TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin mandatory CV-19 insurance for tourists to be introduced

Here is a copy of Aruba mandatory covid insurance fees for people older than 76 years old.
Ages 76+
The premium depends on the length of your stay and starts at $15 p/day for the first 7 days, then decreases to $10 p/day for the next 7 days. It continues to decrease to $5 p/day for the next 36 days and finally to $1.50 p/day for the last 40 days, thereby maximizing the premium to $487 for stays of 90 days. However, if you're allowed to stay for longer than 90 days, there's an additional daily rate of $2 for up to 180 days (max. insurance period). Please click on the button below to calculate the actual premium.

Here is a copy of the Aruba Mandatory covid insurance for people 15-75 years old :
Premiums for persons aged 15-75

The premium starts at US$10 per day for the first 7 days, then decreases to US$7 per day for the next 7 days. It decreases to US$3 per day for the next 36 days and finally to $0 per day for the last 40 days, so for stays lasting between 50 to 90 days the maximum premium is US$224. Stays beyond 90 days to a maximum of 180 days are charged an additional $1.40 per day.

After rereading the article a few times, what is says to me is they can "remove" you from the island, should you have Covid-19, on their terms and your money. Somewhat understandable in these uncertain times. OK, I'm ready for your replies.

Does anyone know (God forbid) where they would "move" you to??

sxmbeachlover--not really sure where you're reading it to say that. My reading was that the requirement to have insurance is basically useless unless the insurance INCLUDES medical evac.

As many others have said in this thread, there are several places now that one can obtain Covid insurance, and a requirement to ALSO have insurance issued by a SXM insurance company is insult to injury.

So this would be for the Dutch side only, yes? What if you plan to stay on the French side? Will you be allowed to fly in on the Dutch side and go to the French without the insurance?

I would read it as a requirement for arriving at PJIA but good question

It would be a requirement to fly into PJIA. I'm not sure what the requirements are for the French side, although they were supposed to be meeting with the idea of making their requirements match each other.

Paragraph three: One of the requirements on which De Weever insisted was for the insurance to include medical evacuations, which have now been included.

You misunderstand my point. I was responding to your "what is says to me is they can "remove" you from the island, should you have Covid-19, on their terms and your money". IF they require insurance, then you wouldn't be paying for the evac, right???

Does the $700 ins. apply to cruise passengers?

Not sure where you're getting $700 from, but the topic is about people who come in by air.

Air or Cruise why would the ins.. be different?

Air you usually stay for an extended time. Cruise you are there for one day and it's the ships problem if you come down with it.

You misunderstood my point. If they charge everyone "upfront" for insurance coverage, then if they want you to leave the island, the island and the government won't incur any charges for your Covid-19 infection because, I imagine the insurance will cover your evac and hospital needs while on the island. It would "streamline" your departure? Just my take.

OK, I still don't get your point, but it's ok.

If they are including daily expenses for quarantine in the insurance policy like they did in Aruba, I would expect most people who test positive would end up isolating wherever they are on the island rather than being sent home. I say that because of the challenging logistics of getting sick people off the island safely (and affordably), but also because I don't see any other reason to include expenses for quarantining. I assume evacuation would only be for those that have to leave due to health complications. That's the way it's usually explained in other insurance policies -- they pay to evacuate only if you can't get the necessary care wherever you already are. With that said, a lot of these questions can't really be answered until the plan is finalized.

There is no doubt in my mind that St. Maarten has planned all of this since before the EHAS site went active. If anyone has taken a look at the online EHAS form from when the site opened, they have always had a place on the form as "step 3" for "payment". It never said what payment would be for but now we do know. Aruba requires payment for the insurance as you complete their online form. (they call it EDC form)