Friend of a friend broke her hip while in Puerto Rico and wanted to get home. Doc wouldn’t let her fly so the company chartered a boat to get her back to the states. Can’t imagine the out of pocket cost for that!
If I’m in the continuous 48 I don’t focus on the medical evac insurance as much(though it’s usually part of a package I can buy), but any time I travel further than that I make sure I have a fairly hefty policy that also includes expenses for a family member to stay with me.
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Yes, our policy will even fly someone out. And will pay to fly dependents home or wherever you want.
I think I’m just more concerned on whether or not there is a hurricane that traps us in our room or something like that. Is it even worth it in that instance?
We were there in 2016 when the park closed for a day. I called Disney when we got back and they gave everyone in my party a two day park hopper. I bought my tickets through under cover tourist and stayed off site. No trip insurance.
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Before I and my wife started using MVT to book our WDW vacations, I would book my own via Disney Travel online. Always bought travel insurance via Disney and they cover all that you stated above. Never had to use it because on the two instances when we should have, Disney refunded our money and so did Delta airlines. The thing was that my wife’s brother developed brain cancer and the first time we canceled because it looked like he was about to die. The second time about a year later he did die and both times after explaining to Disney how our Sister in law would have to contact all his doctors for documentation at such a hard time, Disney understood and refunded the money. Delta of coarse will not refund the money but rather provide you with a voucher for the money spent for one year from the date of your flight. Now I have checked with others and found them to be more expensive for less. Because we use MVT we now do not worry about the trip insurance but rather flight insurance and I believe that may be Allianz through Delta Airlines. It is very reasonable.
Our first Disney trip we rented DVC points so Disney insurance wasn’t an option. That’s how I found Allianz. I thought the price was reasonable considering all that it covers.
Yes I know little about DVC and if you would have been able to buy Disney Insurance or not. Of coarse Disney doesn’t provide the insurance but rather a travel insurance company does on their behalf. I am not sure who they use now but they do get a good rate.
Thanks. I’m trying to contact my agent at MVT to see what all is covered already in case something was to happen.
Yes, MedJet will pick you up from literally anywhere in the world. They sell subscriptions (we travel lot so we have the 3-year subscription) or even just one trip. I got it for my daughter when she was studying in Copenhagen for 6 mo. (I don’t think they charged me extra for that, IIRC).
The big difference is that MedJet will bring you all the way home or anywhere else you want to go. Every other policy I’m aware of brings you to the nearest appropriate medical facility, and will only send you further if the doctors there deem it medically necessary. And if you have a long hospital stay, that could be pretty rough for you & your family. Imagine recuperating from a major car accident in Orlando if you actually live in Seattle.
Also, I had a friend who got into a motorcycle wreck in a remote area in a foreign country, was told she was okay, and it wasn’t until weeks later that she found out she had unhealed fractures that took more complex surgery to fix, when they could have been readily repaired had they been detected right away. If she’d had MedJet, they could’ve brought her immediately back home for proper treatment, no matter what the local medical staff had to say about it.
MedJet is by far the best medical evacuation insurance. It is NOT health insurance- that you must have separately.
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This is what I found for my Allianz policy:
Allianz Global Assistance’s team of hotline experts can arrange and pay for emergency medical transportation to the nearest appropriate hospital. If you’re told you will be hospitalized for more than seven days during your trip, we can arrange and pay for economy class transportation for a friend or family member to stay with you. And once your condition has stabilized, if you’re unable to continue your trip, emergency medical transportation benefits can help you return home, with a medical escort if necessary.
It sounds like, if the hospitalization is long term, they will cover the transportation home. I pray that we are never in that situation, but hopefully this takes care of it.
For future trips I will look at the MedJet option.
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Thanks everyone. I guess MVT has a full refund up until 5 days before your trip so we’ll hold off for now.
Well, the problem is the repetitive use of the word can. Pretty classic wiggle word- 3 times in that paragraph it’s up to them whether they’ll do it or not. MedJet uses the word “will”. Now, I’ve never had to collect on any travel insurance, but I kinda like the guarantee!
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Me too!!! I’ll be honest, if it came down to it, my mom could handle the cost. But I’d prefer to pay the small amount for insurance and have them have the huge expense of getting us home!
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Which they would!
But some day, you’ll want to be able to do it yourself. There’s a lot of freedom in that.
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Of course it would be awesome to be self-insured. And I plan to get there someday. But I have a feeling I will still transfer the risk. The cost is so small compared to the potential benefit.
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For sure. I think I misunderstood what you meant about your mom getting you home. Medical is where I draw the line- travel insurance is mostly about getting your money back if something happens and you can’t go. That’s money you’re going to spend anyway- it’d be very sad and disappointing to lose the trip (or part of it) but that’s the extent of the loss.
But medical stuff (including evacuations, depending on where you are) is what can bankrupt a person, so that’s what really needs to be insured against.
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I just meant that she has the means to pay for a medical evacuation herself (and would be willing to pay for me and mine as well).
This is my main reason for getting travel insurance. I like the MedJet policy as it does seem more comprehensive for the evacuations and we will probably use that moving forward.
Most of my credit cards also have some level of travel insurance, but, at least for this trip, everything is spread over a number of cards (for the purpose of reaching spend limits to get points to pay for other parts of the trip…the cards are all getting paid off) so I’m not sure we could actually make any claims.
As for medical insurance, we use a Christian Medical Sharing Plan. It’s not for everyone, but we love it!!
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Right, and this is a very important point. Some travel insurance policies and credit card companies require that everything be on the policy in order for anything to be covered.
I once took this clause so seriously I was going back and adding things like museum tickets, and finally Travelguard called me and said it was okay not to add every tiny little thing!
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I have been wondering about this, I started booking my trip on a card that gives me the most cash back before I thought to check what different cards would cover, and only remembered to check when I booked my rental car(I don’t want to pay what the rental car companies charge for the added insurance) and realized I should have put everything on the card I ended up using for that because it covers a lot more than my other card. At least I know for next time!
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Don’t forget airline insurance if you are flying.