Travel insurance - optional or essential?

[Rocket88]

I have been travelling to SE Asia for over 30 years , always with TI and never claiming and now i am getting old my problem is getting cover because my doctor has prescribed Warfarin which means i am not effectivly covered for almost all medical with some companies ( those underwriten by Zurich) or needing to pay excessive add on premiums or taking a chance on not needing it.

I live a pretty boring life - I am not a risk taker spending my days maybe swimming in the pool , going out to eat at local restaurants and going to the shops and so on. Yet TI becomes a gamble for me as the way policies are written if , for example , i fall over in the street i am not covered by the policy.

Are there others in my situation and what do you do ?

 

[ethernet]

I think the answer is 80% yes.
If skiing or a sport make that an automatic yes.
If going 'bush' or remote, or 3rd world adventure country or Nepal like trek, another yes.

But If I was gong to London, Norway or somewhere I lived for yonks, Insurance is poor value indeed.
For Australians, the Australia quadruple the price con game is a sore point. There is no 'risk' discrimination for Australians, unless you have a private insurance broker.

 

[at2122]

So is travel insurance offered by Amex when you use their credit card to pay for fare sufficient coverage or the recommendation is to get a separate one?

 

[JohnCarrWestwood]

I have been travelling to SE Asia for over 30 years , always with TI and never claiming and now i am getting old my problem is getting cover because my doctor has prescribed Warfarin which means i am not effectivly covered for almost all medical with some companies ( those underwriten by Zurich) or needing to pay excessive add on premiums or taking a chance on not needing it.

I live a pretty boring life - I am not a risk taker spending my days maybe swimming in the pool , going out to eat at local restaurants and going to the shops and so on. Yet TI becomes a gamble for me as the way policies are written if , for example , i fall over in the street i am not covered by the policy.

Are there others in my situation and what do you do ?

Have you checked out Visa travel insurance? its free if you pay by CC . It may cover your situation

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So is travel insurance offered by Amex when you use their credit card to pay for fare sufficient coverage or the recommendation is to get a separate one?

You need to read the policy.

The key issue is medical and evacuation.

Other big ticket items might include paying the excess for car rental accident damage (can run into thousands of dollars). And baggage.

For me the rest of the items are fairly 'low value' and often have set limits. 'Cash in hospital' while nice, is usually limited to something like $100 a day. If I was seriously injured and spending a month in hospital I'd be grateful my medical bills were being covered and spending money probably the last of my concerns.

Similarly for 'hijakck' - $100 a day but only for the first 10 days. The $100 would be the last thing on my mind. Although I'm still left wondering why cover ceases after the set period... are we expected to be less traumatised after 10 days?

 

[at2122]

Thank you.

You need to read the policy.

The key issue is medical and evacuation.

Other big ticket items might include paying the excess for car rental accident damage (can run into thousands of dollars). And baggage.

For me the rest of the items are fairly 'low value' and often have set limits. 'Cash in hospital' while nice, is usually limited to something like $100 a day. If I was seriously injured and spending a month in hospital I'd be grateful my medical bills were being covered and spending money probably the last of my concerns.

Similarly for 'hijakck' - $100 a day but only for the first 10 days. The $100 would be the last thing on my mind. Although I'm still left wondering why cover ceases after the set period... are we expected to be less traumatised after 10 days?

 

[amaroo]

So is travel insurance offered by Amex when you use their credit card to pay for fare sufficient coverage or the recommendation is to get a separate one?

Amex insurance through the QF Ult card......the medical is capped at $2.5M. This is pretty lousy compared to others that are unlimited. In fact so lousy I took out a new policy with TID the other day.

 

[Julesmac]

If you happen to recall the name of the company I would be very interested to know.
I have not actually been refused cover yet but I have noticed the various product disclosure statements (PDS) have become more restrictive over recent years and I want to "keep my powder dry" when answering the question about ever having been refused insurance. Perhaps it's time to just pick an insurer and have a go.

I've been racking my brains without much success, but I may have tried Covermore.

 

[Tassey69]

Have been buying travel insurance for some years, several years ago in Bali on a "QF points ticket" via Sigapore my Mother in Law passed away suddenly, SWSBO flew home same day, Covermore paid all expenses within days of being provided with a copy of death certificate. Now retired we currently use Covermore or Medibank Private yearly policies, we may have problems in a year or two with age related cover but currently we will never travel without it.

 

[bluebird]

I cannot emphasis enough the importance of travel insurance. 6 years ago, my daughter aged 24, travelled to the US. She flew ADL to LAX then to New York. She caught the train to Tampa the bus to North Port, FL. She did all the right things on the flight, train and bus. Drank lots of water, walked around, etc. After spending a few days with her grandparents, she felt unwell and was getting ready to see a doctor when she collapsed. She was rushed to hospital (lucky for her was in Florida and near one of the best stroke hospitals) where she was diagnosed with a PE and was treated in the ER with tPA, then taken to intensive care. Long story short. She was in intensive care for 4 days and on the stroke ward (I think she lowered the average age for people on the ward by 40 years) for 2 days. Her hospital bill was $USD60,000. Add to that around $1000 for visits to the specialist to get her warfarin meds stabilised before she was allowed to leave Florida, plus cancelled train tickets, etc. I think her total claim was about $75,000. It cost me about $2000 once she got home and we had Medicare gaps, lung X-rays, etc.
Why can't Travel Insurance be used for follow up treatment on return home?

