Author Topic: ACA insurance and Travel  (Read 3834 times)

boarder42

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ACA insurance and Travel
« on: January 10, 2022, 02:05:33 PM »
What are all you retirees doing when you travel.  All my ACA plans only cover ER visits out of state.  I can do virtual care visits for free on the plan i chose.  But what do you guys do who travel a lot? Is it necessary to buy supplemental insurance?  Feel like any Emergency is easy kid breaks an arm clearly go to the ER.  But we're going to be in hawaii for 3 weeks coming up and while most care can be diagnosed remotely now i just wondered if it was worth it and where you found the best deals.

seattlecyclone

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2022, 02:10:21 PM »
I think for most of us we just need to come to terms with the fact that if we need urgent-but-not-emergency care when traveling out of state we'll likely need to pay cash for it. Annoying, yes, but shouldn't break the bank for a FIREd individual.

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2022, 02:12:34 PM »
I think for most of us we just need to come to terms with the fact that if we need urgent-but-not-emergency care when traveling out of state we'll likely need to pay cash for it. Annoying, yes, but shouldn't break the bank for a FIREd individual.

thats the option we were planning to use just didnt know if it was worth the coverage.  I found 500k in medical coverage for 62 dollars. or 1MM for 136 dollars for 20 days in hawaii

seattlecyclone

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2022, 02:16:33 PM »
I was thinking more along the lines of "find the nearest urgent care clinic if needed, pay their cash rate" rather than buying some sort of supplemental travel policy. I would think/hope/expect that anything costing much more than $1,000 would be covered under the regular health insurance emergency care provisions. The cheaper non-emergency stuff is a small enough potential expense that I personally wouldn't mess around with insurance for it.

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2022, 02:36:45 PM »
I was thinking more along the lines of "find the nearest urgent care clinic if needed, pay their cash rate" rather than buying some sort of supplemental travel policy. I would think/hope/expect that anything costing much more than $1,000 would be covered under the regular health insurance emergency care provisions. The cheaper non-emergency stuff is a small enough potential expense that I personally wouldn't mess around with insurance for it.

yeah sounds good to me.  just trying to cover some bases but your plan was in line with my thinking as well. and since our plan has free virtual care we really would only have to go to an urgent care for a bad cut or some kind of animal sting/bite etc.

katsiki

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2022, 02:43:46 PM »
I was thinking more along the lines of "find the nearest urgent care clinic if needed, pay their cash rate" rather than buying some sort of supplemental travel policy. I would think/hope/expect that anything costing much more than $1,000 would be covered under the regular health insurance emergency care provisions. The cheaper non-emergency stuff is a small enough potential expense that I personally wouldn't mess around with insurance for it.

I would not count on that $1,000 scenario coming true in most cases.  There was a recent thread about an ambulance bill here that matches my experience personally in the past.

Not sure this is helpful to OP but I would hate for folks to think insurance in this country works so well and easily as above.

Villanelle

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2022, 03:10:20 PM »
I was thinking more along the lines of "find the nearest urgent care clinic if needed, pay their cash rate" rather than buying some sort of supplemental travel policy. I would think/hope/expect that anything costing much more than $1,000 would be covered under the regular health insurance emergency care provisions. The cheaper non-emergency stuff is a small enough potential expense that I personally wouldn't mess around with insurance for it.

I would not count on that $1,000 scenario coming true in most cases.  There was a recent thread about an ambulance bill here that matches my experience personally in the past.

Not sure this is helpful to OP but I would hate for folks to think insurance in this country works so well and easily as above.

Wouldn't anything requiring an ambulance be an emergency, and therefore covered under OP's plan?

retireby50

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2022, 03:50:59 PM »
We purchase Travel Nomads insurance for all out of state/country travel we do. My ACA plan doesn't even cover out of state for all emergencies, the emergency must be life-threatening (i.e. a broken bone is gonna be out of pocket.)

katsiki

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2022, 09:34:12 PM »
I was thinking more along the lines of "find the nearest urgent care clinic if needed, pay their cash rate" rather than buying some sort of supplemental travel policy. I would think/hope/expect that anything costing much more than $1,000 would be covered under the regular health insurance emergency care provisions. The cheaper non-emergency stuff is a small enough potential expense that I personally wouldn't mess around with insurance for it.

