I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…
What travel insurance really means
171–180 of 186 posts
Re: What travel insurance really means
#172I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…
I worked in insurance for a company with a reputation for being unusually ethical, etc. While working in insurance, I heard that it was quite common for other insurance companies to train their claims processors to look for a reason to deny, not a reason to pay. I was trained to look for a reason to pay, not a reason to deny and still sometimes found the bureaucratic process stomach-turning. I generally am sympatheti…
Even car insurances do this even if you think they don't. They'll look for a reason to not pay you a dime even if it's on legally uneven feet.
When an insurance is profit motivated, then maximizing profits is the first instincts. Maximizing profits happens by maximizing the deny:payout ratio. My car insurance did this by denying me reimbursement on a covered repair because I didn't go the the repair shop the insurance would have preferred (of which I was informed later and per law this doesn't matter anyway).
On the other hand, my statutory insurance has covered any of my eye-care costs with zero questions asked or simple policies usually simply copied from the relevant laws (1 free pair of glasses per calendar year, up to 200€ IIRC, 10€/day for hospital stay beyond medical emergency, etc).
The difference? Statutory insurance here is non-profit. Most insurances, even the private ones are non-profit. Very few insurances operate for profit at all.
Other than the management overhead, the fees collected go straight into covering medical costs or are invested into fonds as a reserve.
Re: What travel insurance really means
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So he's pretty clearly trying to game the situation. I think you've misinterpreted some ambiguity in his statement because he neglected to use the proper tense when justifying his reason for not having a return flight booked. They inquired if he had a pre booked flight home: >> Our medical team believe this injury may require long term care, so we would see if beneficial that you return to the UK for treatment, if…
> His desire was to receive the most immediate care possible and the surgery was intended to install a plate to stabilize his hand and ensure that it heals properly. That has a cost. I'm Canadian and if I wanted to get a scan, it could takes months. If it's actually an emergency, it will be much faster, if I paid for it at a private clinic, it would be much faster too. Non urgent immediate care has a price. > The sur…
Re: What travel insurance really means
#174I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…
I worked in insurance for a company with a reputation for being unusually ethical, etc. While working in insurance, I heard that it was quite common for other insurance companies to train their claims processors to look for a reason to deny, not a reason to pay. I was trained to look for a reason to pay, not a reason to deny and still sometimes found the bureaucratic process stomach-turning. I generally am sympatheti…
Re: What travel insurance really means
#175Insurers should be required to list the statics for the number of accepted and rejected claims on the policy website. Currently there is no way to tell which insurance is more or less likely to screw you.
Or, which insurer has customers who do not read their policies. Accepted vs. rejected claims is meaningless on its own.
Re: What travel insurance really means
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve been motorcycling both in SE Asia and the US, always feel much safer in Asia because the speeds are low, bikes are low-powered and abundant so the drivers expect them. And majority of expats get by fine without motorcycle racing experience, the biggest issue is as always driving while drunk.
I kind of feel safer in Asia, not because of the speeds, but because the way that traffic works. It is a system of avoidance, kind of like how a school of fish works. You are expected to avoid the people around you. If everyone avoids everyone else, then nobody gets into an accident. There is also very little road rage here. Showing signs of anger is considered culturally inappropriate. In the US, you are literally a…
Re: What travel insurance really means
#177wow, that's brutal. I've been looking at something similar through this outfit - https://www.globalrescue.com/ and now I'm not so sure if it's worth it or not.
But, without looking at what they offer in detail, I'd be pretty sure they're quite a bit different from normal travel insurance and are priced accordingly. This is about potentially saving your life when things go sideways in some remote corner of the globe.
Not hopefully paying you out some money because your tour operator went belly-up or you need to take an emergency flight home because of an injury or other problem (which is what most travel insurance emphasizes).
Re: What travel insurance really means
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Standard medical advice? Are you even reading what he wrote? His doctor did not clear him to fly. That's not how insurance works. They aren't going to pay for stuff on the say so of one doctor. The expectation is that they pay for treatment according to published and accepted standards of care. In this case, those say that you can fly with broken bones. >With all the responses you've generated here and the way you g…
Just to clarify your comment on "What they offered was exactly what travel insurance is there for." They didn't offer me anything. Not one piece of my cover was offered. They 'offered' me a flight home as a goodwill gesture. They stressed that they didn't have to. It was a really shitty tactic. If you complain to a company and accept "their goodwill gesture" you are agreeing that no further action will be taken. If I…
We will not cover the following:
2. Any treatment or surgery which we think you do not need immediately and can wait until you return home. Our decision is final.
That's what travel insurance is. It's there to pay for care until you can fly home. Accepting their flight home isn't voiding your insurance. It's getting the coverage you paid for.
Re: What travel insurance really means
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you do this? >The patient may want to forward onto the treating doctor to help point out to us where in the manual the reason why he is not fit to fly as our decision would still be curtailment and he would have been fit to fly. http://www.iata.org/publications/Pages/medical-manual.aspx
No I didn't, that email was 7 days after the surgery, I had already left Singapore and was back in Bali by then. (My "not fit to fly" letter stated I was not fit 'before' having the surgery, once the plate was in and the swelling had resided I was OK)
(1) Claim your expenses that are clearly covered by your policy. The care in Bali, taxi ride in Bali, Flight to Singapore, Taxi in Singapore, Hospital stay, and the hotel in Singapore. That's gotta be at least $6,000 that you're just leaving on the table.
(2) Call your Doctor and ask him to write a better letter in support of your claim. It should be something like this:
To Whom it may concern,
I have reviewed the IATA manual and my patient Mr. Badger was unfit to fly pending his surgery. The manual states:
The following tables are provided as a guide to the timeframe that should elapse between a medical event and the intended flight. The timeframes may be changed following considered medical assessment of a specific case.
After my medical assessment I found Mr. Badger unfit to fly because:
(1) [Bad thing that might happen] because [medical reason bad thing might happen] (2) [Bad thing that might happen] because [medical reason bad thing might happen] (3) [Bad thing that might happen] because [medical reason bad thing might happen]
Thank You,
Dr So and So
Re: What travel insurance really means
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
For large businesses that's a huge market, it's called re-insurance. State Farm buys a policy that (for example) protects itself against hurricane claims in the state of South Carolina for 2018 against a Reinsurance company.
Yeah but that's for the insurer. Getting "insurance insurance" would be for the customer, to protect getting screwed over by their original insurer, who has chosen the short-term option of rejecting a valid claim, but which results in long-term loss of trust in the entire industry. The only solution being...more insurance? Crazy.