Travel Insurance for Senior Travelers: Special Considerations and Tips

Travel can lead to mishaps regardless of age or destination. Insurance mitigates risks such as medical emergencies, lost baggage, trip cancellations, and more. Since seniors tend to face greater risks while traveling, obtaining the right travel insurance policy can be tricky.

Worried about insurance exclusions and pre-existing health conditions? Let’s go over special considerations and tips for senior travelers who are looking for travel insurance.

Special Considerations for Senior Travelers

Health Coverage

Travel health insurance is crucial for senior travelers, especially the health coverage component. Here are essential elements to consider when it comes to travel health insurance.

Pre-existing medical conditions: If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, you will likely need a waiver before they can be covered by travel insurance. For travelers with congenital conditions, check with the travel insurance provider to confirm whether the policy covers them. Read our guide on how to get coverage for pre-existing conditions for more information.

Coverage for medical emergencies abroad: If you’re traveling abroad, emergency medical care can be extremely expensive. Having the right travel health insurance greatly reduces the financial risk of a medical event while traveling. Note that most health insurance policies don’t cover expenses incurred abroad.

Importance of comprehensive health insurance: Travelers should be sure to check their insurance policies and know about any gaps in coverage. Having comprehensive health insurance that covers a wide range of health needs and medical services is important. Emergency medical expenses and medical evacuation can help you save significant money.

Policy Limits and Exclusions: Your coverage and claims may be affected by policy limits and exclusions. Before purchasing your insurance policy, review its requirements, restrictions, and deadlines. For example, medical tourism and pre-existing conditions are excluded from the standard travel insurance policy.

Age limits on policies

Travelers over 65 should be aware of exclusions and age limits on certain insurance policies. Some travel insurance providers impose these limits because of the increased health risks of older travelers.

For example, your travel insurance policy may only offer coverage for 30 days if you are aged 80 or older.

Medicare does not cover you when you’re traveling overseas. This means that if you incur any medical expenses, you must pay out-of-pocket. To avoid spending thousands of dollars on medical bills while traveling, travelers should leverage travel insurance.

Reasons for trip cancellation

It’s normal for travelers to worry about health issues, family emergencies, and other incidents to prevent them from going on their scheduled trips. Fortunately, there is travel insurance to protect you financially from a trip cancellation.

Trip cancellation insurance covers common, serious reasons for canceling a trip. If you end up needing to cancel your upcoming trip for a valid reason, you can receive a reimbursement for up to 100% of your prepaid, nonrefundable expenses (such as hotel and transportation fees).

Reasons covered usually include:

• Death or illness of the traveler or a family member
• Hospitalization
• Legal obligations (e.g. jury duty)
• Eligible medical emergencies

To improve your trip cancellation insurance policy, you can opt for Cancel For Any Reason insurance (CFAR). This allows you to cancel for any reason, so long as you notify the insurance provider within a time limit (usually 48 hours before your departure).

Importance of evacuation coverage

Medical evacuation involves airlifting (or another mode of medevac) the traveler to a hospital in case of an emergency. Emergency medical evacuation can cost over a hundred thousand dollars depending on your location.

Seniors should consider medical evacuation insurance since it could save significant money in case of an emergency medical situation. It’s hard to predict when emergency evacuation services may be necessary, but when they are, they can be extremely expensive. Insurance can prevent your retirement funds and savings from being depleted by a medevac.

Coverage for lost or stolen medications

Many senior travelers bring along prescriptions as they travel. Prescriptions are generally not covered by travel insurance unless you receive a new prescription due to a covered medical emergency. Another case where travel insurance could cover prescription costs is if a qualifying trip interruption led you to run out of your important medications.

When traveling, it’s a good idea to carry a list of all the prescriptions and medications you are taking. If you lose your prescription medications while abroad, you can reach out to a travel insurance provider’s emergency assistance services to see whether they can help you refill your prescription.

Always read the fine print to see whether your travel insurance policy covers your specific prescriptions.

Travel insurance for those with disabilities

Travelers with disabilities may want to ensure they have travel insurance coverage for mobility aids and other accessibility devices. Some travel insurance policies cover wheelchairs and other health equipment.

In general, congenital conditions are not classified as pre-existing conditions by travel insurers. This means that vision impairments, hearing impairments, and conditions like cerebral palsy are usually covered by travel medical insurance.

Tips for Choosing the Right Travel Insurance

Assessing Personal Needs

Travelers should look at their unique, personal needs and priorities when traveling. For example, ask yourself whether you only want travel health insurance, or if you want add-ons and more extensive coverage.

