International Medical/Travel Insurance

Edit (see bottom for original post):

I started this thread by asking, "What are people using for health insurance when alpine climbing independently outside the US. " After getting feedback here, and a similar thread in the general climbing page, as well as the Colorado Ice Conditions, Alpine climbing and Obnoxious Alpinists facebook groups (in addition to several years of shopping around myself and asking in person for recommendations from friends) I’ve come up with the following options. They cost $150+ for a two week trip with slight differences in cost between policies, and most have $100k medical, but differ in trip cancellation, trip delay, baggage and evacuation insurance primarily.

If you have any experience with these, please post below. If you have any additional updates to add, post them and I'll add them here.

Ripcord
Overview:
- Medical: $100k (accident or sickness)
- Trip cancellation: ?$100k? (ambiguous, see policy doc)
- baggage: $2500
- Trip delay: $1000 ($200/day)
- Evac: none
Example Policy Document:
https://www.ripcordrescuetravelinsurance.com/wp-content/plugins/redpoint_shortcodes/pdf/GeoEx_RipcordTravelProtectionAgreements_US_Multi_State.pdf

Dogtag
Overview:  Low medical. High evac.
- Medical: $50k (accident). $25k (sickness). However, this is based on the online policy document, which may be old. Last time I bought Dog Tag (June 2019) my policy schedule read $100k.
- Baggage: $3000
- Evac: $1m (medical) or $100k (nonmedical)
- Trip delay: $1000 ($200/day)
- Trip cancellation $5k (ambiguous, but this is what I was given when I bought it last)
Notes: Their filing paperwork is supsicious. They ask for things like “and a copy of your trip invoice” for filing your medical claims, or an entire section devoted to information about your “TRAVEL SUPPLIER / PROVIDER INFORMATION:” in the trip delay claim form. This makes it sound like independent travel without a tour operator would make it troublesome to file claims. To their credit, both policy documents and claim forms are made easily available online so you know what you’re getting into ahead of time. Not so for many of the other policies here.
Example Policy Document:
https://www.dogtag.com/media/1407/dogtag-extreme-set-plan-nh-coi.pdf
Example claim forms:
https://www.dogtag.com/useful-links/claims/

World Nomad:
Overview: Higher trip delay, high evac
- Medical: $100k (accident or sickness)
- Trip cancellation: $10k
- Trip Delay: $1500 ($250/day)
- Evac: $500k (likely not helicopter rescue, needs approval from “attending physician”)
- Baggage: $3000
Example Policy Documents: tripmate.com/plan/print_cer…
https://products-api.worldnomads.com/v2/insuranceContract/28/pds?preferredDocumentFileType=HTML&planId=170&lang=en&countryCode=USA&provinceCode=NH

Global Rescue’s IMG Travel Insurance add on:
Overview: High trip cancellation
- Medical: $100k (accident or sickness)
- Trip Cancellation: $100k
- Trip Delay: $1000 ($250/day)
- Baggage: $2500
- Evac: none
Notes: Global rescue does not seem to provide travel insurance, however they do make available to members the IMG Travel Insurance add on (see here: globalrescue.com/landingPag…). I cannot find this insurance at imglobal.com, so it may only be available to global rescue members. It doesn’t seem to offer much different from the above options though. Biggest difference is much larger trip cancellation coverage.
Example Policy Document: globalrescue.com/grmkt_reso…

Was recently notified of Travel Guard which may offer coverage above 7000m among other things. Seems like a higher end package which might be worth looking into if the above won't cover you.

Original Post:

Posting in climbing General but also here since I figure international climbing is where this matters most,

What are people using for health insurance when alpine climbing independently outside the US. I'd been using dogtag but lost faith in them recently.

There seem to be several providers floating around often underwritten by Nationwide. Nomads is another like dog tag. My problem with dog tag is their customer service which was nowhere to be found when I needed them and the suspicious claims paperwork which was asking all sorts of questions about tour operators, which made me suspect they wouldn’t honor their obligation if I were climbing without a guide (even though this isn’t listed as an exclusion in their policy).

Don't tell me global rescue. I'm asking about medical insurance, not rescue/evac.

