Does anyone know of good Travel insurance companies to get better and cheaper visitor travel insurance in Canada?

Kanetix website seems to be providing that through some company called TIC but not sure how good they are.

Secondly, if someone had recently gone through a surgery 120 days back , would the premium go up or be denied travel insurance totally?
In that case, what are the options?

Hello Pramesh,

If the visitors are coming from India ,then the following info will be useful to you.

Last year my parents came and basically my father forgot to take Visitors Insurance and hence after a lot of research I got it here.

It cost me $ 300 for $ 10 K coverage for 3 months ie. $ 600 for 180 days.This was for both my parents.

Now they propose to visit this year again and I got a quote from ICICI Lombard for $ 50 K coverage for 180 days for Rs 16000/- ( say $ 400)

So I will now get basically 5 times more coverage for $ 200 less.

It is always advantegous to get the coverage from India for Visitors Travel Insurance.

Regarding canadian visitors insurance, I would say 21st Century, ( unit of Manulife ) got me the best rate.


Trust this helps.
RJ

I actually have a different view on ICICI insurance plans. What I found was that there were a lot of limitations they had: Age(individuals over 60 receive less coverage than people in their 50s), the conditions covered, etc.

There was also no clarity on HOW the coverage would work if we used the medical system here for any reason. I was told that the system was one of reimbursement on submission of bills, and that there were networks that would have to be used for full reimbursement. Unfortunately, they were unable to give me details of which doctors/hospitals were in their network.

The typical timeframe for reimbursement(I was told) was 2-6 months.

I also contacted hospitals/doctors here, and they do NOT typically provide documents/forms in a way that would satisfy somebody in INDIA deciding on whether or how much to reimburse.

In the end, I felt the Indian travel insurance is one big headache given what all they claim and what they then say they might deliver.

So, IMO, a few hundred dollars is not worth the hassle especially when it comes to health issues.

Things may have changed, but I would look beyond insurance quotes online(Kanetix) or from agents(ICICI) and look deeper into what they actually will do rather than just dollar figures.

Hope this helps.

Hello Ranirani,

While understanding that you may have a different experience with ICICI , I would like to clarify the following , which applied to my instant case:-

The rate which I quoted was similar to all the companies offering travel insurance in India. eg Tata AIG, Bajaj Allianz, Reliance etc.

The rates quoted by me were for parents aged approx 65/67 years ( mom and father).

Now systems even in India are rapidly evolving and all these companies are offering these travel insurance as Cashless , once you contact the 3rd party Administrators.

So yes, I would definately take into consideration your views, however to each his own and we have so many to choose from.

Thanks,
RJ

Thanks Rajiv. I certainly hope so, since my folks may be coming again next year, and it will be a relief to have more effective coverage. The goal is to have peace of mind for all concerned and a good visit.

I would pay more IF it meant better protection and treatment options, whether the insurer were from India or anywhere else. It is these 3rd party administrators that scared me off last time. Maybe you can elaborate on this to inform us Rajiv, if you have some insight how this works now.

Pramesh, typically(again my experience may be a bit out of date, from 2006) was that existing conditions were not covered, and that a surgery would increase premiums for coverage. I do not think coverage was denied, it would get more limited in terms of coverage.

Hello,

There is another add on now ie. no medical exam till the age of 70.

Further I may add is that last time my parents were here and we had taken this visitors insurance from Canada, my mothers dentures broke ie. my son accidently while playing hit her face.

The policy explicitly stated that dentures accidently broken are covered. I went and took new dentures , and with all the documentation submitted the claim only to have a very prompt denial by mail.

When asked to clarify they said that dentures are to be repaired , and NEW dentures are not covered. But the difference between the cost of repair ( $ 600) vs new dentures ( $ 800) prompted me to take new dentures.

So after much disucssion they paid the difference ( $ 600 less $ 100deductible)

So the moral of the story in my opinion, insurance companies every where in the world will try to deny paying the claim. If our documents are solid and we should read the fine print , we will get our claim.

If you need any specific info, pl PM and I may be able to help as I am doing a lot of research on this as both my parents and inlaws are expectd to come to Canada this summer.
Regards,
RJ

Thanks RJ and Ranirani for the information.

RJ, Pls send me a PM as i would like to get information of which canadian companies you used to get insurance as i am in the process of getting one for some of the visitor's.