Travel insurance needed or not?
 

For the very first time on our travels to Asia, I'm actually entertaining the notion of not getting travel insurance for our Japan trip (although when we go to place like Europe, I never purchase it.)

The reason I don't think it's that necessary for Japan is that our flights are award tickets (about $40 in taxes each) and ALL of our hotels are pay-upon-arrival. The redeposit fee on our tix (if we canceled) is waived due to our frequent flier status.

The only real tangible advanced purchase cost I have is the JR passes I got for us last week...and those, I believe, are partially refundable if unused.

I know the additional medical coverage is helpful but med evac is much less a concern in a place like Japan.

Guess I could just insure us for the cost of the passes and get the added bonus of the luggage, medical and delay benefits.

I know insurance is VERY popular on here--and like I said, I've gotten for every single on of our SE Asia trips. This trip felt a bit more of an exception, though.

Thoughts?

"med evac is much less a concern in a place like Japan."

That's probably true if you mean transport to the nearest hospital. It is NOT true for repatriation - return to your home country. One reason I don't use DAN for my medevac insurance is because they don't include repatriation - when I broke my wrist in Switzerland I got myself to the hospital, but tenweb.com got me home, and DAN told me they would not have done so. Getting home would be a lot more expensive if you were more seriouly incapacitated.

I don't insure for anything except medevac unless I'm taking a tour, and not always then.

Insurance is always a bad buy, unless you have reason to believe that you're far more likely than the average traveler to need it. In other words, if you take 10 trips and buy insurance for each one, it's almost certain that you will pay more in premiums than you will collect in payouts.

The only type of insurance for which there's economic justification is to insure against a loss that would be financially devastating. Those who buy trip cancellation insurance would be better off buying lottery tickets. (Most of those pay out around 50%; travel insurance generally pays out less.)

Filmwill, I always self-insure (with the exception of very cheap med-evac insurance). I suppose that if I had purchased a very expensive package somewhere I might consider it, but I'm with DonTopaz on this. Of course, I can't right now imagine a very expensive package I'd buy...

I'm not sure why Japan feels like an exception - you say yourself you never insure Europe trips.

It doesn't, Kathie. Hence the reason I was saying I was inclined *not* to insure this time around.

Places like Burma, Laos and certain parts of Thailand we've visited absolutely do, which is why we've bought insurance for most of our other trips to Asia (SE Asia in particular.)

I guess I was just trying to get a gut-check that I wasn't under-thinking this all.

Sounds like I'm on the right path.

"right path"? I don't know, but you are on the same path I'm on anyway.

Older travelers from the US will often take out travel insurance for medical and medivac. Medicare in most cases does not cover expenses outside of the United States, so this is a big driver.

True, that is a reason to have travel medical insurance. And whether you are Medicare age or not, you need to know if your medical insurance covers urgent treatment in foreign countries. Fortunately, mine does.

One of my (many) objections to travel insurance policies is that they want to sell you everything - not just medical and med-evac, but excess baggage insurance, trip delay and cancellation, etc, etc. when most people in most circumstances don't need all of that.

we never buy trip insurance, although we do have med-evac insurance

My Medicare supplement policy from Blue Cross covers foreign travel. (Not the Medicare policy, but the supplement policy).

shelleyk - how much coverage does it give you? IBM is about to dump its Medicare-eligible retirees on the open market, and from what I have read Medigap policies only cover you for 60 days travel and have a $50,000 lifetime cap.

thursdaysd-I just called Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA to confirm what I thought-I am covered in a foreign country for everything Medicare would have paid for in this country with no limit and no cap. I would have to pay overseas and then be reimbursed, and I would have to provide very specific translated information to get reimbursed. FYI-This policy costs almost $2300 per year, above what Medicare takes out of SS for the basic policy.

shelleyk - sounds like a good policy. Thanks for the info. Not sure the policy will be available in NC, though. I won't get the full details until after Oct 1. (Seems crazy to me that policies are different in different states! Since I'm thinking of going nomad after I sell my house, this could be a real problem.)

I always get travel insurance with medical evacuation (repatriation to the US). I can't financially take the hit of having to buy a last minute ticket home or even potentially paying for medical care in another country. I carefully budget my trips and travel insurance gives me peace of mind. If I'm on the first day of a 10 day trip and break my leg or have a death in the family or whatever may happen, I want to have the option of returning home. A bit paranoid? Yeah, probably, but I'll continue to buy it.