 

[jetlagger]

I cannot emphasis enough the importance of travel insurance. 6 years ago, my daughter aged 24, travelled to the US. She flew ADL to LAX then to New York. She caught the train to Tampa the bus to North Port, FL. She did all the right things on the flight, train and bus. Drank lots of water, walked around, etc. After spending a few days with her grandparents, she felt unwell and was getting ready to see a doctor when she collapsed. She was rushed to hospital (lucky for her was in Florida and near one of the best stroke hospitals) where she was diagnosed with a PE and was treated in the ER with tPA, then taken to intensive care. Long story short. She was in intensive care for 4 days and on the stroke ward (I think she lowered the average age for people on the ward by 40 years) for 2 days. Her hospital bill was $USD60,000. Add to that around $1000 for visits to the specialist to get her warfarin meds stabilised before she was allowed to leave Florida, plus cancelled train tickets, etc. I think her total claim was about $75,000. It cost me about $2000 once she got home and we had Medicare gaps, lung X-rays, etc.
Why can't Travel Insurance be used for follow up treatment on return home?

Interesting realistic story.
I have always travelled with travel insurance & always preach to others about the importance of having it as you personally experienced & documented.

 

[JessicaTam]

Ennoh does your son have medical insurance? Firstly get a quote from them, then try 1Cover, I have found them very easy to deal with.
I am now a Senior (very senior) traveller and have been using them for some years now, fortunately never needed them for anything major but for simple claims have not had any problems dealing with them.

My mother and my uncle were in Scotland when he had a stroke a couple of years ago. 6 weeks in specialist hospital followed by various forms of transport (including helimed) to get them both to LHR where he was stretchered home to ADL (via MEL) on QF with 2 nurses in attendance. An ambulance was even used to transfer him from MEL int to dom. Each flight also suffered substantial delays as a row of seats had to be removed to accommodate the stretcher.

I shudder to think what that would have cost, but 1 Cover could not be faulted.

 

[Memsahib]

We have an annual policy which covers us for domestic and overseas travel and also for a longer period than most policies (especially those included "free" with Credit Cards). It gives us peace of mind. And while talking about essentials - another tip ... we travel with a small four socket power board so we only need one adaptor for all our gadgets.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Why can't Travel Insurance be used for follow up treatment on return home?

They already do for SIN based policies. However, I would guess that after returning to AU, private health insurance and medicare should pick up the bill?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thinking about this I guess travel insurance is totally optional. Provided you are not going to call for Australian consulate assistance to get you home why should any of us care whether anyone else is insured? At the end of the day if you can afford the bills, and afford an evacuation out of your own pocket, there is no need to be covered separately.

 

[Pushka]

Thinking about this I guess travel insurance is totally optional. Provided you are not going to call for Australian consulate assistance to get you home why should any of us care whether anyone else is insured? At the end of the day if you can afford the bills, and afford an evacuation out of your own pocket, there is no need to be covered separately.

Because that's not what happens. We usually get a "poor me" traveller story who needs medical treatment and the media runs a public fund raising story or the Embassy gets a blast because they won't help out.

 

[bluebird]

They already do for SIN based policies. However, I would guess that after returning to AU, private health insurance and medicare should pick up the bill?

Medicare and private health covered some of it, but there were gaps.

 

[Rebekkap]

I don't understand how people can even contemplate a trip, even domestic, without insurance, it ranks alongside the stupids who think it's ok to drive an uninsured car....

Our car isn't insured, apart from compulsory third party. Comprehensive insurance was going to cost upwards of $300 a year. The car only cost $1000. If the car's totalled, we'll buy a "new" one. The risk is worth taking, in my opinion, and not at all stupid. The risks of needing medical evacuation aren't - the amount of money you're risking is larger by several orders of magnitude, and paying for something like that myself isn't within my means.

 

[Alanslegal]

A few years back, a client of ours well ex-client now, had to use US$220,000 to medi-vac from Australia to China. Specialists here said there was no further treatment available, so the family wanted them back in China where they could employ western and traditional chinese therapies to see if anything would work. Now that event was enough to scare me to get myself multi-trip travel insurance because there would be no way I would find $100,000's if something unlikely happened to me when I am away.

 

[BadgerBoi]

For me the rest of the items are fairly 'low value' and often have set limits. 'Cash in hospital' while nice, is usually limited to something like $100 a day. If I was seriously injured and spending a month in hospital I'd be grateful my medical bills were being covered and spending money probably the last of my concerns.

In some places you are required to pay for or supply your own meals and drugs, so it might become an issue.