Brief Summary
This video provides a comprehensive guide on how to buy the right cruise insurance, especially for travelers over 60. It highlights the importance of travel insurance for cruises due to medical emergencies, potential financial losses from cancellations, and the complexities of travel logistics. The video also warns against common mistakes, such as buying insurance from cruise lines and waiting too long to purchase a policy.
- The importance of travel insurance for cruises
- Common mistakes when buying travel insurance
- How to find the best value and coverage
Insurance Expert Reveals
The video introduces the importance of travel insurance, especially for cruises, noting that 71% of cruise travelers purchase it. It emphasizes the risks associated with being on a ship in the middle of the ocean, including potential medical emergencies like strokes or heart attacks that require proper hospital care. Cruises often travel to foreign waters with varying hospital quality, making good medical care access crucial. Additionally, cruises involve significant upfront expenses, and cancellations can result in substantial financial losses. The speaker, a licensed insurance agent since 2005, aims to guide viewers in avoiding common mistakes when buying cruise insurance.
Risks at Sea
The video discusses the risks associated with cruises, emphasizing health and safety concerns due to the remote location and foreign ports. In case of a serious medical event, it's important to have access to the best care at a reputable hospital, not just onboard facilities or potentially unreliable foreign medical centers. Transportation is another significant risk, as evacuating someone from a ship can cost $50,000 to $100,000. The financial risk of needing to cancel the trip is also highlighted, with the most common reason being illness of the traveler, a companion, or a family member. Cruise lines often have poor refund policies, making insurance essential to recoup costs from cancellations due to covered reasons.
Medicare Won't Cover
The video addresses the common misconception about Medicare coverage outside the United States. While some Medicare Advantage and Medigap plans may offer some coverage, they often don't cover everything, especially medical evacuation, and may include deductibles and co-insurance. For example, Medigap plans may not include evacuation coverage and have a $250 deductible, with Medicare covering 80% of costs and the individual covering the remaining 20%. The speaker advises against relying solely on Medicare for medical emergencies abroad and recommends obtaining separate travel insurance for peace of mind. The first step in choosing a plan is to determine the total trip cost, including all prepaid and non-refundable expenses like the cruise, flights, and hotels.
Cruise Line Trap
The video warns against buying travel insurance directly from cruise lines, as these plans are often limited and designed primarily to benefit the cruise line. These plans typically offer only one option, provide inferior coverage, and may not cover the entire trip, excluding flights and hotels. Cruise line "protection" plans are essentially waivers of the cruise line's cancellation policy rather than true insurance. The recommended solution is to use a comparison site like CoverTrip to view plans from multiple companies, compare prices, and find the best option.
Save Money Here
Comparison sites work similarly to Expedia for flights, allowing users to enter their information once and receive quotes from various companies, eliminating the need to visit multiple individual sites. These sites enable side-by-side comparisons of coverage and prices, saving money. Travel insurance typically costs 4-8% of the insured trip cost, though this can be reduced by excluding cancellation coverage. Insurance is regulated by each state, ensuring consistent pricing across different platforms. The video demonstrates how to use CoverTrip.com to get quotes by entering trip details such as destination, dates, number of travelers, ages, and trip cost.
Valid Cancellation Reasons
The video recommends having at least $100,000 of emergency medical coverage and $250,000 for evacuation. Primary medical coverage is preferable as it pays from dollar one without requiring pursuit of other insurance options like Medicare. A pre-existing condition waiver ensures coverage for recurrence of existing conditions if the insurance is purchased while healthy. Trip cancellation coverage is essential for unexpected cancellations due to covered reasons, which are listed in the policy. Common covered reasons include illness, injury, death in the family, severe weather, terrorism, and jury duty.
Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR)
The video introduces the "Cancel For Any Reason" (CFAR) upgrade, which broadens the covered reasons for cancellation to include any reason, even simply deciding not to travel. To be eligible for CFAR, the plan must be purchased early, soon after the initial trip deposit, and the full trip cost must be insured. Cancellation must occur no later than 48 hours before departure. CFAR typically reimburses 75% of the trip cost, while cancellations due to the standard covered reasons reimburse 100%. Purchasing early is also crucial for obtaining a pre-existing condition waiver.
Find Best Value
Travel insurance covers smaller items like lost, stolen, or damaged baggage, trip delays, and baggage delays. It also provides 24/7 assistance, offering a point of contact for arranging care and finding the best local hospitals during medical emergencies. The video returns to CoverTrip to demonstrate how to filter and sort plans to find the best options. The cruise filter automatically selects policies with minimums of $100,000 for emergency medical and $250,000 for evacuation. Additional filters for primary medical coverage and pre-existing conditions can further narrow down the choices. Plans can then be sorted from low to high price to identify the best value.
Avoid These Mistakes
The video shows how to compare up to three plans side-by-side, highlighting differences in coverage details such as trip interruption, hurricane and weather coverage, and the availability of "Cancel For Any Reason" options. It emphasizes choosing plans based on important factors like primary medical coverage, coverage limits, and the option for CFAR. The video recommends the Travel Insured Flexipax plan due to its primary medical coverage, meeting minimum coverage requirements, offering CFAR as an option, and being the second-lowest price plan. This plan is exclusively available through comparison sites. The video concludes by summarizing the process of entering trip information, filtering choices, sorting by price, and selecting a plan. It notes that enrollment can be completed online with instant confirmation.
The video outlines common mistakes when buying travel insurance, such as purchasing from cruise lines, waiting too long to buy, and relying on credit card coverage. Cruise line plans are often limited and don't cover the entire trip, while waiting too long can disqualify travelers from "Cancel For Any Reason" coverage and pre-existing condition waivers. Credit card travel insurance may have insufficient limits for significant events like medical emergencies on a cruise. The video advises using a comparison site to find the best plan and purchasing early to maximize coverage options.
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