ECD H wrote: Patriot and Diplomat policies thru GNI.
now, im not a US citizen and ive never made a claim, but a friend who is and has wasnt super happy with a claim he made for lost gear.

Most standard travel medical insurance packages aren't relevant for climbers. A telltale sign that they won't cover climbing is that they cost under $50 for a 2 week vacation trip. Usually the insurance you need will be billed as for 'adventure sports' or something like that, and will cost at least 4 times more. BMC for instance is 170 GBP for 21 days (UK residents only). Snowcard is 120GBP (also UK only). Nationwide derivatives like Dogtag or World Nomads are roughly $180 for 2 weeks, or >$300 for a month. Patriot International asks for $26 for 3 weeks.

This is from under "exclusions" in patriot's platinum international policy (their beefed up version of the Patriot international):

"any Illness or Injury sustained while taking part in activities designated as Extreme Sports"

They define "Extreme Sports" elsewhere in the document as follows,
"Extreme Sports: Recreational activities involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high
level of physical exertion, and/or highly specialized gear and often carry the potential risk of serious or permanent physical
Injury and even death."

Most standard travel insurance packages include something similar.

Source: imglobal.com/docs/library/p…

Bogdan P wrote:

Most standard travel medical insurance packages aren't relevant for climbers. A telltale sign that they won't cover climbing is that they cost under $50 for a 2 week vacation trip. Usually the insurance you need will be billed as for 'adventure sports' or something like that, and will cost at least 4 times more. BMC for instance is 170 GBP for 21 days (UK residents only). Snowcard is 120GBP (also UK only). Nationwide derivatives like Dogtag or World Nomads are roughly $180 for 2 weeks, or >$300 for a month. Patriot International asks for $26 for 3 weeks.

This is from under "exclusions" in patriot's platinum international policy (their beefed up version of the Patriot international):

"any Illness or Injury sustained while taking part in activities designated as Extreme Sports"

They define "Extreme Sports" elsewhere in the document as follows,
"Extreme Sports: Recreational activities involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high
level of physical exertion, and/or highly specialized gear and often carry the potential risk of serious or permanent physical
Injury and even death."

Most standard travel insurance packages include something similar.

Source: imglobal.com/docs/library/p…

As you say price is a good indicator, I pay around $400 a month for health insurance (in Germany) so why it should be cheaper for a visitor is hard to understand

ECD H wrote:
https://www.gninsurance.com/travel/sports/diplomat-international/#diplomat-international

35 days in China/central asia cost $200.
    

Thanks. I've sent them a request for a quote.

Worth noting that under exclusions they have,

"Injury sustained while taking part in: mountaineering; hang gliding;
parachuting; bungee jumping; racing by horse, motor vehicle or
motorcycle; snowmobiling; motorcycle/motor scooter riding; scuba
diving, involving underwater breathing apparatus; water skiing; snow
skiing; spelunking; parasailing; white water rafting; surfing, unless part
of a school credit course; and snowboarding. Unless Hazardous
Activity Benefit is purchased."

So for anybody reading this and interested in this option make sure you look into the Hazardous Activity Benefit specifically.

ECD H wrote:

because its not health insurance. totally different product costed differently.

ok but health insurance for travelers vs health insurance for residents are supposed to provide the exact same services just in different contexts. Calling them totally different is a bit of a stretch. Also, I don't know about your health insurance, but my health insurance normally will cover me for whatever injuries I get stateside while climbing. It's only the cheap travelers insurance packages that have all these exclusions built in, which is completely consistent with it simply being an inferior product at a lesser price.

Sure there's differences but I did remove the long-term nursing and care element as it's seperate bit on the other hand I get my insurance cheap as my wife is a doctor. It was intended as an indication that $29  a month wasn't going to cover jack-all. Yesterday I was reading in the local paper about a 19yr old guy who slipped and fell 100ft when walking in the mountains near here, 13months intensive care, 153 days artificial coma, 80 operations and 800 blood transfusions  probably didn't come cheap!

ECD H wrote:
https://www.gninsurance.com/travel/sports/diplomat-international/#diplomat-international

35 days in China/central asia cost $200.
    

To follow up on this, their reply to my request for a quote was to recommend me Dog Tag.

I've updated the original post with a summary of what I've found