The annual premium for both H and me is less than $300 and it covers medical evacuation and unlimited overseas trips so it’s cheap enough for us not to have to use the Medicare lifetime option.
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Medigap plans cover foreign travel emergency care that begins in the first 60 days of your trip. They pay 80 percent of the billed charges for specific medically necessary emergency care you receive outside the U.S., but you must first pay a $250 deductible for the year. Medigap’s foreign travel emergency coverage has a lifetime limit of $50,000.
I have a Plan G supplement but I usually buy a cheap medical travel insurance plan for extra coverage. (See my post #4 above). There are also usually cheap riders you can add on to cover extras like loss of a cell phone or laptop abroad.
I have found square mouth agents to be helpful. I research on their website, then call and discuss with them, and book the travel insurance usually the day I buy the airfare, which is usually my first step in buying the trip. My main concern is medical and evacuation ins, so since the airfare is the only thing booked by then (not the car or hotels or anything else yet), the price is low. I can have them add on later-booked expenses before I start the trip, and pay the difference if I want, but by then I usually don’t bother. After all, the main issue is having medical and evacuation insurance.
I just paid $88 for their proprietary Tin Leg Gold ins, with 500K each for evac and medical, because as of the day I booked the airfare, the cost of the trip (only the airfare as of yet) was <$700, so the ins was cheap. Every time I speak with them, I learn something. This time, I learned that it mattered which state I was starting my trip from (we have a vacation home in an adjacent state, equidistant to the major airport I’d be flying out of). I had no idea that the coverage, if I stated that the trip was starting from my primary residence in one state, was so much better than if I were starting it from the secondary home in the adjacent state!
The people at tripinsurancestore, especially Steve, are very knowledgeable, and their website has lots of info.
Someone on this site said he has Asperger’s, and his “special thing” is trip insurance. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do believe he’s recognized as one of the most knowledgeable people out there when it comes to trip insurance.
This has been very helpful. I looked at an annual policy with Geoblue Trekker- $309 for a year for 2 people and I have looked with Square mouth at Tin Leg for just the trip and it is $77 for 2. I haven’t called Steve at tripinsurancestore. His website is rather intimidating but I will check it out. I know we have possibly two international trips but if we could go three times than the annual policy will when as the benefits are similar.
@arisamp - Maybe your son should hang out overseas for a month…it might be cheaper.
@arisamp if your son is eligible for federal govt COBRA, he’d have 2 months from the day the policy coverage ends to sign up for COBRA. So, if his policy ends May 31, he’d have until July 31 to sign up (and pay) for it. It sounds like he’ll be back by then and ready to start his next phase (grad school? new job?) and know if he needs the COBRA or can go 2 weeks without a good plan. He would have to pay the COBRA back to the last date of the coverage (so June and July).
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Just a small detail: the COBRA “loophole” for election of benefits is 60 days, not 2 months.
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My son is currently on my insurance. Turning 26 today, so getting kicked off my insurance at the end of the month. He’s currently employed, but is quitting at the end of this month to start grad school in the fall. Taking two months off in between. The oddest of timings, especially for the insurance.
I looked at some of the travel/medical insurances posted above. It looks like he could get that for the first month of June and then sign up for something on the exchange for July/August. Or as @twoinanddone said, sign up for Cobra later in July.
I’ve passed on the info on all options - now, it’s up to him to decide.
We have used GeoBlue travel health insurance multiple times for overseas trips. It is very comprehensive, has an easy-to-navigate app, and is affordable (just bought 12 day policy for D for Japan trip - $38)
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My sons school mandated health insurance and you could purchase it as a grad student through the school. He was a paid research assistant but I thought they offered it to all full time students 26+.
Yes, once he enrolls in school, he’ll get the insurance there. So, it’s the two (or 2 1/2) month gap that is the primary concern.
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We had that issue once. DD was on our insurance but turned 26. So she got her own ACA plan. She had that from March to July 15 when she moved to a different state for professional school. BUT the school coverage didn’t start until August 1. So…she got an ACA plan in the new state from July to August. Then she went on the school plan…but wait. In January, that was a new ACA year and the school decided to discontinue their insurance for student…so she got a different individual ACA plan.
Yep…all those different plans in a short time. It was crazy.
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Just checking if anybody has more feedback, especially for GeoBlue.
We have a self-planned trip starting in a few days. We want to get plan for Medical / Evacuation coverage (flights are with frequent flier points, and the two hotel bookings are cancellable). I was going to select Allianz/AAA (with minimal $1k cost, did not allow zero). But is asking for which travel/tour company (with a Not Listed option but form was getting tricky). GeoBlue looks liked a pretty good option, geared just for Medical and Evac coverage.
Our normal US is coverage is Group/retirement Aetna (me) and Medicare (AARP/UHC supplement).
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LOL - policies cost more for older travelers. (Our trip with high coverage Med & Evac, 2 people will probably be about $200). Ah, to be young again… too bad we had less time/money for travel back then.
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The folks I know (seniors) who wanted medical coverage used med jet.
From reading on forums (mostly Rick Steves), there are retired people that get MedJet because it will fly back to any hospital….plus they get GeoBlue or Allianz for medical because their medicare/supplemental coverage is US only.
Right. The medjet is for evacuation.
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Right. But the GeoBlue policies have a Medical Evacuation component (seems to be max of $500k; then there are options for various levels of Medical coverage and Deductible that impact the cost). I’m going down the research rabbit hole trying to better understand the Evac part.
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I liked that GeoBlue had a medvac option, you could call them and (as I recall) their staff would give you the best local hospital if needed and even help communicate with local people if necessary?
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I recently bought a geoblue annual policy. I believe there were two options for coverage level/deductible to help bring the cost down. We haven’t needed to file any claims.
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