The one question you must have answered prior to obtaining travel medical insurance is “What is covered?”
That’s a critical, if somewhat obvious, bit of wisdom anyone planning a cruise vacation would be smart to heed.
Unfortunately not all travel medical insurance polices are the same. To help you discover what’s covered there are some questions to ask before you sign the check.
Traveling with kids? Some health insurance for overseas travel policies cover children under 17 years of age as long as their parents buy a policy. It pays to ask.
What if you get sick on the cruise and have to avail yourself of the on board medical facilities? Are you covered?
What if when taking in the sightswhile sightseeing you injure yourself on a on a moped you rented? Just another reason having supplemental travel health insurance would be a good idea. As long as your policy covers such incidents.
What if your condition gets bad enough that you need to be life-flighted off the cruise liner? Well, this is precisely why you want to make sure the policy covers medical evacuations.
And they aren’t cheap. Even a one way trip from the scene of an accident at home to a medical facility can easily run $8,000 - $10,000 in some cases. So you can expect the bill to be med flighted from a ship at sea is going to be more. More than the limit on your credit card perhaps?
You also want to be sure that all promises the salesman makes about coverage are in writing. Not that they would purposely mislead you. But there’s nothing worse than knowing to ask the right questions only to be given the wrong answers.
For that reason don’t be afraid to drag out your magnifying glass and read over the tiny print of that health insurance for overseas travel policy. Carefully. For sure it won’t be nearly as much fun as pulling into say Kings Wharf in Bermuda that first time. But that doesn’t mean it is any less important.
Given the less than attractive alternatives do not use “costs too much” as the excuse for not obtaining travel medical insurance. Which typically makes the cost of such coverage look like a bargain in comparison.