We never thought much about medical evacuation until we were on a plane from South Africa to the US where an entire section of seats had been curtained off (if I remember it was about 5-6 rows and 3 seats across). There was a gurney atop the seatbacks and an unfortunate person with IV tubes. There were also 2 medical personnel and lots of medical supplies.

So it might not be one ticket you would need but rather 15 - 18 tickets. I used to self insure but now religiously get medical evacuation insurance.

All good input, but Japan (one would think) has medical care and facilities equal to or better than the US, no?

Yes...medical care is excellent. But say you had an accident and broke your neck or something tragic that required a long or permanent hospital stay. Wouldn't you rather go home? And wouldn't your insurance quit paying for care in a foreign country after some limit of time and/or money?

Agree with KimJapan, ovenbird and Hobbert. We always get insurance for peace of mind: for med-evac in places with poor facilities and repatriation for everywhere else. We've have to use it several times - once, sadly, because of the death of a family member and, just recently when we had to cancel our trip because of a minor injury.

Insurance is not just for catastrophic occurrences. We have a friend who broke her ankle in the Turks and Caicos and her insurance paid for her to to upgrade to first class for the trip home.

How does one only get repatriation insurance? We don't "need" anything else for this trip.

I would start here: http://www2.sevencorners.com/insurance-for-travelers/

Or here: http://medjetassist.com/membership/s...rmdetails.aspx

Or here: http://travelersemergencynetwork.com/ (This is the outfit that got me home from Switzerland.)

www.insuremytrip.com will give you various quotes so you can compare. Just put in $0 for the value of the trip. We do this when traveling for business and somebody else is paying.

Have you looked into DAN. Divers alert Network in Durham NC. It is a diving group Kathie suggested it to us. They will evacuate you. I think we only pay about $25 pp per year. Never used it yet, but for that price it is good to have. Other than that we self insure as Kathie and Don have said.

In the first reply thursdaysd said DAN doesn't include repatriation and just above kmkrnn said DAN will evacuate - I think this is an important distinction but I am not exactly clear on it.

When I broke my foot in Japan, I was repatriated - meaning the doctor there said I couldn't continue my trip - I was not hospitalized - so my insurance paid the extra fare to get a last minute ticket home.

I think with DAN you need to be hospitalized....anyone sure about the distinction between repatriation and evacuation?

Evacuation - gets you to the hospital (maybe just the nearest hospital, read the fine print)

Repatriation - gets (or your remains) home, check whether it includes a companion if you travel with one

I have been following this thread with interest as we leave for Japan in one month. According to the DAN website, it's insurance for emergency evacuation "Covers evacuation and transportation as directed by a physician to the nearest adequate medical facility (or home in the event of death or if medically required). Pays for special medical escort if recommended in writing by the attending physician." In thursdaysd's case above where she broke her wrist in Switzerland, it was not medically necessary to repatriate her. However, if her injury had not been treatable in Switzerland or she had died, DAN would have flown her (or her remains) home.

"it was not medically necessary to repatriate her"

In my view it was! I could hardly backpack across Europe with an arm in a sling (I had another two months before my return flight). And tenweb.com had no issues with repatriating me.

Not a bad deal, thursdaysd at $139/year (individual) or $199/year (family) for age 60 and under but quite a bit more than DAN at $35/year (individual) and $55/year (family) for any age.

It appears that tenweb.com is pretty much what filmwill is looking for...

I guess the feeling I have is that if, say, I broke a limb and I find staying in a Japanese hospital for a month is tiresome and boring, I think I could probably afford to buy my own ticket back home (or, most likely, the $150 airfare change fee.)

If that's the case, DAN (or something like it) seems to make way more sense, especially given how much cheaper it is.

You are asking the right questions, filmwill. Like you, I figure if I wanted to get home I could pay the change fee for my ticket.

When I first got the DAN membership, I ran through some hypotheticals with the person on the phone. It will give you an idea of what to expect. For instance, if I broke a limb in Burma or Laos or Cambodia, I would want them to get me to Bumrungrad in Bangkok, but I wouldn't feel the need to have them ship me home. (But I don't backpack - if I was in thursdays situation it would be different)

Cheryl and I have had DAN coverage for many years now. Fortunately, we've never had to use it.

"I find staying in a Japanese hospital for a month is tiresome and boring"

How are you paying for the hospital? Evacuation/repatriation isn't medical insurance.

