What you need to know about travel insurance

Whenthe pandemic struck, many travel insurance policies failed to cover COVID-19-related trip interruptions and cancellations, often because they excluded pandemics. But in the intervening months, the travel insurance industry has introduced a spate of new policies covering the disease just asmany foreign destinations begin to require them.

“We’ve seen progress in that many plans will now treat COVID like any other unexpected sickness or illness,” said Stan Sandberg, a co-founder of the comparisonwebsiteTravelinsurance.com. “If you have a trip and travel insurance and came down with COVID-19, which made it impossible to travel, thatwould fall under cancellation coverage as an unexpected illness that prevents you from traveling.”

Likewise, policies now including COVID-19would cover holders in the event that a doctor diagnosed them with the virus while traveling under the trip interruption benefit.

Not all travel insurance excluded pandemics when the coronavirus began to spread early this year; Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection was one exception. But the broader change partially arises from consumer demand, a better understanding of the virus— including mortality rates and hospital costs— and the industry’s eagerness for travel to resume.

But, like all insurance, the devil is in the details when it comes to understanding travel insurance.

The new COVID-inclusive insurance generally covers travelers fromthe day after purchase until their return home. During that period, if you become sick and a doctor determines you cannot travel (because of the virus or another illness), trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits would kick in.

These benefits vary by policy, but a search to insure a $2,000 weeklong trip to Costa Rica in December on Travel insurance.com turned up a $69.75 Generali Global Assistance Standard policy

with COVID-19 benefits that would be triggered if you, your host at your destination, a travel companion or a family member tested positive for the virus.

If this happened before your departure, the policy would cover your prepaid travel expenses. If youor your travel companion

contracted COVID-19 during the trip and were diagnosed by a physician, itwould reimburse prepaid arrangements, such as lodgings, and cover additional airfare to return home— once a doctor deem sit safe to travel— up

to$2,500. Should yoube required to quarantine and can’t travel, travel delay coverage for lodging, meals and local transportation would payup to $1,000. The policy also covers medical expenses forupto one year, even after you return home, upto$50,000— though the policy also states that a holder would have to exhaust their own health insurance benefits before seeking coverage under the travel insurance plan.

Travelers should read these policies carefully to understand the benefits, but brokers like TravelInsurance.com, InsureMy Trip and Squaremouth are making them easier to find through filters, FAQs and flags.

Not every COVID-19-related expense is covered by many of these policies, including tests for the virus that many destinations require before arrival (those may be covered by private insurance).

Many policies include medical evacuation to a nearby facility, but won’t necessarily transport you home. For those concerned about treatment abroad, Medjet, a medical evacuation specialist, now offers COVID-19-related evacuations in the 48 contiguous United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean tha twill transport you to the hospital of your choice in your home country (trip coverage starts at $99; annual memberships start at $189).

In addition to the Medjet plan, travelers would need separate travel insurance with medical benefits to cover treatment costs and trip interruption.

Travelers aren’t the only ones worried about health. Agrowing list of countries are man dating medical coverage for COVID-19 as a prerequisite for visiting, often along with other measures like pre-trip virus testing and health screenings for symptoms on arrival.

Many Caribbean islands are among those requiring travel medical insurance, including Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas. St. Maarten requires health insurance coverage and strongly recommends additional travel insurance covering COVID-19.

Farther-flung countries also require policies that cover COVID-19, including French Polynesia and the Maldives.

Normally, travel insurance varies by factors including the age of the traveler, destination, trip length and cost (most range from 4-10% of the trip cost). But some destinations are providing it at a flat fee, with most policies spelling out coverage limits and terms for emergency medical services, evacuation and costs associated with quarantines.

Jamaica, which will require insurance, but has not said when the newrule will go into effect, plans to charge $40 for each traveler. The Bahamas will include the insurance in the cost of its Travel Health Visa, an application that requires negative COVID19 test results, which runs $40 to $60 depending on length of stay (free for children 10 and younger). The Turks and Caicos is offering a policy for $9.80 a day, and Costa Rica’s policies, if purchased locally, cost roughly $10 a day.

Expect this list of destinations to grow. In January, the Spanish region of Andalusia plans to require travel medical insurance and is working on finding a provider tomake it easy for travelers to buy it.

Policies that cover COVID-19 as a medical event that may cause trip cancellation or disruption, or those that provide coverage for medical treatment and evacuation still don’t necessarily cover travelers who have a change of heart when they learn they will have to quarantine upon arrival, even if they don’t have the virus. Nor are policies necessarily tied to conditions on the ground, like a spike in infections, State Department travel warnings, a government travel ban or the cessation of flights to and froma destination.

For those events, there’s Cancel For Any Reason, or CFAR, an upgrade to plans that generally only returns 50-75% of your nonrefundable trip costs.

“Prior to the pandemic, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend CFAR because most of travelers’ concerns were covered by standard plans ,” Bar to of Squaremouth. com said .“It’ s about 40% more expensive andwe didn’t want travelers to pay for additional coverage.” Now, she added, there’s been a surge in interest in the upgrade, including in 22% of policies sold at the site since mid-March.