For Kathie
 

Hi Kathie, I did reply to your request for clarification re. yearly comprehensive travel insurance, which you made on a recent thread. I can't tell if you re-visited the thread or not.
I'm curious to know your response. I wonder if this is another of these odd differences between USA and UK because I believe this form of travel insurance is very widely used here in the UK.
The topic came up after another poster casually mentioned that she didn't normally bother with travel insurance. I was horrified!! I think of it on the same level of importance as my passport, whether I'm travelling independently or on a tour. My policy is due for renewal next week and I just wont think twice about paying it.
Maybe this type of policy is just not available in the USA ???????

Leigh, thank you for your response. I've been so busy I didn't get around to responding to you.

I have to say that I've never seen any travel insurance like yours sold in the US. To get comprehensive travel insurance here you have to buy it per trip and the cost is a percentage of the total trip costs (usually 5-9%), so is very expensive.

The only by-the-year insurance I've seen in the US is the yearly med evac insurance I mentioned. So this appears to be another cultural difference.

Thanks for the information. Obviously, the insurance is a very good deal for you!

Leigh-the 9% insurance mentioned by Kathie is the type that we have never obtained. By now, we have saved much more than the cost of a trip by not purchasing. If the type you describe is available in the US for the price you quoted, it would be a great idea. I hope it is available.

I'm Canadian and (like Leigh in the UK) usually buy an annual, multi visit plan as we tend to cross the border a lot on short notice and our provincial medical coverage isn't sufficient in the U.S.

But here's a link to Travelguard.com in the US - it seems they sell a similar annual/multi trip plan as we buy

http://www.travelguard.com/travelinsurance/annual.asp

I did a quick quote based on my husband and I and the prices seem really good.

Elizabeth, I am only able to find a quote for worldwide health travel insurance on that site... am I looking in the wrong place? I don't find anything like what Leigh described which is cancellation, interruption, med evac and medical fees on an annual basis.

Kathie - sorry I may have misunderstood

The first page of the link describes a plan exactly how I buy it (i.e. multi trip/annual plan) - but going deeper on the site (as I just did) it's not clear what that means.......it might be worth a call to them to see if it's appropriate for you?

I signed up for DAN membership - thanks for that tip (I like to be really over insured - we're going to dive on the GBR so just want to be sure!)

Happy New Year!

Me again - just looked at the Travelguard site (again!) and it seems the problem is they are not delivering on the "multi trip" portion of the offer on the main page - definitely a phone call is in order!