Coverage may be your best policy
Insurance can cushion the hurt when your trip takes a tumble
Does it make sense to buy travel insurance and what does it cover?
It can compensate for flight delays, cancellations and missed connections that force travellers to pay for hotel stays, meals, transit from the airport and back, and recoup losses when luggage or valuables go missing.
It may also cover cancellation costs in the event of an emergency such as a death in the family, an early return home from a trip or when getting sick or injured and needing medical help abroad.
Travel insurance can also pay the cost of backing out of a trip when terrorism, outbreak of war, disease or natural disasters, like an earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami hits the region you’re booked to visit. Without it, you’re on your own. Anne Marie Thomas, with InsuranceHotline.com, says: “If you spend athousand dollars to go away for a few days, why wouldn’t you spend $30 on insurance to protect yourself.”
InsuranceHotline.com is a free online rate comparison service that directs consumers to a variety of firms and experts to help people find low rates on insurance.
There is a policy to cover costs of cancelling a trip for any reason, such as a breakup with your travel mate, or you just don’t want to go anymore, but that can cost as much as half the price of the trip.
Multi-trip policies cover frequent travellers over the course of a year. Travel life coverage can be added to an existing life insurance policy to cover the costs of a death abroad and the expenses of promptly returning remains and personal effects home.
Depending on the coverage, insurance ranges from 3 to 15 per cent of the price of your trip and carries a deductible fee, averaging about $200.
Travel insurance companies provide 24/7 multilingual phone assistance via 1-800 lines and email to get clients in touch with local medical facilities, transportation to a hospital or clinic, arrange for prescription medicine, medical evacuation, transportation back home and help in acquiring lost travel documents. Insurance policies can be for specific coverage, a combination, or as an overall package that covers all possibilities for individuals, groups, or families.
While it’s always a good idea to purchase travel insurance (medical and cancellation), it’s extremely important to know the range of coverage you’re buying, as there are exclusions to health coverage, such as getting hurt in high-risk activities, like bungee jumping, or parasailing, without having them specifically covered.
“I would also encourage anyone to look at the wording of the contract and ask questions, so you know exactly what you are covered for,” Thomas says.
Some credit cards provide car rental insurance and some trip cancellation, interruption and delay coverage, but they have limitations and don’t pay evacuation costs and medical expenses.
Three of the most common travel insurance coverage areas are: Flight delay, missed connection and lost luggage Canadian airlines are under no obligation to provide accommodation or food for passengers when flights are cancelled or delayed due to a blizzard or other unexpected calamities.
Insurance can cover the expense of hotel stays, meals, the cost of catching up with a departed cruise ship or a missed return flight home, and the cost of replacing lost items, but there are limits to the length of delay and the amount of reimbursement for things like clothing and personal care items you may need to buy if your luggage is waylaid.
You will need to make a claim and list everything lost in detail.
The cost of the policy can be based on the value of the possessions being insured, and in most cases receipts will be required for expensive items, like jewelry and even the luggage itself. Trip cancellation/interruption Insurance covers prepaid, non-refundable costs, such as hotel and resort bookings, airfare, tickets to attractions and other fees when travellers are forced to cancel their trip due to illness, injury, or death of the insured person, a travel companion, or loved ones, and other reasons, like work-related emergencies or jury duty.
There are policies to cover cancellation costs when natural disasters, disease outbreaks or civil upheavals occur in the destination areas.
Travel insurance can also reimburse the portion of a trip lost and pay for a short-notice flight home early due to illness or catastrophe. Trip interruption insurance can also pay for the unexpected cost of getting back home when tour operators or airlines have gone out of business without notice, leaving passengers stranded. Health coverage As OHIP doesn’t extend outside Canada and doesn’t offer complete coverage in other provinces, getting injured and needing medical care may cost a fortune, south of the border or abroad.
Travel health insurance won’t cover an illness due to a pre-existing medical condition, unless it is written in the policy — and at an added cost.
Some insurers won’t sell travel medical coverage to people with cancer or high-risk diseases, and those that do may exclude claims related to those conditions.
Unless it’s in the contract, insurers won’t pay medical evacuation costs, including extremely expensive air ambulance fees, and if you need to have a friend or relative come to help you get home, that specific detail needs to be covered as well.
Travel health insurance can be part of your home and car insurance package, you can buy it separately per trip, or in an annual plan if you travel often. Email your travel questions to hstancu@thestar.ca.