Medical waiver requires full coverage

In the letter “Tips on Booking Hotels and on Insurance” (March ’19, pg. 14), a subscriber wrote, regarding travel insurance, “I used to purchase insurance on every air ticket; the airlines made it so convenient. Then one day I realized that I rarely cancel or change flights, so I would only be on the hook for the amount of the cancellation penalty that the airline would charge. The rest of the value would be available to me as a credit toward a future flight. Now I only insure the amount of the cancellation penalty, not the entire value of the tickets.”

At some point during my many years of travel and of purchasing travel insurance, I decided (like the above-mentioned subscriber) that I would only insure my anticipated losses, not the full cost of the trip. Airfare was a good example, as any loss would only be, say, $500 for the ticket-change fee, but the rest of the ticket cost would be held for me to book within, usually, a year. This seemed great.

Recently, while talking to an agent about purchasing a travel insurance policy, I was informed that the policy I was considering would not cover a loss caused by a preexisting medical condition unless I bought coverage for the full cost of the trip, including all of the airfare (not just the ticket-change-fee amount). I was informed that this did NOT apply to all policies, however. Since then, I have always checked.

I am 80, so I consider a waiver of preexisting medical conditions to be critical in any travel insurance policy. Whether or not the policy I am considering requires that I cover the full cost of the trip for the waiver to remain in effect is one of the checklist items I inquire about when purchasing travel insurance.

EDNA R.S. ALVAREZ

Los Angeles, CA