The subject of travel advisories and travel insurance has come up a lot lately. Certainly, these are unprecedented times as we never thought we would see the day when we would see a worldwide travel advisory issued by the Canadian Government. It’s scary – we know. I imagine when you bought your emergency health insurance you didn’t realize that a travel advisory would affect your coverage.
We want to be sure you know how this affects travel insurance.
All policies are worded differently, but if you decide to travel to an area where the Canadian Government has issued an official travel advisory to avoid travel – it would affect your coverage as it would be a general exclusion. Meaning if you had a claim while travelling it would not be a covered risk. As all policies are worded differently, we always recommend that you review your policy wording to confirm your coverage. And with our expertise, we can help you understand what that specific exclusion means, and how it affects your coverage.
To find out if the destination you are travelling to has a travel advisory we recommend visiting the Canadian Government’s website www.travel.gc.ca.
You might also be wondering about trip cancellation and interruption insurance and how it works with travel advisories. Trip cancellation and trip interruption policies are set up differently as the intention is to cover the cost of the trip you have already paid for. In most cases, since you would have purchased the trip cancellation or interruption insurance before a travel advisory goes into effect – it would be a covered risk. If you were to buy the coverage after a travel advisory came into effect, it would be safe to say that the travel advisory and whatever created the need for the travel advisory would not be a covered risk.
With all policies, we recommend you review the policy wordings as they are different from policy to policy. And we are always here to assist you if you need a better understanding reading the fine print!
One day soon we will be back to normal – either a new normal or one we are used too. And when that time comes, we can sit back and enjoy travelling with the assurance that Medi-Quote will be here to assist you in your insurance needs.
Safe Travels,
Teresa Bortoluzzi
If you would like to request a quote for travel insurance, submit a quote request via our client portal or call us at 1-800-661-3098.