Travel insurance question

[NastyWoman]

My December trip was the last one during which I was covered by my employer's insurance and I just added the travel insurance that popped up on Expedia when I booked my trip last April.  However, now I am on Medicare and that covers nothing abroad so I need to pay more attention to the health insurance issue while travelling. 


While I have no trips planned in the next couple of months with all my family living on other continents I would like to gather now so I have it available if/when needed on short notice.  So my question here, especially from the frequent travellers here who are also on Medicare, can you recommend any insurance policies to me? Also, what would I need to watch out for?  And are these policies available for periods longer than just a few weeks?

TYIA for any information you can provide

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I am going to be in this situation after Sept.  I do know when I was looking at Medigap plans, a few of them covered international travel.  You might start there.

Other than that, I have heard Allianz being tossed about for travel health insurance with good reviews.  I remember seeing others, if I can fin$ the listing post those names too.

There is one plan I remember seeing while looking where you can insure yourself for the whole year, not just per trip.  

ETA:
TravelGuard
GeoBlue
Nationwide
Med Jet
Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit card (apparently pays claims promptly)

No knowing about this….
www.worldtrips.com/buynow?referid=22659003&__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=yOHKgsJfcWlnaMLqlHSKEBRZcDR0ps0ICE6wQfD1Dbk-1642763670-0-gaNycGzNCv0

[NastyWoman]

Thanks The Walk of the Penguin Mich. I am going to look for the full year plan to see whether that is affordable. I have six siblings and at least one of them is not in good health. We are also all getting older and my two brothers are in their late/mid 70s. So, even without looking at my kids and their families, emergency travel is definitely something that may come up.

[Deleted]

I'm on Medicare and my supplement covers $50K as a lifetime benefit.  I haven't tapped into it and I want more than that.

I use insuremytrip.com, which offers multiple policies from multiple companies, and makes comparison very easy.  You'll want to be especially careful about covered reasons to make sure that the extra expenses of leaving early or cancelling due to family illness are covered. 

You may want to buy evacuation coverage separately depending on your own health and your destination and activities.  BF's brother, probably about 70, had a transient ischemic attack on a Caribbean cruise.  He had travel coverage that paid to evacuate him to a hospital in St. Kitts where he stayed for 4 days till BF flew down and took him home.  The hospital gave him 3 square meals a day and a bed, but no phone, TV or radio and-most importantly- no physical therapy.  With strokes, the faster they start treating it the better.   Brother would neve have made it home by himself- he'd lost the ability to read and needed a wheel chair.  I get MedJet Assist if I'm going anyplace remote or doing a lot of hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, etc.  Pricey but if you get something serious enough to land you in a hospital they show up with a private plane and a nurse and fly you to any hospital you choose.  Emergency Assistance + is another.

[justme]

So you're going to have to look for policies. A lot of them out there are only secondary and not too Medicare. How many I dunno since that won't be an issue for me for years.

Depending on how much you plan to travel a year policy might be smarter. The big negative I've seen is most have lower coverage than you can get individual policies for. But I'm the one who will pay $3 more for $0 deductible and an extra $200k in coverage.

I buy all my policies from insuremytrip.com unless I book it through Costco. Costco has a partnership with an insurance company and they got me better coverage for less than the website gave me.

There are credit cards that have coverage but you need to make sure it covers what you want. Plus most of the ones (all?) that have it cost a few hundred a year.