For senior travelers, health is often the most important aspect to consider. However, you may also want to consider other needs and priorities. Here are some add-ons that could benefit a senior traveler:

• Medical Evacuation Insurance: Covers medical evacuations (e.g. air ambulances) while traveling. Useful for injured or ill travelers who are headed to remote locations.
• Coverage Limit Extensions: Travelers may want higher limits for travel medical expenses.
• Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance: This serves as extra life insurance for travel so that your beneficiaries can receive an insurance payout in case of an incident.
• Pre-existing Condition Waiver: If you want a pre-existing condition (e.g. heart disease) to be covered by insurance, you will need a waiver. Insurers usually offer pre-existing condition waivers if you insure the entire trip and purchase within 14 days of making your first trip payment.
• Lost Baggage Insurance: If you’re bringing valuables with you on your journey, consider lost baggage coverage for extra protection.
• Trip Delay Insurance: If your trip gets delayed for covered reasons (such as unexpected bad weather), trip delay insurance can cover essential expenses for a designated period of time.

Evaluating individual health and travel plans

Look at your travel plans to decide what sort of travel insurance will suit your needs.

Annual travel insurance: If you expect to travel frequently in the upcoming year, you might benefit from a multi-trip travel insurance policy. Usually, age does not affect the cost of buying annual travel insurance, which could help you save more money.

Adventure sports coverage: Travelers planning on participating in high-risk activities may want adventure sports insurance. This covers activities such as mountain climbing and scuba diving.

Greater coverage limit: Travelers are generally advised to carry at least $100,000 in travel medical insurance. However, seniors with significant health concerns or risks may benefit from increasing their travel health insurance coverage limit. This helps ensure sufficient financial protection.

Researching different insurance providers

Compare different coverage options and costs when shopping for travel insurance. The first travel insurance provider you see may not offer the best coverage or the most cost-effective policy. The ideal travel insurance for you should have an insurance cost that aligns with your needs, trip details, and budget constraints. In general, travel insurance costs 4% to 16% of the total trip cost. If you want better coverage, insurance will naturally be more expensive.

If you need help with travel insurance research, check out our expert reviews of the best travel insurance companies of 2024. This includes:

• TravelInsurance.com: An easy-to-use travel insurance quote comparison tool with over 95,000 verified customer reviews. Can help you find a suitable insurance policy.

• Generali Global Assistance: Offers ID theft resolution and concierge services, as well as a free look period where plans can be canceled for a full refund.

• Faye: Offers a convenient travel insurance shopping process, quick claims processing, and timely reimbursements.

• Squaremouth: Offers a good variety of insurance policies and a team to help mediate if you are dissatisfied with the claims process.

• Travelex: The insurance coverage and concierge services are great if you plan to travel abroad.

Reading the fine print

Travelers should read the fine print of the travel insurance policy carefully to understand the policy details. There may be age- or health-related clauses that are relevant to you.

If you have any doubts, it’s a good idea to clarify them with an insurance agent or representative. Ask the questions well before you set off on your trip so you are adequately prepared in case you need to file a claim.

Finding plans tailored for senior travelers

See if your chosen insurance plan has any age-related requirements or features. Many age-specific travel insurance plans can be more cost-efficient or suitable to your needs. For example, you can search for travel insurance for seniors or travel insurance for 65 and up.

Travel insurance companies often let you tailor coverage through insurance add-ons and endorsements. If you have any unique needs or risks, try customizing your insurance through a reliable insurance provider.

Asking for recommendations from other senior travelers

Senior travelers should read reviews and testimonials from other seniors who have purchased travel insurance. Other travelers’ experiences can give you insight into what insurance coverage is optimal for you.

Reviews are especially useful if you can find testimonials related to your planned destination. This allows you to gauge what sort of specialized insurance you might need for the trip.

It can also be helpful to look at the financial stability ratings of your potential travel insurer. This gives you an idea of whether an insurance company is financially stable enough to provide coverage.

Benefits of annual or multi-trip insurance for frequent travelers

If you are a frequent traveler, you might benefit from an annual travel insurance plan. Annual travel insurance policies are also known as multi-trip policies. If you expect to travel numerous times a year, multi-trip policies can be:

• Great for ensuring 24/7 support
• More cost-effective
• Simpler to obtain

On the other hand, if you only plan to travel once in the upcoming year, a single-trip travel insurance plan should suffice.

Importance of 24/7 customer support

Never underestimate the difficulties that can come with living in a different time zone. The best travel insurance companies offer 24/7 customer support, as well as various concierge services that are available even when you are in a different time zone or country.

When choosing a travel insurance plan, travelers may want to prioritize access to 24/7 customer support and services in different time zones and countries. These services include:

• Health hotlines
• Translation services
• Event planning

Summary

Travel insurance serves as an important safety net for travelers regardless of age. Senior travelers tend to face higher health risks, which is why comprehensive travel health insurance becomes even more important. Here are the key points of consideration.

• Comprehensive medical insurance should cover medical evacuations and hospital stays
• Pre-existing condition coverage requires a waiver
• Flexible trip cancellation plans accommodate health issues and emergencies
• Know all the insurance exclusions and fine print
• Choose an insurer with useful 24/7 travel support services

Senior travelers can benefit from getting travel insurance early. The right insurance policy can protect you from financial risks and turn frustrating trip disruptions into minor inconveniences.

Looking for the best travel insurance for seniors? Visit /travel-insurance to see our top ranked travel insurance providers.