Out of curiosity, I called my health ins. company (Blue Cross) to inquire about benefits out of the country. She informed me that my benefits remain the same no matter what country I am in.
I asked her about life flighting from the cruise ship and she said if it is an emergency, it is paid for. If it is not an emergency, I would pay a $300 co-pay plus 70% percent of the bill. When I asked how to tell what constitutes an emergency, she said that the life flight medics determine that and if they report it as an emergency, the claim will be paid.
Who get's life flighted off a cruise ship if it is not an emergency???
I am trying to decide if I should take out additional medical coverage. Not that I expect to be life flighted off the ship, as I find hired drivers to be a much better way to see the sights :)

Has anyone had experience with their own health insurance out of the country?

Excellent question Karen.

We have United Health Care and here is how they handled it with our little scare in France. They will handle emergency care on the ship, just like going to the emergency room here, with the same deductibles. Same as for the transport to the hospital and the hospital stay, if necessary.

However, and this is the huge however, unlike here in the states, you have to pay first and then keep your receipts and documentation of what was done and submit them both to the insurance company for reimbursement.

Now the ship we know cost us over a $1000 for the emergency treatment, but we do not have a clue on what the cost is going to be for the ambulance, paramedics, and hospital. We did not have to pay when we left the hospital and are still waiting to see the bill, if we even get one, since France has socialized medicine. I could imagine though that the cost for the additional treatment, could have run into the tens of thousands. Then there is the question of how much would a care flight off the ship cost, had we been at sea.

This is definately one area that we will check on more closely for our next cruise.

Don, I figured you might be an expert in this field ;)

I would appreciate it if you let me know how your experience was after all is said and done.

www.medjetassist.com Ngaire told me about this company and I took out a policy for a year - I started to get worried after the woman on the WC (Betty?) had a heart attack - Joanna

Karen,

One would think it is pretty cut and dry, but you would be surprised. Sometimes the insurance company has there own definiton od what constitutes 'medical necessity' or an 'emergency'.

Call me skeptical, but after dealing with these companies on a daily basis, I am wary.

Anthony

We also have the emergency American Express plan (2ndary insurance) that Ray told us about. It covers anytime you're more than 150(?) miles from your home address. That plan only cost us something like $175 per year for both of us.

Ngaire recently posted all about the medjet or whatever it's called (probably the ssme link that Joanna has above). Yes, I think this is what Betty had when she had her heart attack on the WC....and they were great.

Actually I personally have medjet now it is called Air Ambulance. The thing that is so good about this is that most policies just get you to the nearest hospital, this flys you to the hospital of your choice. All the way home!!!

In fact I am working now on being able to offer it through B&K as it really is a good program and very affordable for the coverage. Since I am considering offering it I am in the process of getting all the "fine details" right now to be sure I understand it properly.

It is my understanding that you dont even need a doctor to certify it is an emergency if you are admitted to a hospital as in "in patient" that is all the certification they need. Hopefully no one will ever use it but it is nice to have. Once I am sure that I know the "fine print" stuff and I am comfortable with the details I will offer it.

Ngaire, if you are endorsing it...sign us up to cover all future cruises! (Yeh, we're the crazies that never insured one penny for our entire WC! (probably the only ones of 700 passengers) Maybe our gambling days should end.....?? With the $$ we've saved by NOT insuring any cruises so far, this should cover our first preminum for Air Ambulance.

Thanks for being such a wealth of info!

The one concern that I have with the Air Ambulance plan is that based on what I'm hearing so far, it still doesn't cover helicopter med evacuations off the ship. You still need travel insurance or rely upon the good graces of your standard medical inisurance to cover that (like Anthony, I am extremely wary about insurance policy disclaimers and exclusions). It's a great plan for getting you back home though.

Masaki

The past few years we have begun purchasing trip insurance that includes medical evacuation. This is for two reasons. First, we have an HMO that does not cover much out of area. And secondly because we are getting older and have known friends who were very fortunate that they had taken this precaution of extra insurance.

