International Medical Insurance

[wingssail]

We cruised outside of the USA for 27 years. We have never had medical insurance or medivac insurance. In most places in the world there is excellent medical care available, for a price, (but the price is astonishingly inexpensive).

Our plan has been to use local medical services unless a major issue comes up, and then go to the US (on our own dime) and use Medicare. We felt that any big emergency would be better dealt with locally rather than taking an expensive medivac flight. Medical trips for issues which were not emergencies could probably be done on commercial flights. We did realize that the cost of a major medical emergency would hit us very hard financially, and do expect that it will come some day, and dread that.

But the expense of insurance for the last 27 years would have been astronomical.

However, we recently learned that there is a snag to this plan of ours: The "free" Medicare (part A) covers hospital but not in-hospital doctor's services (IE surgeons etc). So we saved a lot of money over the years but now realize that medical issues will probably cut short our cruising at some time because we won't be able to get Medicare to cover an operation.

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by wingssail

We cruised outside of the USA for 27 years. We have never had medical insurance or medivac insurance. In most places in the world there is excellent medical care available, for a price, (but the price is astonishingly inexpensive).

Our plan has been to use local medical services unless a major issue comes up, and then go to the US (on our own dime) and use Medicare. We felt that any big emergency would be better dealt with locally rather than taking an expensive medivac flight. Medical trips for issues which were not emergencies could probably be done on commercial flights. We did realize that the cost of a major medical emergency would hit us very hard financially, and do expect that it will come some day, and dread that.

But the expense of insurance for the last 27 years would have been astronomical.

However, we recently learned that there is a snag to this plan of ours: The "free" Medicare (part A) covers hospital but not in-hospital doctor's services (IE surgeons etc). So we saved a lot of money over the years but now realize that medical issues will probably cut short our cruising at some time because we won't be able to get Medicare to cover an operation.

You say you wont be able to get paid Medicare- so I take that to mean you never signed up for that? Can you not sign up now (I know there is a penalty)?

[Time2Go]

When I crew internationaly I have bought insurance from
“GeoBlue”
Never had to use it, so can’t vouch for it personally
There are different plans, coverages, and deductibles
Cheers
Neil

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by GreenWave

You say you wont be able to get paid Medicare- so I take that to mean you never signed up for that? Can you not sign up now (I know there is a penalty)?

Yes, we never signed up for Part B (or C or D). We viewed it as too expensive for our budget and expecting to be out of the US for 10-20 years we felt it would be money wasted.

Now we can sign up (subject to restrictions) but again, the cost of Part B is $165 each, or $330 for the two of us, every month, and again, we have not needed it previously and have no idea how long, if ever, it will be before we can utilize that coverage.

We know that many cruisers have budgets that can allow that kind of monthly insurance payment without a thought. We are not in that financial category.