Travel insurance - optional or essential?

[Deleted member 29185]

An investment advisor told me years ago, the first investments made should be a) health insurance, b)home and contents insurance c) life insurance (I'm a family man) & d) income protection. Of course there are many other insurances that also need to be paid, but the sentiment is the same. We all hope we never need to make a claim but if we do, not having insurance could decimate many lives, not just the victim.

 

[burnt]

Please don't forget that most of Australian Health Insurance companies, have a facility that allows you to SUSPEND your private insurance at home, whilst you are away OS,(as you are not covered OS).
Most have different minimum and maximum periods, ie a couple that I looked at had had minimum periods of 1 month and another had 2 months ( I actually rang them and told them they were not in the real world, as MOST travelers going OS would not be going for 2 months).
The savings here can be quite large when compared to the cost of the purchased insurance.

 

[Fifa]

Please don't forget that most of Australian Health Insurance companies, have a facility that allows you to SUSPEND your private insurance at home, whilst you are away OS,(as you are not covered OS).
The savings here can be quite large when compared to the cost of the purchased insurance.

Our health insurance company allows us to suspend our cover for trips over 4 weeks and the money we save pays for an annual travel insurance policy .
(All members insured on the policy must be travelling for the same period of the suspension and provide outgoing and incoming boarding passes on return).

 

[sanne]

Our health insurance company allows us to suspend our cover for trips over 4 weeks and the money we save pays for an annual travel insurance policy .
(All members insured on the policy must be travelling for the same period of the suspension and provide outgoing and incoming boarding passes on return).

This may affect your rebate from ATO on Private Health Insurance. Worth checking just in case.

 

[burnt]

Cant see how this would effect any rebate, your rebate is calculated on your adjusted taxable income for the financial year, ie in this way if you a financial year ending shortly and your adjusted taxable income in quite low ( and you qualify for max rebate) BUT in the next financial year, your adjusted taxable will be large enough to not qualify for a rebate, the smart thing is to PRE PAY for as long as possible ie 1 year or longer and get the lot with the rebate. There will surely be some accountant types lurking who could give some further imput here.

 

[nickfromeastryde]

This may affect your rebate from ATO on Private Health Insurance. Worth checking just in case.

I don't think it affects the rebate however I did suspend in 2010 when away for 11 weeks. A couple of years later the ATO caught up with me because I didn't have private health cover for the entire 52 weeks, ie, I wasn't covered for the 11 weeks I was away. In the end, had to pay the Medicare surcharge which was almost the same as the premiums I had avoided. Luckily they didn't also fine me

 

[burmans]

An investment advisor told me years ago, the first investments made should be a) health insurance, b)home and contents insurance c) life insurance (I'm a family man) & d) income protection. Of course there are many other insurances that also need to be paid, but the sentiment is the same. We all hope we never need to make a claim but if we do, not having insurance could decimate many lives, not just the victim.

Without saying you dont need these you dont think that perhaps the fact that they get large commisions out of selling insurance may be one reason this is always the first suggestion investment advisors make?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Without saying you dont need these you dont think that perhaps the fact that they get large commisions out of selling insurance may be one reason this is always the first suggestion investment advisors make?

Perhaps, but that advisor didn't sell us any insurance. Another option might be simply that it was sound advice. The thrust of the argument was that any investment can be wiped out due to an uninsured and unexpected event in life.

 

[Cynicor]

Without saying you dont need these you dont think that perhaps the fact that they get large commisions out of selling insurance may be one reason this is always the first suggestion investment advisors make?

Some of us here could recount many tales of lives destroyed by not having IP insurance. Esp in WA where an unskilled truckie on the mines with a young family has a first seizure, epileptic or not, and goes from $200k to unemployed in a day. It's pretty hard to get your commercial licence back, the regs are much stricter than private.

I think if you can afford IP then you should get it.