I would not count on that $1,000 scenario coming true in most cases.  There was a recent thread about an ambulance bill here that matches my experience personally in the past.

Not sure this is helpful to OP but I would hate for folks to think insurance in this country works so well and easily as above.

Wouldn't anything requiring an ambulance be an emergency, and therefore covered under OP's plan?

Nope.  Not in my experience or the thread I mentioned.  Some items may be covered but I would expect many charges to be out of network and not covered by the emergency, including the ambulance.  Sorry to be a killjoy but if someone is worried about this (rightly so) I would certainly look into additional coverage options.

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2022, 05:08:31 AM »
yeah if people could throw down options they've used before that would be great.  Just googling around its about 100-150 dollars and it almost always includes trip insurance too - which we dont need but oh well.  one delayed flight and i'll make that 100-150 back.  Seems silly not to insure a family of 4 for under 10 bucks a day for reasons mentioned above.  I'll need to read my ACA plan to see what counts as an emergency.  If broken bone doesnt count thats pretty absurd.

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2022, 07:35:36 AM »
I have an ACA bronze plan with a high deductable ($6K). I chose this plan because I'm pretty healthy and I want the HSA.  Anyway, I just assume I am paying out of pocket for any minor thing that comes up while I'm traveling.  So far, after 7 years of retirement and multiple extended road trips, I have only had to seek medical help on the road once (antibiotics for a minor infection).

DaMa

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2022, 09:34:03 AM »
A broken bone is an emergent condition.  Emergency coverage only gets you to "stabilized," though.  There is a lot of room there for insurance companies to wiggle out of payment. 

Most of the time they will just say no.  You then have to jump through all the hoops to get your claims paid, starting with an appeal.  There is no legislation protecting consumers from these practices.  Providers routinely bill patients for covered benefits after getting insurance rejections.  There is no onus on them to do it right.  They might get paid more if you end up paying, so they have an incentive to do it wrong.

I worked for a company around 1990 who rejected ALL ER claims.  Claim came in and was rejected.  A letter was sent to member asking for info about whether the claim was for an an injury and if it was in a car or home or at work (in order to identify another payer).  If the info wasn't returned, the claim would never get paid. 

I could give many more examples.  Stepping off my soapbox now. 

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2022, 09:42:16 AM »
so i guess again back to the 2nd question who is everyone using for this type of insurance.  I mean 100 bucks is about the ballpark i've found and seems more than fair for our time in hawaii.  and is an extremely low price to pay

DaMa

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2022, 10:34:53 AM »
I wouldn't hesitate to pay $100 for coverage for a family of 4 for a big vacation like Hawaii.  It's all about peace of mind and asset protection.

I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve which has some medical coverage on it. My travel agent friend uses Allianz for her trips.  They have a medical only which I considered getting to supplement the CSR card. The company has good reviews.

I'm going to pay attention to what you do, because I also have emergency only outside of my network on my ACA plan.  Thank you for sharing, and I hope you don't ever need to use it!


boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2022, 06:04:33 PM »
I wouldn't hesitate to pay $100 for coverage for a family of 4 for a big vacation like Hawaii.  It's all about peace of mind and asset protection.

I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve which has some medical coverage on it. My travel agent friend uses Allianz for her trips.  They have a medical only which I considered getting to supplement the CSR card. The company has good reviews.

I'm going to pay attention to what you do, because I also have emergency only outside of my network on my ACA plan.  Thank you for sharing, and I hope you don't ever need to use it!

What level coverage does the csr have on it?

DaMa

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #15 on: January 13, 2022, 09:14:19 AM »
Here's an comparison I did.  I was cruising, so didn't include any of the auto features of the CSR.

   Chase Sapphire Reserve   "Allianz Medical $46 (est)"
PER PERSON BENEFITS      
Trip Cancellation   $10,000   
Trip Interruption           $10,000   
Em Med Transport   $100,000      $250,000
Travel Accident           $1,000,000  $10,000
Baggage Delay           $500             $750
Bag Loss/Damage   $3,000     $2,000
Travel Delay           $500             $1,000
Concierge                   Yes              Yes
24-Hr Hotline Assist   Yes              Yes
Emergency Medical & Dental Coverage   $2,500   $50,000

Mrs. Burning Bush

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2022, 05:45:07 PM »
What are all you retirees doing when you travel.  All my ACA plans only cover ER visits out of state.  I can do virtual care visits for free on the plan i chose.  But what do you guys do who travel a lot? Is it necessary to buy supplemental insurance?  Feel like any Emergency is easy kid breaks an arm clearly go to the ER.  But we're going to be in hawaii for 3 weeks coming up and while most care can be diagnosed remotely now i just wondered if it was worth it and where you found the best deals.


