Health Insurance for Cruisers

Created by doina. Last modified on 2007-02-12 16:56:29
Topic: Medical

One of the advantages of sailing outside the US and Europe is that health insurance becomes more affordable.

Our Medis Elite plan, administered by Global Assurance Group, costs less than the health insurance we had when we were employed in the US (counting employer contributions of course). For those of you who worked in high payroll tax European countries (as we did a while back), our plan would be an even greater bargain.

Global Assurance Group has several different Medis health insurance plans to choose from, all underwritten by Generali Worldwide, part of the Generali Group of Italy (assets: USD 300 billion and S&P AA rating). So we’re rather confident that the claim money will be there when we need it. Coverage is fine for our needs, with all the major risks covered (subject to no more than the usual exclusions). We can say that after six years, our policy terms have not changed much. This is a relief in an age when many insurance policies suffer from “exclusion inflation” over time. But most importantly, we have found claim processing to be relatively easy and painless. The folks at Global Assurance Group are attentive to your needs and quite responsive. Their quality of service far surpasses anything we experienced in the US and Europe. If you can scan documents, you can process claims exclusively by email. Cruisers know that email is the only efficient way to “take care of business” with distant providers in the US and elsewhere. For six years now, Global Assurance Group has been processing the claims we send them from the Caribbean and Europe with nary—or almost nary—a hitch. If a hitch occurs, they are prompt to help fix it.

Go to Medishealth.com and see for yourself. There really is no excuse to go cruising without health insurance these days.

For the suspicious (and in our experience, all good sailors are suspicious), we have no connection with Global or Generali, and receive no consideration from them. It’s just that when we have tested a product for six years, and found it to work well, then we like to share the experience. We all know that very few things on boats work as advertised.

It’s easy to pick the best whatever “it” is you want on the internet. The difficult question is whether whatever it is you just bought with your precious cruising dollars will stand the test of time in a difficult environment. Our health insurance has done just that; and that’s worth writing home about.

Try to stay healthy out there.

Gerard and Veronique Lacroix