 

[SFSC]

I have been travelling to SE Asia for over 30 years , always with TI and never claiming and now i am getting old my problem is getting cover because my doctor has prescribed Warfarin which means i am not effectivly covered for almost all medical with some companies ( those underwriten by Zurich) or needing to pay excessive add on premiums or taking a chance on not needing it.

I live a pretty boring life - I am not a risk taker spending my days maybe swimming in the pool , going out to eat at local restaurants and going to the shops and so on. Yet TI becomes a gamble for me as the way policies are written if , for example , i fall over in the street i am not covered by the policy.

Are there others in my situation and what do you do ?

I agree that travel insurance is essential. We have always taken annual travel insurance as we regularly travel to New Zealand about six times a year with a couple of trips to either Europe or America. Because of the reciprocal medical arrangement between Australia and New Zealand we don't see a problem not having travel insurance for across the Tasman trips. However my husband will be 82 by the time we are booked to travel to Europe in July 2014 and we are finding it impossible to get travel insurance. He has a number of pre-existing conditions and has had a heart attack followed by coronary artery bypass surgery (1986), two strokes with left and right endarterectomies (2001 and 2002), although his health is excellent and well managed by medication including warfarin. Does anyone know of any insurance company who would look at providing insurance? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

I have a few pre-existings and also take Warfarin. I have been going through the various Product Disclosure Statements over the last couple of months to find a suitable insurer. I have now found one (InsureandGo) who are prepared to cover me for travel to "Worldwide excluding USA, Canada, Mexico, Central & South America and Antarctica" . Their quote includes quite a significant policy loading to cover the pre-existing conditions but I'm prepared to pay the extra and also forgo travel to the Americas for the peace of mind that being fully covered will bring.

They do have a "Bare Essentials" cover but this was not quoted for me so I will be taking up their "Silver" level.

One thing I did notice is that for rental cars they exclude

Any claim where you have not taken Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Third Party (TP) insurance through the car rental company.

which would somewhat limit the utility of this part of the insurance but I'm mainly taking it out for the medical cover.

 

[LAH]

I have a few pre-existings and also take Warfarin. I have been going through the various Product Disclosure Statements over the last couple of months to find a suitable insurer. I have now found one (InsureandGo) who are prepared to cover me for travel to "Worldwide excluding USA, Canada, Mexico, Central & South America and Antarctica" . Their quote includes quite a significant policy loading to cover the pre-existing conditions but I'm prepared to pay the extra and also forgo travel to the Americas for the peace of mind that being fully covered will bring.

They do have a "Bare Essentials" cover but this was not quoted for me so I will be taking up their "Silver" level.

One thing I did notice is that for rental cars they exclude which would somewhat limit the utility of this part of the insurance but I'm mainly taking it out for the medical cover.

Someone told me Travel Insurance by SureSave - Helping Australians Travel for those with 'difficult' pre existings. Haven't looked at it myself, just passing on.

 

[Kieran2274]

I have a few pre-existings and also take Warfarin. I have been going through the various Product Disclosure Statements over the last couple of months to find a suitable insurer. I have now found one (InsureandGo) who are prepared to cover me for travel to "Worldwide excluding USA, Canada, Mexico, Central & South America and Antarctica" . Their quote includes quite a significant policy loading to cover the pre-existing conditions but I'm prepared to pay the extra and also forgo travel to the Americas for the peace of mind that being fully covered will bring.

They do have a "Bare Essentials" cover but this was not quoted for me so I will be taking up their "Silver" level.

One thing I did notice is that for rental cars they exclude which would somewhat limit the utility of this part of the insurance but I'm mainly taking it out for the medical cover.

I find it a bit ridiculous that as a result of a now stable spinal injury, travel insurance is a nightmare. All I really want is cover for repatriation back to Australia, and any medical treatment necessary to enable transfer. Having talked it over with a few people I've discovered its wise to just take out basic TI, with the understanding that no coverage applies except to any new injuries/illnesses acquired (such as a result of traffic accident, etc). And honestly that's all I need anyway - better than paying huge adjustments on bells and whistles TI that you don't really want/need.

