Lookback Period question: If my companion or I are stable and can travel when I buy the insurance more than 181 days before the trip will I have coverage for pre-existing conditions? If I have a condition that requires a doctor visit today and I buy the insurance the next day but more than 181 days before the trip am I covered for pre-existing conditions? Hank

Hi Hank,

The Lookback period is not the number of days before you leave on your trip. It’s the number of days before you buy a policy.

So, if you or your traveling companion (and any non-traveling immediate family members) have any medical condition in the Lookback Period and are medically stable by the travel insurance plan’s rules, you must get the trip cancellation travel insurance plan by its deadline.

You also need to abide by the specific company’s rules to get its own Pre-Existing Medical Conditions. Go here to learn more on Pre-Existing Medical Conditions:
http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/pre-existing.shtml

Here’s more on medically stable:
http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/medically-stable.shtml

I hope this makes sense.

My sister is having hip replacement surgery which the doctor scheduled so she should be recovered way in advance. If there are complications from the surgery would she be covered? Should she get the insurance before she has the surgery? I know there are only a few policies that waive pre-existing so that’s what we are interested in. Joyce

Unfortunately, since your sister already has surgery scheduled, anything related to her hip isn’t covered because she won’t meet the “Medically Stable” rules. Here’s more info on “Medically Stable”: http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/3/medically-stable.shtml

In other words, no policy I know will cover her until she’s fully recovered from her surgery.

Can I cancel and re-book My trip to reset the pre-existing conditions deadline?

We don’t get this question a lot, but nearly every time we do it’s because a traveler has been advised by their travel agent that they should cancel and re-book their trip so travel insurance will cover their pre-existing conditions. In other words, the clock is reset so the person can buy travel insurance within the pre-existing conditions’ waiver deadline.

Insurance companies are not stupid. All the travel insurance plans I know of address this somewhere in their terms and conditions. They usually have some kind of a phrase that’s along the lines of “this booking must be the first and only booking for the same travel destination and dates”. The travel insurance companies have already anticipated that this advice is out there and they’ve covered it within their policy wording.

Does your overseas insurance cover me, for a pre-existing medical condition, if I had to go to a hospital while on my trip, and got a check up? Thanks, Sheng

Hi Sheng, Assuming you live in the US or Canada, then the only way any medical condition (pre-existing or not) is covered is if something unexpected happens that causes you to seek “Emergency Treatment”. Here’s a common definition:

“Emergency Treatment means necessary medical treatment, including services and supplies, which must be performed during the Covered Trip due to the serious and acute nature of the Accidental Injury or Sickness.”

By the way, this doesn’t mean the sickness is accidental - just accidents are accidental. This also means that a routine check-up or any other routine procedure isn’t covered.

But, let’s say you have some pre-existing medical condition & it unexpectedly takes a turn for the worse. If, in the course of you seeking Emergency Treatment, the medical professionals treating you perform a check up or another procedure that’s part of treating you, it will be covered.

Go here to see What Is Covered (Or Not)?.

What I’m writing on today about Medicare usually comes as a big surprise to people when we tell them “Medicare does not cover you when you are traveling outside the United States”.

In rare cases, Medicare can pay for inpatient hospital services that you get in Canada or Mexico. Medicare can pay only if:

1. You are in the United States when a medical emergency occurs and the Canadian or Mexican hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat the emergency.
2. You are traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat the emergency.
3. You live in the United States and the Canadian or Mexican hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat your medical condition, regardless of whether an emergency exists.

This restriction also applies to passengers on board cruise ships that are registered in a foreign country (almost all cruise ships have foreign registry).

Here’s a link to Medicare’s Official Questions and Answers, too.

You’ll find a page on TripInsuranceStore.com with more details: Click here for more about No Medicare Coverage Outside the USA.

What exactly would be the “initial deposit date” if I am taking a 7-week trip thru Europe individually, not on a package tour? To get some cheap hotel rates, I have to make reservations that are not refundable. I may not make these hotel reservations all on the same day. Is the “initial date” the date I make the FIRST reservation? And would trip cancellation insurance cover all of the separate non-refundable hotel reservations? Quinn

Quinn, your Initial Trip Deposit Date is the date the first payment of any kind that was applied to your trip. The reservation date only counts if you paid any money to secure the reservation. Go here to learn more about the “initial deposit date”.

