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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: Scotty]
#299229
04/06/2023 11:08 AM
04/06/2023 11:08 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Scotty--we always purchase travel insurance through Insure My Trip. We always buy a comprehensive plans, which includes medical insurance and medical evac, which are the two most important things to US, personally. You can decide what types of insurance are important to you, in what amounts, and what is not important to you. There is also trip cancellation and interruption insurance, etc, as part of the comprehensive plan. If you book Insure my Trip through the link here on TTOL, we get a small commission and your cost is the same.
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: Scotty]
#299232
04/06/2023 11:16 AM
04/06/2023 11:16 AM
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 332 Scott City, Kansas
Scotty
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 332
Scott City, Kansas
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Is there a company that you use more often than another on this site? Sorry to ask so many questions. There are so many companies to choose from, I don't know if one is better than another or not. I just like to see what other people have used in the past.Thanks again.
Last edited by Scotty; 04/06/2023 11:26 AM.
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: candu]
#299234
04/06/2023 11:20 AM
04/06/2023 11:20 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Skymed is also a sponsor, but they ONLY handle medical evac insurance. The original poster was asking about health insurance.
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: Scotty]
#299235
04/06/2023 11:24 AM
04/06/2023 11:24 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Scotty--on the Insure My Trip website, we put in parameters, and it pulls up a list of companies, and then I eliminate them till I find the one I want. For example, different companies have what I consider to be unacceptably low limits for stuff like medical evac and medical coverage. And some are just too expensive. We often have frequent flyer airline tickets, so even if we had to cancel, we could cancel the tickets and get the miles back, so our trip cancellation cost for us is fairly low for SXM. When we went to South Africa, things were totally different, in terms of what our potential exposure was. It just depends on what is important to you.
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#299249
04/06/2023 01:19 PM
04/06/2023 01:19 PM
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 115 Virginia
dfmsml
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 115
Virginia
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Carol, will be using American FF miles. What’s the policy on canceling a trip….thanks…Dave
dfmsml
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: dfmsml]
#299250
04/06/2023 01:21 PM
04/06/2023 01:21 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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As of right now, you can cancel and get miles back into your account. Who knows if they might change the rules tomorrow. The last I knew, Delta did not allow you to cancel and get miles back.
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: dfmsml]
#299252
04/06/2023 02:03 PM
04/06/2023 02:03 PM
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 19,180 Auburn, WA
SXMScubaman
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 19,180
Auburn, WA
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Carol, will be using American FF miles. What’s the policy on canceling a trip….thanks…Dave From experience with AA you can cancel and miles go back into your account and fees refunded to your original method of payment.
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: jazzgal]
#299269
04/06/2023 07:05 PM
04/06/2023 07:05 PM
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Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 399
Uksimonusa
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 399
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: CharlieAndElaine]
#299291
04/07/2023 10:01 AM
04/07/2023 10:01 AM
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 332 Scott City, Kansas
Scotty
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 332
Scott City, Kansas
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We buy an annual policy with GeoBlue. Around $400 total for two of us. Includes health and evac. Does not include trip insurance but we travel on JB miles and we don’t pay for our room or car until we get there so not much exposure for us. Both hospitals on the island are in the GeoBlue network as are many doctors. Where do you stay that you don't have to pay until you get to SXM?
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: SXMScubaman]
#299309
04/07/2023 05:12 PM
04/07/2023 05:12 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Both of you sound like you lucked out on that. I believe that Medicare has ZERO coverage outside the US and our Medicare Supplement (which overall is EXCELLENT coverage) only pays 80%..
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: timnboston]
#299313
04/07/2023 07:30 PM
04/07/2023 07:30 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Tim--Yes, as far as I know, Skymed is the only one that guarantees that you will be returned "home". For us, Florida is 'home', so anywhere in Florida isn't a really big deal.
Carol Hill
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Re: Health insurance options for travel to island
[Re: susancat]
#299319
04/08/2023 08:49 AM
04/08/2023 08:49 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,552
Central Florida!
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Both of those numbers seem a bit low to me, especially the medical evac. When we book through Insure my Trip, I always look for a minimum of at least 100K for each. On our upcoming trip, I think the policy I actually purchased was either 500K or $1M for medical evac. For the medical, I think it was like 200K. As I said before, our supplement pays 80% outside the country. For medical expenses, also look to see whether the coverage is PRIMARY or not. If it is secondary, you may need to pay up front for expenses and wait to be reimbursed from the insurance company. To get primary medical payments, often the policy is a lot more expensive and the cost may be prohibitive.
As stated before, Sky Med is ONLY medical evac, but I believe it is primary coverage, so you just call them and they take care of everything. And Sky Med is one of the few that takes you to wherever your home is. Most medical evac policies take you to the closest medically acceptable hospital. In most cases from SXM, that's probably going to be somewhere in Florida. Now, somewhere in Florida is perfectly fine for me, but for someone who lives on the West Coast, or Michigan, it might not be so great.
And one more thing--the better policies also have a kind of concierge service, for want of a better word. You call them up and say "I have a dental emergency" or "my rental car has been stolen", or "I lost my passport", whatever, and they step you through what you are supposed to do.
Carol Hill
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