 

[nannieann]

Thanks to SFSC for the information on InsureandGo. The questionnaire was very easy to complete in comparison to those of other companies and it was great to get acceptance, even if the quote was just under $5000 for the two of us for a month trip to Europe.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks to SFSC for the information on InsureandGo. The questionnaire was very easy to complete in comparison to those of other companies and it was great to get acceptance, even if the quote was just under $5000 for the two of us for a month trip to Europe.

i got a quote for my parents for just under three weeks (main country Thailand, and not going anywhere near Japan/USA/Europe) and the quote was $1745.

thank goodness for ANZ platinum for them - all free! (they have minor controlled pre-existing conditions).

 

[Pushka]

I had a disc rupture in my early thirties. Once I'd recovered from surgery and rehab and waited five years, in the past its been covered.

In the last couple of years the wording has changed so that it now reads "have you EVER had spinal surgery". So I'm no longer covered in most policies. It isn't an issue as it's perfectly recovered now.

 

[thetraveltourist]

I think you would have to be mad not to have good travel insurance, I mean when you have a look at the cost of most trips not to mention the cost of getting injured or ill while overseas then paying for insurance is a small portion of any of those costs. Mind you I guess we all like to take a risk every now and then.

 

[Sprucegoose]

DFAT has estimated the maximum cost of a medical evacuation from the USA at $300,000. is there an advantage in $1m cover?

Would you rely on DFAT for advice!!

 

[travel insurance direct]

Agree that it is essential, particularly for medical and evacuation: you couldn't even begin to guess what can happen to people overseas.

However, once you get beyond the general holiday overseas and start wanting to cover specialist trips that include activities such as climbing, canyoning, scuba diving or whatever, pay particular attention to exclusions.

Most travel insurers will exclude climbing (and I'm a climber too actually) and some or many other adventure activities, so pay attention and if in doubt ask.

They'll also have exclusions around 'deliberately putting your life in danger' (which is pretty vague I know) but means for example, climbing over barriers that have signs saying not to and then having an accident probably won't be covered.

Best advice I ever heard was: if you act like you aren't insured, would you still do or behave like that? Because if the answer is no, then your travel insurance might well not cover it either.

regards

Essential.

I climb. I want full evacuation insurance.
I scuba dive. I want full evacuation insurance.
I go to remote places that often have a significant security risk. I want full evacuation insurance.
I go to the US (heaven forbid you have a medical issue while there). I want full medical insurance.

 

[stevelcqld]

If you do a "high risk" activity ( thats not me saying that but the travel insurance co.'s, then I would check to see if any of your sport associations have travel insurance.

I am heading to the US for an Archery Comp.. for me the issue was the cost of coverage for my Archery gear.. was above all the standard policy coverages so to cover the extra was adding up to a large total.. ended up getting a policy thru the national body including up to 10K for my Archery gear.. for less than the standard policy I originally took out. Worth a shot.. pardon the pun..

Cheers
Steve

 

[DrA]

Agree that it is essential, particularly for medical and evacuation: you couldn't even begin to guess what can happen to people overseas.

However, once you get beyond the general holiday overseas and start wanting to cover specialist trips that include activities such as climbing, canyoning, scuba diving or whatever, pay particular attention to exclusions.

Most travel insurers will exclude climbing (and I'm a climber too actually) and some or many other adventure activities, so pay attention and if in doubt ask.

They'll also have exclusions around 'deliberately putting your life in danger' (which is pretty vague I know) but means for example, climbing over barriers that have signs saying not to and then having an accident probably won't be covered.

Best advice I ever heard was: if you act like you aren't insured, would you still do or behave like that? Because if the answer is no, then your travel insurance might well not cover it either.

regards

Recreational scuba diving is covered under my standard annual multi-trip travel insurance policy, but my technical diving is covered by a separate annual policy from DAN Asia Pacific. And my climbing is covered under a separate mountaineering policy which I just pay on a trip by trip basis, because I don't go climbing as often.

I did my research

It's still good advice though if you play sport to make sure exactly what is and isn't covered.