..remember trip ins is usually "bundled ins policies..1. is cost of the trip itself.2. luggage 3 health..I really think people must be aware that when you are travelling anywhere you must make sure you have the appropriate coverage for both the illness (think hospitalization..and remember even healthy peiple fall off scooters in Bermuda) and repatriation. Many commercial carriers refuse to carry people with certain active medical proplems. In these cases think lear (with 2 pilots), think medical staff (an md, an rn, plus or minus an rt) and think a second morgage if you arent covered! You may have insurance which already covers this (check a gold card and work plan) but just make sure you are covered...by the way, if you need interventional cardiac care in Bermuda, there isnt any and you will need to be flown out so if you arent covered and want to gamble go ahead, but I really just would never take the chance.

www.accessamerica.com

Has two plans, Basic covers medical and dental while on the trip and Medical Evacuation, delayed bags, and trip delays.

Comprehensive program covers trip cancellation and trip interruption as well as the other stuff.

I just signed on the dotted line for some trip insurance for myself, my wife and young son for an upcoming trip to Italy. We have several length of stay penalties at our B&B's if we fail to show up, but the primary reason is that we are traveling on some Delta sky miles redemption tickets. If we have to get back unexpectedly, and there are no frequent flyer slots open, we might be in a situation where we had to purchase 3 walk up, one way fares to the tune of $2000.00 each. With that in mind, I ponied up the $175.00 for the 3 of us, which also carries $250K of medical evacuation coverage. The $17.00 premium refund option is also something I selected, which allows me to get the cost of the insurance premium back, if we don't go at all (in addition to the other forfeited cancellation costs).

I am no fan of the insurance industry, but I think in our situation, the travel insurance was warranted.

gravysandwich

My Mum suffered a small heart attack whilst on a cruise last year. She spent a week in a very nice private hospital in Costa Rica (my Dad was put up in a 5-star hotel); they were then both flown home to Calgary via Houston.

As I recall, the cost of this little "adventure" amounted to over $25,000. My parents were VERY glad they'd purchased insurance on that particular trip!!!!

Check with your employment insurance - my husband's policy covers our whole family worldwide for medical expenses (but, of course, we wouldn't get any reimbursement for a cancelled trip).

Definitely get travel insurance. Just had to cancel a 2 week Celebrity cruise that I did not purchase insurance in the beginning. A knee that is going to need surgery that has been a problem for a few years,but not one I could not travel causes us to cancel. Fortunately because it falls within Celebrity's time of cancellation we are only having to forfeit our deposit fee. I did purchase insurance,but this is a preexisting condition so insurance will not pay the whole amount if not purchased within first 14 days of money paid on the trip.

Read my trip report on the Europe board:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34582645

for an experience where we were very glad we had trip insurance. (Caveat: We have not yet had time to find out how well the claim will be honored, but we were given to believe that it would be no problem.)

I always carry insurance and with insurance in a package for a trip coming up, I wasn't happy with the $25,000 evacuation insurance coverage. (I have too many friends who have had tremendous expenses). I checked on www.insuremytrip.com thinking I would pick up some extra evacuation insurance. Upon reading the policies it appeared they would cover to the nearest hospital but if you were still disabled and wanted to come home forget it. I e-mailed customer inquiry on insuremytrip (who responded within half an hour) and was informed that the only service covering returning home was MedJet. Then, I started checking all-inclusive policies with up to $500,000 evacuation insurance coverage and found that they will only take you to the nearest hospital and have a limit on returning you home some of them $5,000 for a coach ticket. Having used trip insurance quite a few times although not for something like this, I am a fanatic about carrying enough. It appears to me like evacuation is not the same as repatriation (although some of them will pay if you are deceased). So, I have purchased MedJet for $205 a year - there are lesser amounts for smaller time frames. At least I will have peace of mind knowing if I become sick or injured in a foreign country all is well in that respect. This is my interpretation and so someone else might differ on theirs and I appreciate any input.

Now my children are old.
I survived many wars.
What should I do as I travel constantly and would never waste money on travel insurance?
M