The reservations themselves aren’t covered. But if you prepay money for a non-refundable hotel stay, you can insure the amount of money you paid up front.

Here’s an important tip: If you just call a hotel and hold a room with a credit card number, this doesn’t count as your “initial deposit date”. That’s because the hotel typically won’t charge your card unless you don’t show up or until at your checkout. The reason this is important is that if you have no “initial deposit date” you can’t get a pre-existing medical conditions waiver.

Hi, My final payment on my cruise is due tomorrow, but I have not bought airfare yet. Do I need to buy the airfare before buying the travel insurance and does insurance need to be bought before final payment? Thank you, Kimberly

Hi Kimberly, You didn’t say, but if you need pre-existing medical conditions coverage your deadline is no later than 24 Hours after your final trip payment with a CSA plan or an HTH plan.

Otherwise, you can get any of our plans at any time until the day before you leave on the trip.

As for buying the airfare, you can estimate the cost of the airfare and include it in the trip cost you insure. That gives you the freedom to get your airfare when you want to get it.

Hello, Students from our school are going to Jamaica and we need Travel Health Insurance. Can you help me? Thanks, Morgan

Morgan brings up a need that sounds simple enough on the surface, but it’s really more complicated because US & Canadian residents with fixed travel dates have 2 choices for Travel Health Insurance:

1) Using what’s commonly known as a Travel Health Insurance plan. These plans have 3 drawbacks: deductibles, copays and restrictive pre-existing conditions coverage. You can learn more about Travel Health Insurance plans here.

2) Get a trip cancellation / interruption plan. These plans have no deductibles nor copays. And they have good pre-existing conditions coverage.

I’m looking for an Annual Travel Insurance Plan. Where do I start? Marilyn

As far as I know, the only Annual travel insurance plans you can buy if you are a US resident are either Flight Life Insurance (die in a plane crash) or Medical Insurance.

Neither of these choices includes trip cancellation, interruption or other common coverages.

Why is that?

Though I can’t speak for the insurance companies, here’s what I think is the reason why:

I don’t think they have come up with a way to anticipate their claims experience for trip cancellation & interruption.

It’s easier with the Annual Flight Life Insurance because as I tell people, “it only takes one event to make the policy pay”.

Also, as I mentioned, you can get annual medical / health travel insurance plans. However, these plans won’t cover any pre-existing conditions. And in most cases the Lookback Period is more restrictive.

You can see our Annual Travel Insurance Plans here

I hope this help you.

We estimate our cruise’s per person cost at $4,171, but we might add a shore excursion. What trip cost should we insure? Thanks, Diane P.

Great question Diane! As you said, you don’t know exactly what your final prepaid non-refundable trip cost will be. Therefore, I suggest you round your trip cost up to the top of the range which is $4,500 each.

It’s the same cost to you as $4,171. Plus, if you choose a plan with 150% trip interruption and you needed to return home early for a covered reason you’d have a higher limit after rounding your trip cost up to the top of the range.

Another benefit to you is when you’re trying to insure pre-existing conditions or get the Cancel For Any Reason benefit. Many plans’ rules include “you must insure the entire per person prepaid non-refundable trip cost“. If you under-insure the trip cost you’ll lose these benefits.

Depending on the plan, the per person trip cost is in $500 or $1,000 increments for trips of up to $10,000 per person. You can learn more about what’s included in your Trip Cost here.

Contrary to popular opinion, getting coverage for a pre-existing condition with a pre-existing condition waiver is not guaranteed. That’s because the person with the pre-existing condition must be medically stable when the insurance is purchased.

We get quite a few calls a month from people where it almost sounds like we are the only travel insurance seller who points out the medically stable rules. It’s surprising how much mis-information there is floating around out there.

Medically Stable includes the idea that nothing is foreseen or expected to “be a turn for the worse”. It’s much more complicated than just buying travel insurance in the pre-existing condition waiver period because a condition of covering a pre-existing condition is the Medically Stability. Go here to get more information on being Medically Stable.