay the deposit for a dummy booking on DCL counts as your initial trip deposit date for purposes of the pre-existing conditions waiver:http://tripinsurancestore.com/initial-trip-deposit-date/#a

 

[insureman]

.

If you buy most insurance policies withing 14-21 days of putting down your first deposit, and that policy offers a pre-existing condition waiver, then you don't have to worry about most conditions that would occur or change during the look-back period, because that condition would be waived.

Insuremytrip.com has some companies that offer pre-existing waiver as long as the policy is purchased before the final payment date. I use them all the time, mainly for the medical coverage portion. http://www.insuremytrip.com/

 

[Uncleromulus]

I really hated spending the $$ for insurance--I understand it's a cash cow for the insurance companies and I read that over 95% of the folks who buy it never file a claim.

HOWEVER--the medical evacuation business really scares me and I have read reports of what happens to those few who do need to be medically evacuated and did not have insiurance.

So tho I feel I've probably wasted $400 , I bought a policy just for peace of mind.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Which 3rd Party company? I'm debating... It's just my DD and me and we leave in about 1.5 wks... There are Tropical Storms brewing... Supposedly not headed towards us, but is it worth the risk?

We've used http://www.insuremytrip.com/ and https://www.squaremouth.com/ to purchase our insurance. They are both insurance comparison sites that you can put in the information for what coverages you want and they will show you a variety of policies from different companies to choose from.

We recently insured a 21 night cruise. For 2 of us (both older) we only spent $272.
It covers pre-existing conditions, $100,000.00 in medical and $1,000,000.00 in medical evacuation.

As well as cancellation and baggage coverage.

 

[MagicMe]

So when it asks for what country you are visiting, what country would you put - the one you are starting with? Just wondering since I'll be traveling to Europe and then doing a transatlantic ending in San Juan.

 

[sayhello]

So when it asks for what country you are visiting, what country would you put - the one you are starting with? Just wondering since I'll be traveling to Europe and then doing a transatlantic ending in San Juan.

I'd list either the country I was going to be in the most, or the country where the transatlantic starts. (If that's the same country, then you're good to go!) They just want to have an idea of where you are going to be traveling, because some areas might be more expensive if there are known issues traveling there.

Sayhello

 

[aftaco]

I say YES! My $160 for a family of 4 covers my disney tickets, Very Merry Christmas tickets, Resort deposit, Cruise, medical, lost baggage, etc.etc.. I opted for the platinum coverage which means I can change my mind for whatever reason at least 3 days out and still get 75% back of what I paid into it. You never know what can happen, for me especially since im military. $160 is a small price to pay, espeacially since ive got around $5-6K invested