We started with Sedera last year instead of the ACA.  We have found it to be reliable, cheaper and less hassle than traditional insurance.  In fact, we started with Sedera in May of last year, and in August I wrecked my bicycle which resulted in three broken ribs and a punctured lung. . . .  Ended up in the E.R. and hospitalized for 3 days, suffice it to say the moment of truth came way before I was ready, but Sedera came through just like I had counted on.  And they don't care where you get medical treatment - in state, out of state, or out of country.  Might be worth reading up on.  I found it through one of MMM's blogs.  There is also Zion, similar to Sedera in many ways.   Good luck!

Rdy2Fire

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2022, 08:22:27 AM »
I purchased an annual allianz travel insurance, I had never done so before COVID but given you could end up quarantined somewhere with a hefty bill it seemed like a smart investment

DaTrill

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2022, 12:39:42 PM »
OP: Good questions but incredibly complex to provide a ubiquitous answer to any insurance question from different states using different insurance companies, plus all policies can change at any time for any reason and one has to keep up with these changes.  I also worked in Insurance for a time and as an up-poster mentioned, it is customary for all ER claims to be denied in all cases.  Also mentioned by up-poster some credit cards offer this kind of insurance with limits and in my experience, credit cards/banks offer the easiest claims experience possible.  AAA also provides this kind of insurance, is licensed in most states (probably all) and would have some ownership by a local agent if you had an incident.  ACA rules and Trump's removal of some rules has made this more complex than ever.   

I am in the same boat to balance US and International travel with ACA starting in 2023 and gave up planning as all the policies change from year to year.  I've used AIG and United in the past.  Had $25,000 emergency in state incident covered 100%, not one issue after paying $1000 deductible many years ago.

https://www.uhone.com/health-insurance-plans-by-state?LeadSourceName=Brand-GR-Bing-GeneralAudience-Exact&gclid=e5742c63b6481cda64f34d809406e44a&gclsrc=3p.ds&ds_rl=1289903&msclkid=e5742c63b6481cda64f34d809406e44a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand-GR-Bing-GeneralAudience-Exact&utm_term=golden%20rule%20insurance&utm_content=High%20Volume%20-%20Golden%20Rule%20Insurance

I will probably go with AXA plan for world emergency coverage for example.
https://www.axaglobalhealthcare.com/en/short-term-global-health-insurance/     

stoaX

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #19 on: January 17, 2022, 05:15:38 AM »
Thanks for starting this discussion.  I never even thought about buying any kind of medical insurance when traveling.  But now that you got me thinking about it, if I do take a long trip to a far away place, I'll definitely look into it. 

For a week long trip a few states away, I think I will just risk it like I always have.

DaMa

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2022, 08:08:45 AM »
Forbes has a recent article on travel insurance that lists a bunch of carriers:  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/travel-insurance/best-pandemic-travel-insurance/

fraylock

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #21 on: January 23, 2022, 09:32:53 AM »
Physician here.  One quick note: Though these things are in rapid flux, insurance will currently only cover virtual visits if the patient is currently located in state (e.g. will not cover you while traveling).  Therefore, I would suggest not disclosing that you are traveling out of state should you utilize the virtual visit option.

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #22 on: January 23, 2022, 09:35:30 AM »
Physician here.  One quick note: Though these things are in rapid flux, insurance will currently only cover virtual visits if the patient is currently located in state (e.g. will not cover you while traveling).  Therefore, I would suggest not disclosing that you are traveling out of state should you utilize the virtual visit option.

Good call I can fake my gps too. Based on sub 10 .dollar a day prices we're buying some insurance just trying to figure out which one.

Villanelle

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #23 on: January 23, 2022, 11:56:49 AM »
Physician here.  One quick note: Though these things are in rapid flux, insurance will currently only cover virtual visits if the patient is currently located in state (e.g. will not cover you while traveling).  Therefore, I would suggest not disclosing that you are traveling out of state should you utilize the virtual visit option.

