Travel Insurance for age 60 or above
Some travel insurance policy has age ceilings, it is important for those over 60 to check if the benefit is deducted when exceeding a certain age. Difference between policies can be huge. For example, some policies clearly state that when the policy holder is 65 to 75 years old, the maximum benefit for “Personal Accident” will only be between 12.5% to 83% of normal rate. In an extreme case, policy holder under 75 can be entitled to benefit as high as $2,000,000 for “Personal Accident”, but only $250,000 for 70 or above.
Therefore, when purchasing travel insurane, people over 60 should be aware of the following:
- People who are over 60 has greater need for medical protection, when choosing and purchasing travel insurance, they should opt for policies with the most benefit with medical care, emergency medical transport, hospital deposit and medical expenses for follow-up after returning to Hong Kong. If you are traveling to places like Europe and north Americal where medical expenses are high, you should choose a policy with higher benefit amount;
- Travel insurance only insure medical expenses incurred from injuries or sickness during the trip, if it is a chronicle desease redurring during the trip, it may not be insured under the policy;
- Once the air ticket, hotel or package tour is confirmed, you should purchase the travel insurance as soon as possible, so that if you cannot make the trip in the end due to sickness, you will be protected with “cancelation” benefits;
- Pay attention to the world-wide emergency services, for example if the “emergency medical transport” has any ceilings, and whether the related fee is a stand-alone protection item.
For more information, please visit the Consumer Council website:
https://www.consumer.org.hk/ws_chi/news/press/473/travel-insurance.html
