Ted. My goodness! I spent nearly as much time researching
this subject as I did the RTW plane ticket. The options for travel insurance
seem infinite and the cost can run to several thousand dollars. What does one
really need and what does one already have? I thought I’d share a bit of my
findings for those who are curious.
Medical Insurance
I checked with my HMO,
Kaiser-Permanente and they cover medical care outside of the US. Judy’s
Medicare doesn’t cover her but her Medigap does so we’re set.
Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance
We aren’t taking and planned
tours or cruises so we don’t really need this. However, should we ever do that
(for a trip lasting less than 60 days) we can pay with one of our credit cards
(United MileagePlus Explorer Card Visa Signature) and we’re covered for up to
$10,000 ea. So, nothing to do here.
Rental Car Insurance
While we will no longer own a
car, we will want to rent one from time to time. Using our United Visa
(described above) we get free auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver) –
PRIMARY coverage. It’s good in most other countries and saves us the $15-$25,day
we would otherwise need when we rent a car. Note most cards have secondary
coverage, which only backs up the coverage from your normal car insurance. So,
we can waive the rental car companies’ offers. This doesn’t give us liability
protection though, so we are getting a “non-owner auto policy” from our State
Farm agent which will give us that protection in the US and Canada. It’s around
$900/yr but that beats paying the car rental folks $15/day. In other countries,
we’ll get it from the car rental company.
Evacuation Protection
We plan to visit some pretty
exotic places and are a bit concerned about how we will get to a safe place should
we have a medical or non-medical emergency. So, we decided to enroll for a year
in a program called Medjet Horizon (see MedJetAssist.com). It is not an
insurance company but they will pay for the transportation if a member becomes
hospitalized more than 150 miles from home and they wish to be transferred to
another hospital for treatment (even within the US). Similarly, they will pay
for your evacuation in the event of a crisis such as a natural disaster or
political instability. Various plans run
from $200-$800/year and AARP members get a discount!
Just do your research before you take your trips so you will be
prepared. The bottom line is that
insurance is all about peace of mind but we are all different!