TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Travel Insurance

Do you purchase travel insurance when traveling to SXM to cover emergency medical\evacuation, car rental coverage etc? If so what companies do you recommend. I was looking at CSA travel protection.
Thank you

If you go to the following site:
https://www.insuremytrip.com
You can compare various travel insurance plans.

I've used TravelGuard for my trips.

I just used TravelGuard again!!!

They offer medical evacuation to a hospital near your home.
I'm not comfortable with nearest hospital, so I always pick that option. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

You can check out "Insure My Trip" by clicking on the TTOL Sponsors link at the top of the page.

I use SOS insurance as that was who I used for work.

As I have posted here before, if you use the link from the sponsors page for Insure my Trip, it doesn't cost YOU any more, but TTOL get a small commission. Insure my Trip is a great tool for comparing various insurance policies and getting the EXACT coverage you need. It used to be, we NEVER took insurance and that worked out fine for us, for years and years. Now that we're older and there is more chance of something really BAD happening when we are on island, just from natural causes, let alone anything else happening, we ALWAYS take medical evac insurance and medical insurance. The cost is so minimal, compared to the risk, that I feel better doing that these days.

My travel insurance, on a lark, five or six years ago before a cruise. While visiting St. Martin that year and lounging on Orient Beach I had a heart attack, and spent the next three days in the St. Martin hospital, (three days in a St. Martin hospital is better than three days in Wisconsin in the winter), and another four days before I was cleared to travel. My insurance save me tens of thousands of dollars, and I would cancel a trip before I would go without insurance in the future. For the 20 or $30 per person it cost for the insurance it is a steal.

Don't know if one is better than the other, but they all provide the basic financial protection you need to cover catastrophic medical costs.

3 years ago a friend of mine was in SXM one day and had a
heart attack. Cost her $35,000 to be flown home to New
York. She did not have any travel insurance at that time.
Now she does!!!!

For many years, we never used to. But after having to return early from one SXM trip d/t a death in the family, and having to cancel another SXM trip d/t illness, we always buy it now. We prefer not to take a chance again; better to be safe than sorry. We also use Insure My Trip. Easy and not overly expensive. Well worth it, IMHO.

I'm not sure what type of insurance you will find for $20 or $30 a person.
I have found that complete coverage with medical evacuation runs around $300.

Yep, that's around what we usually pay also ($200-300). Depends on how long you're going for, and how much you paid for the trip though, along with what coverage you want.

We generally don't take any insurance, but are now considering taking emergency evacuation coverage. Looking at Insuremytrip.com, stand alone annual coverage would run around $400/year. I checked out DAN's website and it seems I can get covered for $35/year. I can live with the terms they have ($100k max, nearest hospital, minimal uninjured spouse travel), and am wondering if anyone here has used them and what they think. I may have been Scubaman who mentioned this some time ago, so maybe he'll jump in.

We buy coverage through the airline-typically Allianz is the carrier-for our 2017 month on SXM we paid $93 for 2 people. We used the coverage 2 years ago when we flew from SXM into an ice storm in Charlotte, NC. Paid for cabs, meals, lodging and a better connection to home in NY the next day. We would never travel without it!!

It does not appear that Insure My Trip is appropriate if you are lucky enough to book your trip using miles.

Bob Dot. Good point. We booked one of our trips with miles so not sure if insurance covers cost

I have been told that you cover the cost to reinstate the miles.

Yes, the cost to reinstate miles is so minimal, something like $100 or $150, I really don't consider that's a big deal one way or another anyway. And while I've never had that situation, if you have an emergency cancellation, you might be able to sweetalk them into redepositing the miles for free.

I don't worry about hotel or airfare but I did worry about emergency medical evacuation. Almost all the cheaper or bundled plans include it *BUT* they take you to the nearest appropriate facility at their option, which is not what anybody really wants. You want to go home to doctors and hospitals you know and trust AND where your health insurance works. Huge difference. SkyMed takes you home so it's the only thing I ever buy. I bought their five year plan which covers us worldwide. I think they are still a TTOL sponsor...great outfit. I can also answer questions about it if anyone wants to PM me.

How do we find out if SkyMed is still a sponsor?

gary

Edit to add, oh look, a link to TTOL Sponsors. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Sponsors list at top of the page.

Does anyone have experience with a package that would include occasional International travel? Europe?

gary