Can people buy cover against travel advisories?
Issuers in the US and Europe underwrite travel insurance, with Covid-19 cover, for overseas travellers headed to selected destinations.
They have different exclusions and may differentiate between trip insurance and medical insurance. Comprehensive plans are also available.
For example, global travel underwriter IMG-Sirius International’s CoverAmerica Gold provides coverage for non-US residents/citizens travelling to the US plus Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Bahamas and South America.
For a 30-day coverage, the insured person receives comprehensive travel insurance with Covid-19 screening benefit and quarantine cover. Its US$250,000 (S$339,000) policy limit plan costs US$216.
But there are caveats such as deductibles; varying levels of reimbursements; and exclusions due to US sanctions.
Overseas administrators and underwriters may be more regimented. It is administratively more cumbersome to file a claim against a foreign underwriter, in a different time zone.
I cringe when I recall a previous claim with a major US insurer.
Due to bad weather, a high-altitude Central Asia flight was cancelled.
With the airport shut down indefinitely, the airline advised me to make an overland trip instead, since the spotty weather might continue for the next two to three days.
I took a hazardous 16-hour private car hire over mountainous gravel roads. Yet, the US insurer rejected my claim and said I should have waited for the weather to clear.
After three months, a dozen e-mails and many phone calls, culminating in an escalation of my case to its senior management, my claim was approved.
It was a good outcome, but what a frustrating exercise.
Thus, I would still prefer to buy cover through a Singapore administrator.
“An insurance cover is only good if a valid claim is fairly reimbursed expeditiously,” advises an insurer contact who declines to be named.
