TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico Trip insurance

What company is best for this.....cancellation mainly....also medivac in case of injury/health issue?

Honestly, which company is best for you depends on what your individual circumstances are. Everyone has different wants and needs. For us, we normally book either frequent flyer tickets or air tickets that are changeable and most places we stay would change our bookings to a different date if we had some kind of an issue, so we mostly are interested in medical evac and recently, Covid coverage. We book our insurance these days through Insure My Trip, which is a TTOL sponsor. You can purchase insurance there through a wide variety of companies, after you have compared them side by side. I can look at exact coverages, such as whether the policy is PRIMARY health insurance (much better if it is primary coverage, where they pay directly, as compared to you having to shell out $50K, and then try to get the money back from them later), what the amount of the medical evac is (some policies are under $50K, which to me, there's no way that is enough coverage), those kinds of things. Also, where does the medical evac take you back to. Some policies just take you back to the closest available hospital, which might be great if you live in Florida, not so great if you live in Washington State. If you book your insurance through the link here on TTOL, TTOL gets a small commission, and your cost is exactly the same.

We’ve used Allianz for years. We need good medical/medivac during our 5 - 6 month stays, and their coverages are great ($50k medical/$1 mil medivac). We’ve had two separate medical emergencies and the reps took over the cases immediately. In fact our initial out of pocket expenses were reimbursed the next morning I was in the hospital. That’s because the medical/medivac/repatriation coverages are PRIMARY, that is important. Be aware that even with Primary coverage you need access to cash (credit/debit) for initial expenses in an emergency.

There are also insurers who specialize in medivac coverages like MedJet. But Allianz has been excellent and we cannot recommend them enough. Great coverage for the price! The insurance is good for up to 6 months. I used to purchase our trip insurance through the insuremytrip.com site, but that site doesn’t always include some of the best insurance policies so do your own research too. I just go directly to the Allianz site. Also great trip cancellation/interruption/delay coverages of course.
We’ve used other insurers like Nationwide, there are several highly-regarded insurers, Primary med coverages is just critical. Of course even with Primary coverages in most cases you usually still need to submit a claim after the event and get reimbursed. But in the event of a 2-night or longer hospital stay, or a medivac situation the insurer will step in and take over the case once the patient signs off…

Regarding the medivac services, during 2020 we had briefly considered using MedJet and Allianz, just to have that preferred MedJet medivac insurance coverage. But during a pandemic there are restrictions on moving between different regions so you were limited to just emergency evac from a remote area without the necessary medical facilities to the nearest location with the necessary facilities.
So the moral of the story - read the policy carefully, and if unsure contact the insurer directly. Too many people ask strangers on public forums what a policy covers.

One other note on Allianz, they do cover COVID-19 sickness (before and during the trip), as well as expenses associated with a positive test. But again, go to their site, that is clearly explained in the header and could have changed since we returned from our trip last week…

And I just read your reply Carol, sorry…You provided good feedback

crmoores--no worries. Everyone should chip in with their experiences.

Thanks so much everyone! We live in Florida and are going to St. John for a couple of weeks. We are in our 60s and mainly want medical/evacuation insurance in case of anything serious. Appreciate all advice.

One more note, DELTA, for example offers Allianz trip insurance during the flight booking process. That policy is great for a domestic trip or if trip cancellation/interruption/delay is your main concern. But you get much higher medical/medivac coverage limits when you purchase a policy directly from Allianz or a comparison site. And the premium is not much more…
Enjoy your trip, sounds great! Hope you are able to visit beautiful Tortola while there!

Yes, agreed, most airlines allow you to purchase Allianz trip insurance as part of the booking process, but the amount of medical evac coverage is totally unacceptable to me, even for a domestic flight. Even within the US, I have seen medical evac bills for close to 50,000. The last time I looked at the amount provided through the airline's websites, the coverage was something like $25,000.

We do get the Allianz insurance through Delta but at our age we decided to get the extra coverage for possible evacuation. I lived on St. John 1979-1983 and had an emergency appendectomy in the old St. Thomas hospital which had no A/C. It was a harrowing experience and I almost died, not from the surgery itself but from the after care. I know they have a new hospital but certainly wouldn't want to end up in a similar situation. Get me to Florida.
As far as going to Tortola, we will see. Since St. John has gotten so crowded, I actually prefer Tortola but we probably will wait until the Covid craziness is over.

Hi,
We use Medjet (medjetassist.com). This is an annual membership. We are in St Thomas several months out of the year as well as travel to other places. We are very happy with them and we think this insurance is reasonably priced.

Goozee

I mentioned earlier we had considered adding MedJet’s medivac overage to our travel insurance policy that provides primary emergency medical and medivac coverage. But the benefit MedJet offers of transporting you to your home medical facility is not an option during this pandemic so it was not really worth adding it. And from reading the policies they don’t provide any medical coverages, only consultation services, correct? And for the Expat-180 coverage the policy cost is $575.

But I certainly would consider adding MedJet or another premier medivac policy to our comprehensive medical policy if the COVID-19 regs are lifted, and when staying in areas of the Caribbean with limited resources…

We bought insurance through a company called Generali. This is the first time we have ever purchased trip insurance. I wanted it mainly for if we contracted Covid while away and we needed to quarantine wanted it to pay for extra lodging, Hospital stay if any and it covered if a family member at home got sick and we had to cancel (very important to us), It was very reasonable and easy to understand what you were getting. Here is what our general limits are it was $175 for two of us for a 9 day trip to Puerto Rico; tomorrow ! They have several options to chose from this was the least.

Insurance Coverages Provided

Maximum Limit; Per Person

Maximum Limit
Per Plan
Trip Cancellation $3,515.00
person #1 $1,757.00
person #2 $1,758.00
Trip Interruption $4,395.00
person #1 $2,197.00
person #2 $2,198.00
Travel Delay ($150 per person daily limit applies) $1,000.00 $2,000.00
Missed Connection $500.00 $1,000.00
Baggage Coverage $1,000.00 $2,000.00
Baggage Delay $200.00 $400.00
Medical and Dental Coverage $50,000.00 $100,000.00
Emergency Assistance and Transportation ($10,000 limit applies for Companion Hospitality Expenses) $250,000.00 $500,000.00
Accidental Death and Dismemberment - Air Flight Accident $50,000.00 $100,000.00

https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com