Here’s why you need to insure your next trip

[reader]

From CNBC

When Covid-19 hit early last year and most travel ground to halt worldwide, would-be vacationers scrambled to get refunds from hotels, airlines, cruise lines and other travel suppliers — or to file travel insurance claims for canceled trips.

They often hit a wall on both fronts. Suppliers struggled, or sometimes stonewalled, with refunds — making those without insurance wish they’d bought some. Meanwhile, the “insured” often discovered the plans they’d purchased didn’t cover Covid-related travel or medical expenses.

“People were trying to get their money back, trying to navigate through credits versus refunds, and put in travel insurance claims,” said James Ferrara, co-founder and president of the Delray Beach, Florida-based InteleTravel network of some 60,000 home-based travel advisors. “They were also looking at travel insurance for their next [trip] and making sure that insurance would cover another occurrence of a pandemic because this all caught a lot of people by surprise — including the insurance industry.”

In the wake of those epic “burns,” many Americans once again hitting the road now that pandemic-era restrictions are being lifted are insuring their trips — and their health — as they plan travel. They’re doing so both to avoid future trouble and, in some cases, because they have to. More than two dozen countries, for example, require visitors to have medical and sometimes travel expenses coverage that includes Covid-related incidents.

“There was a good handful before [Covid], but more now,” said Megan Moncrief, chief marketing officer and data specialist at trip insurance comparison site Squaremouth.com. “It makes sense when you think about how expensive getting care abroad can be.”

Countries Requiring Covid-19 Travel Insurance

Some countries have made travel insurance coverage for Covid mandatory for visitors. Most require medical coverage for emergencies but some also require coverage for lodging if quarantine is required. Here’s a list of countries demanding proof of either Covid-specific or general medical insurance:

• Anguilla
• Aruba
• Bahamas
• Bermuda
• Cambodia
• Cayman Islands
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• Cuba*
• Dubai (United Arab Emirates)*
• Ecuador*
• Egypt*
• French Polynesia
• Israel
• Jamaica
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Nepal
• New Zealand*
• Qatar*
• Russia*
• St. Maarten
• Thailand
• Turkey*
• Turks and Caicos
• Ukraine

*Country requires even non-Covid-19-related medical insurance for visitors.

Source: Squaremouth.com

Continues at

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/planning-to-travel-heres-why-you-need-to-insure-your-next-trip.html

[PeterRS]

Given the global extent of the pandemic and the spread of the Delta variant I wonder how easy it will be to get insurance for covid19. Those holding annual medical policies with worldwide or near worldwide cover may already find they are covered. I checked and my plan does cover the pandemic. Renewals of annual travel policies may also provide cover, although the one I used to have for several years had a pandemic exclusion clause. I wonder how many new policies will actually include cover and what the deductible will be in a pandemic. Merely curious.

[Guest]

I always have travel insurance.

Regarding covid, it can be something of a minefield & make sure you read the small print.  

For instance, back at the end of 2020 some people were recommending Sainsbury's Travel insurance for it's covid cover.  For those who don't visit the UK, Sainsbury's is a large supermarket & uses it's brand name on insurance provided by another company.

Anyhow, after reading the small print & marking up the relevant sections with a red pen, I was unsure about this, so I contacted Sainsbury's to check.  I was shocked to find that the cover would be invalid and the relevant part was the "cover is excluded where people are waiting for diagnostic tests" clause (not exact wording).

Since I needed 1 covid test before leaving the UK and 2 more in Thailand, these were seen as diagnostic tests.

Of course, my assumption was the "diagnostics test" clause should be intended to apply where one has reasonable suspicion of some illness and is awaiting diagnostic tests for that, not purely where a test is required to enter a country.     So I actually contacted one of the supervisors at Sainsbury's later & got the same story.

This evil interpretation is by no means universal, but do check the small print.     I'd imagine that now many countries have covid test requirements, they need to change the policy.

 

Another area of risk is that insurance policies typically provide emergency cover for illnesses, NOT for cases where you are sent to hospital because that's Thai government policy.

e.g:

1  Failing test and having symptoms -should be covered

2 Failing test and being sent to hospital with no symptoms -often not covered

3 Having "inconclusive" test and being sent to hospital (as happened with some ASQ people)  -very doubtful cover

 

Also being sent from normal hotel to ASQ hotel in Phuket, because someone else on the plane failed the PCR test -I would think the additional cost is unlikely to be covered by many policies.