We have an HMO that has been great for our several referrals to specialists and some surgeries over the past 10 years, but in May I lost my battle with them to refill my Allegra prescription for our upcoming trip. They changed their formulary and now require that I have proof from my primary physician of 3 other medications not working as well during the past 6 months before giving preapproval for Allegra. I don't want to take any chances on something that may or may not work for my allergies when I am half way around the world so I'll pay out of pocket for enough Allegra for our trip. (Last year I needed the first one the minute I stepped on the Air Tahiti Nui aircraft and was handed my flower.) I'll try something new when I'm in my home area and can reach my doctor if I have a reaction.

Air Ambulance does not cover enough that you can forgo other insurances. It is a supplement.

Regular insurance gets you off the ship to the "nearest hospital". You could be anywhere in the world. Then you either have to fly last commercial probably could not handle coach at that time, and some commercial airlines will not even take critically ill patients at all. You may have to spend a lot longer in a foreign hospital to stablize more before you could travel home. With Air Ambulance you can fly in a medically equiped ambulance plane with full medical services. Probably much sooner than you could domestically.

When I decided to buy it for as little as it cost I felt that it was well worth that. If I am that ill the thought of commercial travel and also having to wait so much longer to return home could be a HUGE difference.

This is really all this is about. I am not endorsing it YET, I am still looking all this over. Insurances you have to read all the fine print many times and compare what covers what. I am still researching. I will buy for myself without as much research but if I am going to suggest it I need more information.

I will let you know if I move forward.

We've had the Medjet/Air Ambulance coverage for years and years. We also have the AmEx secondary coverage, AND we buy trip insurance. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of money to spend, in order to have some peace of mind.

Some neighbors of ours were in Mexico several years ago and rented a motorcycle. It turned over on her and crushed her hip. The nightmare that he had to go through to get her home, while preventing surgery in a small town in Mexico convinced us to insure, insure, insure.

Karen, even though we had this experience, I don't consider myself much of an expert. At the time, I was absolutely lost. Thank goodness for the port agents. All the what ifs still bother me.

I contacted our insurance and talked with ONE person, who explained the procedure. However, my experience has been that it often times depends on who you talk to and their interpretation of what the rules are. I also contacted somebody in our HR department at work that worked with UHC on my behalf and had the forms that I needed ready for me by the time I got home.

Marcie, we looked at our AMEX plan also. Of course that was after we got home, but none the less, they have a worldwide number that you call and they offer assistance and will make the arrangements for hotels, cars, hospitals, doctors, etc. I do not believe that it covers the cost but only in helping you to make the arrangements in dealing with things when you are outside of your area. I will be calling them to find out exactly what is covered.

Anybody else have experience with AMEX on this?

I felt that if I cruised twice a yr the $295 fee (for one yr) for the air ambulance was worth it - Joanna

Don please post the info you receive from AmEX about that plan.
Thanks.

Claudia, This policy is for traveling and is in effect when you are 150 miles from home for the first 31 days of a trip. It is called Travel Medical Protection Plan and is exclusively for AMEX cardmembers.

According to our policy it says:
* $100,000 Emergency Accident/Sickness Coverage

*$100,000 Emergency Medical Evacuation/Repatriation Coverage

*No Deductible or out-of-pocket Costs

*Visitor to Bedside when Hospitalized for more than 5 days

*Emergency Prescription Coverage

*Physician/Dentist Referrals

*Travel medical Advice and Translation Service Referrals

*24 Hour Death and Dismemberment Coverage

*Emergency Message Replay


Here is the telephone number for questions 1-800-297-2900 for customer service/questions.

All of this information is so important.

Thanks, for all of your thoughts.


JPar

We have had a great deal of experience with travel insurance. We have medicare and a Blue Shield supplement. Medicare does not cover you when you are out of the country. We always buy travel insurance. We had bought our travel insurance from RSSC when we were forced to get off of the Voyager last April.It covered all evacuation expenses including the ambulance jet that flew us from Acapulco to San Francisco. It also covered all ambulance charges.It paid for all of his ambulance rides both in Mexico and the U.S.It also paid the 20% that our supplemental insurance does not cover in a foreign coutry.He had to stay in a Mexican hospital for three days. I did have to pay for that with a credit card but got it back.
A few months ago I also bought the AMEX policy to cover us when we are on small trips and do not buy travel insurance.
I would never book a cruise and not also take out the insurance.We did when we were younger but never again.