On this subject, my insurer has added access to Doctors on Demand as a covered service (no copay, even).  I've used it twice now and been very happy with it.   Of course it will only work for certain types of things, but for something that can be done virtually and where you don't feel you really need a doctor who knows your history (or don't have that, or don't have another good choice), I think it is great.  They ask what state you are in and set you up with a doctor licensed there.  They do appointments (even in the height of Covid, I was able to get a next-day appointment) and also "urgent care" type visits, though when I tried that it said they were too busy and to make an appointment (which was the next-day appointment I got). 

Worthwhile checking to see if insurance covers this, or a similar service, especially for those doing a lot of domestic travel. 

fraylock

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #24 on: January 23, 2022, 01:44:04 PM »
Physician here.  One quick note: Though these things are in rapid flux, insurance will currently only cover virtual visits if the patient is currently located in state (e.g. will not cover you while traveling).  Therefore, I would suggest not disclosing that you are traveling out of state should you utilize the virtual visit option.

On this subject, my insurer has added access to Doctors on Demand as a covered service (no copay, even).  I've used it twice now and been very happy with it.   Of course it will only work for certain types of things, but for something that can be done virtually and where you don't feel you really need a doctor who knows your history (or don't have that, or don't have another good choice), I think it is great.  They ask what state you are in and set you up with a doctor licensed there.  They do appointments (even in the height of Covid, I was able to get a next-day appointment) and also "urgent care" type visits, though when I tried that it said they were too busy and to make an appointment (which was the next-day appointment I got). 

Worthwhile checking to see if insurance covers this, or a similar service, especially for those doing a lot of domestic travel.

Good point.  My wording was a bit misleading.  It's not necessarily just that insurance won't cover virtual care covered out of state - but that physicians can't provide care (and therefore bill for care) provided out of state in which they are licensed.  There are some services out there (Doctors on Demand for example) that can connect you with a provider in the state you currently reside, though if you're trying to set up a virtual visit with your usual PCP who is in a different state, best not disclose your location.  Why does this stuff have to be so complicated?

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #25 on: January 23, 2022, 01:57:13 PM »
Physician here.  One quick note: Though these things are in rapid flux, insurance will currently only cover virtual visits if the patient is currently located in state (e.g. will not cover you while traveling).  Therefore, I would suggest not disclosing that you are traveling out of state should you utilize the virtual visit option.

On this subject, my insurer has added access to Doctors on Demand as a covered service (no copay, even).  I've used it twice now and been very happy with it.   Of course it will only work for certain types of things, but for something that can be done virtually and where you don't feel you really need a doctor who knows your history (or don't have that, or don't have another good choice), I think it is great.  They ask what state you are in and set you up with a doctor licensed there.  They do appointments (even in the height of Covid, I was able to get a next-day appointment) and also "urgent care" type visits, though when I tried that it said they were too busy and to make an appointment (which was the next-day appointment I got). 

Worthwhile checking to see if insurance covers this, or a similar service, especially for those doing a lot of domestic travel.

Good point.  My wording was a bit misleading.  It's not necessarily just that insurance won't cover virtual care covered out of state - but that physicians can't provide care (and therefore bill for care) provided out of state in which they are licensed.  There are some services out there (Doctors on Demand for example) that can connect you with a provider in the state you currently reside, though if you're trying to set up a virtual visit with your usual PCP who is in a different state, best not disclose your location.  Why does this stuff have to be so complicated?

This is the problem with health care in America. No doctor gets into this and spends 20 years in school to fight this red tape. We need to unwind it all and make it simple. It's baffling it really is

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2022, 12:48:41 PM »
Forbes has a recent article on travel insurance that lists a bunch of carriers:  https://www.forbes.com/advisor/travel-insurance/best-pandemic-travel-insurance/

Thanks for this link I can get the coverage I need for 29 dollars. Since we'll likely drink at least that in booze at restaurants. What is that like 5 beers?  Well worth the price with 2 young kids and the current state of covid

Going to call to confirm some things Monday but it's a great deal imo

DaMa

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2022, 01:12:17 PM »
Happy to help!  Which carrier and plan are you going with, if you don't mind sharing?

boarder42

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Re: ACA insurance and Travel
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2022, 01:41:45 PM »
Happy to help!  Which carrier and plan are you going with, if you don't mind sharing?

Berkshire

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!