Should you purchase stand-alone Travel Insurance or Combined Travel and Extended Health Insurance?
If you feel the UBC/Sun Life Extended Health insurance provides you with adequate coverage for in-province medical expenses, and you just want to obtain additional travel insurance at a reasonable price, then you should consider the MEDOC stand-alone travel insurance. This multi-trip, annual insurance includes trip cancelation and interruption insurance and serves as the first payer for out-of-country emergency medical expenses even when you are also covered under the UBC/Sun Life Extended Health insurance. It has a 90-day stability clause for pre-existing conditions (rather than the 180-day medically stable period required by some other companies.) For an explanation of the meaning of “stability” and “pre-existing conditions", please see the UBC Emeritus College insurance guide.
If you would like to obtain both travel insurance and additional extended health insurance, then you should consider the Johnson EHC/Travel plan or the RTOERO plan. These two plans are similar in their design and structure and both serve as the first payer for out-of-country emergency medical expenses even when you are also covered under the UBC/Sun Life plan.
The RTOERO insurance is less expensive and provides somewhat broader extended health coverage, while the Johnson plan has the important advantage of not having a stability clause for pre-existing conditions for out-of-province and out-of-country coverage. The Johnson plan replaces the stability clause for pre-existing conditions with the more flexible requirement that a medical emergency must be considered “sudden and unforeseen”. (More information on what is meant by “sudden and unforeseen” is contained in Appendix 1 of the UBC Emeritus College insurance guide.)
It should be noted that whereas MEDOC premiums are based on your age and your pre-existing medical conditions, the Johnson and RTOERO insurance are not. Although no one is refused MEDOC insurance, the completion of an annual medical questionnaire is required to determine which rate category will apply. The Johnson and RTOERO plans do not require an annual medical questionnaire. In addition, the Johnson and RTOERO plans do not require successful completion of a medical questionnaire for acceptance into their plans, so long as you have had continuous coverage in a group extended insurance plan (such as the UBC/Sun Life plan) at the time you apply.
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