Travel medical insurance 2wks in USA, 2wks in Canada - recommendations?
August 31, 2016 3:50 AM   Subscribe

A Romanian friend bought herself the trip as a present to herself for completing breast cancer treatment this year. Any recommendations for medical insurance while abroad?

She'll be leaving Sept. 16 for NYC for two weeks, then headed to Canada (Toronto area) for two more weeks.

She'd like to feel secure that if *anything* came up while abroad she'd be covered. Her history makes her more cautious, and we'd both like to make sure that it doesn't get in the way of complete coverage.

It would be great if it was a single policy that covered her in both Canada and the USA but we could buy two if necessary.

Thanks!
posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
American Express has several travel insurance plans. Can't link because my browser automatically redirects me to the mexican site. Just google American Express Travel Insurance.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 4:32 AM on August 31, 2016


She should look at one of these.

Typical travel insurance covers you for groups of countries, rather than individual ones, so she should be able to purchase one policy for both countries. While filling the forms, she must be clear however that she is in remission from cancer as even the whiff of an undeclared prior medical condition can nullify the coverage. And if something came up while she's abroad, it would have to be totallly unrelated to said pre-existing condition.
posted by Kwadeng at 4:40 AM on August 31, 2016


(outing myself as OP)

Kwadeng - Sorry for my naivete on the subject, but are you saying that after decaring the prior condition and then purchasing insurance she would not be covered at all for anything related to the prior condition?

I mean, cancer + cancer recovery can lead to any number of things, it seems like they could just brush off anything short of a stubbed toe and refuse to cover it, or am I wrong?
posted by jpziller at 6:14 AM on August 31, 2016


Yes, that's exactly what I am saying. To the best of my knowledge, they will only cover you for things that started after you've purchased insurance. I recently claimed reimbursement for sprained ankle related costs while abroad and the questions they asked were quite intrusive.

Then again, the best is to shop around insurance companies in Romania and ask them directly. Do read the fine print.
posted by Kwadeng at 8:46 AM on August 31, 2016


You can get coverage for pre existing conditions under some circumstances, basically if the condition was already treated and not expected to cause any issues while travelling. Here is a good outline, but this is definitely a case where she will need to be very upfront with insurance companies and get and read a lot of fine print.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:55 PM on September 5, 2016


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