Medical insurance generally pays for treatment in foreign hospitals. However, the insured may need to pay for those services up front and make a claim to his or her health insurance provider afterward.

What Kathie says makes some sense. I'm going to discuss the DAN and tenweb.com choices with my wife. We have also used DAN for years. Presumably, when visiting Guatemala next February, repatriation to the US would be desirable if a medical emergency were to occur...

As I see it, broken limbs are not a big deal. I'm concerned about an event which requires prolonged hospitalization and does not permit travel on regularly scheduled flights. That's my concern with DAN. If need be, they'll get me to a suitable place for treatment but then what?

"Medical insurance generally pays for treatment in foreign hospitals"

Err, not necessarily if it is US insurance. Check with your insurance company. (And Medicare certainly doesn't.)

WRT just changing my airline tickets? I broke my wrist in Murren. As best I remember my return flight was a couple of months later out of Athens. tenweb provided a car and driver to get me to Geneva airport, and the airline tickets.

Marija - that was the discussion I had with DAN that convinced me not to use them.

MedjetAssist (mentioned by thursdaysd -- www.medjetassist.com) offers what many insurance plans do not: medical transportation to the hospital of your choice in your home country, if you are hospitalized while traveling. I used to take this insurance when I was making 2-3 trips/year to out-of-the-way places. It's reasonably-priced considering the value of what you receive if you need to use it, but it's much more expensive once you turn 60 or 62.

(MedjetAssist does <i>not</i> include evacuation insurance -- that is, transportation to the nearest medical facility. It only gets you from a remote hospital to your home hospital.)

My US health insurance (which I don't think is that great) covers treatment in foreign hospitals. I have had several different providers over the years and all have had foreign coverage. I can see where coverage that is "in network" might be more comprehensive than for (out of network) foreign hospitals, but that's about as far as it goes...

I think Marija has nailed the difference between the two types of coverage quite well.

"How are you paying for the hospital? Evacuation/repatriation isn't medical insurance."

My medical insurance covers overseas treatment.

My medical insurance covers urgent care at foreign hospitals as if it were in-network. It covered Cheryl's "test" of Bumrungrad 100%. But people do need to check with their own insurance.

"WHEN THE ITINERARY RESULTS IN A HIGHER FARE THE DIFFERENCE WILL BE COLLECTED AND THE USD 250.00 CHANGE FEE WILL APPLY."

As far as I know, the change fee is only part of the extra cost to change a plane ticket - as per above copied from the American Airlines website I had to pay a big surcharge when I left Japan early after I broke my foot - I don't remember exactly but it was a hefty amount much more than the cancellation/change fee.....and it was only a day in advance of the flight which made it even more expensive.....

<<<As I see it, broken limbs are not a big deal.>>>

Depends on what you break. :) A broken wrist in economy is no big deal. You simply look pathetic and ask the FA's to keep you well stocked with ice and elevate it the best you can in a small space. Try to change seats if needed/possible to a window seat where you can keep it protected against the wall.

A broken leg in economy? Sorry but that probably isn't going to work very well. There's no way to elevate it (which you generally want to do with a fresh break) and if it requires imobilizing your knee then you're just truly screwed.

The financial hit from either of those scenarios though isn't just the change fee but the change in fare price. You have a busted leg and possibly can't bend your knee and/or need to keep it elevated as much as possible and you're going to want or even require a business or first class seat. That'll be a couple thousand dollars please. Travel insurance will generally pay for that sort of thing (READ the fine print carefully) while normal medical insurance (if it even covers in foreign countries) usually will not. Some insurance will cover a change in the flight class if it's medically reasonable (ex. broken leg).

The $10-50 or whatever a basic policy costs seems like an easy way to CYA. I generally use insuremytrip.com to find a policy but I'm also looking for medical rather than just evacuation/repatriation.

"The $10-50 or whatever a basic policy costs seems like an easy way to CYA" Iowa, a basic medical repatriation policy costs much more than this... and rates increase dramatically once one is 60 or 62. The DAN policy is cheap: $55 for a couple for a year. For me, it covers what I feel I need to be covered for, but that won't be true of everyone.

While Mara's comments are correct about changing a purchased ticket, I believe Filmwill is using a "free" ticket purchased with miles. We all have to look at our individual circumstances and decide what we might need and what risks we are willing to take.