<p>I self-insure all my trips for cancellation. But I do buy trip insurance for the health care coverage, and more importantly, the evacuation coverage. Medical emergency evacuation can cost $50,000 to $100,000 or more. Even if you’re healthy, you can have an accident that puts you in the hospital. Do you really want to stay for weeks or months in a South Korean hospital? Or would you rather come home? </p>
<p>Yea, it is estimated that 1-2 out of 1000 people need medical evacuation. I self insure for US trips but am finding my way regarding international travel. </p>
<p>Many travel and medical policies would NOT cover ziplining and other dangerous activities, so read policy carefully to be sure you know what IS and is NOT covered. </p>
<p>Wondering what liability the zip line company bears in this horrific accident. </p>
<p>About 1-2 of 1000 people need medical evacuation. It is an important consideration. Also need to decide whether to buy a policy that transports you to nearest facility they choose or YOU choose (guess which one costs more?)</p>
<p>Yes, the couple was ziplining, but you can just as easily fall down a set of stairs and seriously injure yourself. There are certain risks I am willing to self-insure. The unforseeable need for medical evacuation is not one of them.</p>
<p>I am with you, chedva. It is amazing how fast this can add up. Accidents, including falls or transportation ones can happen to anyone, anywhere. The anywhere might include places where the care is not as good as you would like. You could also need an air ambulance home or professional medical personnel accompanying you on a commercial flight. </p>
<p>Read the policies, get questions answered and feel free not to double cover if you prefer not to do so. We could have paid for our overseas health adventure mentioned earlier on this thread, but are happy to have that $30000 back. Again, that amount of money would be well over our young adult’s budgets. Good to help kids do this math also.</p>
<p>If you have permanent injuries (like the zip liner), you also need good disability coverage to help with the resulting reduction/elimination of earnings. This is regardless of travel or not. Normal disability payments mandated by statute tend to be very minimal and would cause most to have significant reduction in standard of living if no private supplemental policy were in force. </p>
<p>Many, many folks do NOT have private supplemental disability policies (neither H nor I did). We were lucky that neither of us were ever disabled. </p>
<p>My husband bought insurance for all his activity trips from Travel Guard and I am sure they have a policy covering high danger activities because he did mounting climbing including Kilimanjaro, Mt Everest base camp and Aconcagua and trekking trips in remote Africa. It covered helicopter medical evacuation which some fellow travelers had to use. I think some have more complete policies but each item costs more $$.</p>
<p>Just found out that MedJet Assist gives a 18% discount if you are an AARP member. That is a significant savings and makes it more attractive. </p>
<p>It is one of the few policies that allows the PATIENT to choose where she is flown instead of insurer, as long as it’s hospital to hospital transfer. There is also no pre-existing condition exclusion for folks under 75. </p>
Reading with interest. H and I justed booked a trip last week to bareboat charter in Tonga with a side trip to the South Island of New Zealand. The charter company offers travel insurance but I don’t think it covers our air or New Zealand portion.
I always thought about insurance if we had to cancel but after reading I realize the most important is medical and evac coverage. Off to do some searching.