Wedding or Travel Insurance
Navigating the tricky business of getting money back when your plans need to change
If you, your fiancé or a family member becomes sick when wedding planning is already underway, unfortunately you won’t be able to insure your event. Wed Safe, Fireman’s Fund and Travelers all exclude people with preexisting medical conditions for which medical care or advice was sought within 12 months preceding the date of issue.
However, travel insurance might offer some protection, so you may not have to forfeit your honeymoon for fear of either not being able to go or needing to seek medical attention once you’re there. Two things you need to know about purchasing coverage for trip cancellation, interruption or required treatment:
- Many insurance providers will waive the preexisting medical condition exclusion if the traveler is deemed medically stable when the plan is purchased. “Medically stable” is defined as not having taken, or expected to take, a turn for the worse, and being well enough to travel at the time the insurance is purchased. If the traveler is medically unstable—for example, if you’re currently undergoing treatment but your doctor says you’ll be able to travel later—you will not be covered.
- If you paid for your honeymoon in advance, check the policy’s “lookback period.” This is the insurance provider’s definition of whether a preexisting medical condition exists, and it typically varies from 60 to 180 days prior to the policy’s effective date. In other words, the company will count backward from the day you purchase the plan to determine whether a condition was preexisting. If your illness has been completely controlled (meaning there have been no changes in medication, diagnosis, care or treatment in the past 60, 90, 120 or 180 days, depending on the duration of the provider’s lookback period), it won’t be considered preexisting, and you should be able to insure your trip.
All providers require that you cover the entire length of your trip (so if you’re dividing your time between a cosmopolitan city and a remote island, for instance, you can’t insure only the latter), and most insist that you cover your trip’s full prepaid, nonrefundable cost. If you don’t know that exact amount, overestimate to be safe. You can usually decrease the figure prior to your departure, and if the difference drops you to a lower trip cost range, many companies will offer a partial refund.
Also, the plan must be purchased within a certain time frame. For AIG Travel Guard and Travel Safe, the deadline for purchase is 14 days after the first trip payment. For CSA Travel Protection and HTH Worldwide, it must be bought anytime before or within 24 hours after your final trip payment. Finally, keep in mind that if you don’t pay for all elements of your honeymoon in full at one time, any money spent toward the vacation will be considered your first payment—even tax charged for redeeming frequent flyer miles or refundable deposits.
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