Pre-existing medical conditions are treated differently depending upon the plan you have selected.
The GeoBlue Voyager Choice plan is available to those who have primary insurance inside the U.S. and will cover medical treatments for pre-existing conditions. Please refer to the definition of a primary health plan for more specific information on what plans qualify as a primary insurance.
Under the GeoBlue Voyager Essentials plan, benefits are not available for any services received on or within 6 months after the Eligibility Date of an Insured Person, if those services are related to a Pre-existing Condition as defined in the Definitions section of the Plan Description. This exclusion does not apply to a Newborn that is enrolled within 31 days of birth or a newly adopted child that is enrolled within 31 days from either the date of placement of the child in the home, or the date of the final decree of adoption.
The pre-existing conditions exclusion under GeoBlue Voyager Essential does not apply to the Emergency Medical Transportation benefit, Repatriation of Mortal Remains benefit, or the Emergency Family Travel Arrangements benefit. GeoBlue Voyager Essential does not require that insureds have primary insurance at the time of enrollment.
We have the GeoBlue Trekker Essential Plan. It’s an annual multi-trip plan. I learned about it years ago from CruiseCritic and a lot of people recommended it.
Thanks–checked the Q&A and both types of trekker plans cover pre-existing conditions. That’s encouraging as D may want to travel with us to Europe at some point in the next 12 months.
I’m calling my BCBS insurer tomorrow to see what they already cover for international travel. I haven’t spoken to them about the subject in some years, and of course things change.
OK, have re-reviewed my insurer’s website and it appears that my medical costs WILL be covered when I’m traveling internationally, up to the lesser of the actual charges or the usual & customary charges in Hawaii (likely higher). Seeing as how my credit card will cover many of the travel hiccups and my insurer will cover the medical issues, I will take the chance that we won’t need medical evacuation and not bother to buy travel insurance. This has been a very valuable experience and I’ve written it up for future reference though.
A friend just got back from a cruise. He said someone was injured on an excursion on a small island and decided to be evacuated to the US. It cost $28,000 and he didn’t have any insurance.
The Geoblue Trekker annual premium for both of us is only $294/year for multi-trips. Covers pre-existing condition and $250K medical transportation. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Most of the medical evacuation clauses & policies I’ve seen don’t allow the passenger/customer to specify where they want to be evacuated to—it’s at the discretion of insurer. Only MedJet allows customers to specify where they want to be transferred to—from the hospital near where the incident/injury/illness occurred to the hospital chosen by patient.
H is older than the cutoff age of 75 so would need to fill out an extra form with his md per MedJet to get approved and no idea what the rate would be.
We have decided since medical care in Japan is excellent, as is air service between HI & Japan, we will be fine without evacuation coverage.
After resuming travel last year I’ve had to go thru a whole re-eduction process for the insurance side of things. I found this particular group which represents only certain vetted insurance companies. Here’s the thing…this is a small group of people who answer their phones and will speak with you in great and lengthy detail. My first encounter with one of the representatives resulted in an hour long discussion on what my expectations, needs and requirements were and what were the best options and combinations. They know their stuff, represent a broad spectrum of products and are NOT PUSHY!
I learned I could get very good medical (no pre existing conditions) and evacuation coverage for reasonable rates by only insuring a very small amount of the actual trip cost. Turns out, the medical coverage is the same if you insure a trip for $500 or $10,000. Of course, you’d only be covered for $500 of lost trip expenses (Cancellation, you got sick and had to go home early etc.) But you WOULD be covered for the medical expenses. The Chase Sapphire card covers many non-medical expenses.
Don’t let the website scare you - looks a little ‘National Enquire’ but those representatives have been incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and accessible.
We now also carry an annual Medjet policy. Again, they don’t cover the actual medical expenses but under the right conditions (must be admitted to a hospital for an issue and not just for observation), this policy will cover the flight home
@compmom, how frustrating for you and your D that there her diabetes prevented her coverage. We feel that would be the case for us — pre-existing conditions that insurer would use to deny our claims.
Our current insurer is BCBS and does provide coverage when we travel except for medical evacuation anyway.
No @cbreeze. Not type 1 diabetes. If you have not done the research work, phone calls and appeals that I have done- including with Geo Blue who did a full evaluation/underwriting, please don’t post on this issue. Actually my kid has several serious conditions. But type 1 alone causes automatic denials. I was told it is the only condition that does. (This is on doubt based on archaic ideas about type 1, but it is true that supplies for pump and CGM are costly).
My kid is in a field that requires time abroad to succeed, but is trying to make their way regardless. It may be as an expat after three months in a country, that country’s insurance might pay, but so far that hasn’t worked either.
I am on Medicare so I cannot help with my insurance, and kid is over 26 anyway.
The companies I talked to don’t like Factor XI Deficiency, either, probably since the medicine used to treat it is over $20,000 a dose (and more than one dose is usually required if there’s a lot of bleeding like after an accident).
It is worth checking in with the HR team at any organization your kid is interested in working for. They may have ways of accelerating or enhancing medical coverage that aren’t well publicized. Even in countries with state-run medical care, there is often private pay coverage which can be obtained for much less by an employer than by an individual.
Her opportunities are not corporate, but artistic. So far private companies in the countries in question also won’t take her. Because of all this kid is now working in the US but again thinking ahead to going abroad so I will start researching again.
What really galls me is that Fulbright and others don’t take this into account with the insurance needs of award winners.
We have had an annual policy with Allianz for years, and have been very happy with it. It’s recommended for 3+ trips/year, but we found that it was comparable to one pricey trip. The only time we have needed it (MIL died 6 days before a trip to South Africa), reimbursements were fast and easy.
