INSURANCE COVERAGE EVEN IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE
By James Daw - October 16, 2011 - The Star

Toronto Star Article

The older you get, the trickier it may become to buy emergency medical insurance for travel. It’s not just the cost that keeps going up. So does the risk a claim will be denied.

You may have more medical conditions to remember and disclose when applying for coverage. You may be disqualified for coverage because your doctor has increased or reduced a prescription, or because of signs that a medical condition has become unstable.

But Ottawa-area insurance broker Bruce Cappon points to one travel medical policy from Travel Underwriters of Richmond, B.C., that will limit the risk of collecting nothing. Quest Travel Insurance has been marketed with little fanfare since 2008 to those older than 55 and younger than 90.

One policy provision would protect you if you fail to disclose medical conditions on the medical questionnaire. You would remain eligible for up to $5 million in medical costs but you would have to pay any extra premium owed, plus have an extra $10,000 deducted from payments for each condition you had failed to disclose.

Two other provisions allow you to pay extra to get a reduced level of coverage — $150,000 instead of $5 million — for medical conditions that arose, were unstable or required treatment shortly before you travelled.

That coverage limit might not be enough to cover some emergencies, and there are situations when the optional coverage would not apply, so a careful reading or explanation of the policy will be necessary.