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Does anyone know how to, or have experience of, obtaining health insurance for elderly visitors to the US?

A relative who is over 80 may be visiting from Ukraine (most likely a tourist visa, so not more than about 3 months).

My understanding is that for people over 80, any coverage will be limited and harder to obtain. For example VisitorsCoverage covers a maximum of $50-70K. I am very much worried that in case of something happening, the medical bills may easily exceed that (this is the US we're talking about...).

I know WorldNomads appears to be a popular and trusted option. However I tried to get a quote online and their age limit is 66.

Lastly, if someone knows helpful resources where I can research this further (beyond the state dept.), that would be great.

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  • Is this to obtain a visa?
    – Karlson
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:23
  • I think there may be some requirements for that, but this is primarily to have medical insurance in case something happens.
    – highline7AM
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 14:27
  • There are some options, such as these from a google search of 'travel insurance for elderly' www.visitorscoverage.com/travel-insurance/travel-insurance-for-over-80/. Many are underwritten by Lloyd's, well-known and respected.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 15:25
  • Dorothy- that's the link I provided in my original post. I am looking for something that covers more than the limit there, although I appreciate the info about that company being reputable.
    – highline7AM
    Commented Jul 19, 2016 at 22:24
  • 2
    I presume insurance for an 80 year old would cost thousands of dollars per month, on account of the extremely high risk. Are you ready to pay that?
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Oct 7, 2016 at 16:20

2 Answers 2

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Brokers and members of Lloyd's of London pride themselves on insuring anything insurable (so not normally against events that have already occurred). They have for example insured Jimmy Durante's nose, Keith Richards' fingers and Holly Madison's breasts.

So if every other avenue turns out to be a dead end, contact an insurance broker and it is very likely that something suitable could be arranged, for a fee.

Selecting your own insurance company may however be cheaper. The UK consumer magazine Which? undertook a survey (based on April 2016 premia, an update is due in November 2016) and they include many companies prepared to provide travel insurance cover that (a) includes USA and (b) provides for "at least £2 million of medical cover for Europe and £5 million worldwide". Since Which? has separately categorised trips of up to 24 days I presume "annual trip" may allow longer than 24 days at a time, but that should definitely be checked as many policies will not cover a long but single trip.

Some of the above cover individuals aged over 80 years, of which some cover those over 85 years. I am not sure how nationality may affect coverage/premia but recognise that at least one of the insurers is part of a group that claims "We are a global insurance company with presence in 49 countries across all the five continents".

It happens I have also seen the site (with a .co.uk domain) for AllClear Travel Insurance which mentions "Medical travel insurance with a Big Tick Any condition. Any age. Any Destination." and "AllClear is the specialist medical travel insurance provider for travellers who have difficulty getting cover elsewhere".

Travel. SE is not here to give specific recommendations and I do not endorse any of the above (nor have I any connections with any except that I myself am covered by one of the companies mentioned by Which?). However it does seem possible to obtain the coverage you seek. A good price would require shopping around, which we are not here to do for you.

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Some time ago I asked a very similar question - about an elderly relative visiting me in UK from Georgia. This question is here - Travel insurance for elderly visitor from Georgia to UK .

I ended up buying the insurance from the company I mentioned in my question - http://www.imgeurope.co.uk - the quote was reasonable and they didn't mind the age. They do offer coverage for citizens/residents of any country visiting any other country.

EDIT: I just went through the quote process on imgeurope - putting random details for a 80-year old citizen of Ukrain living in Ukraine, travelling to USA for 3 month. The good news is that they do offer a cover. The not-so-good news is that the amount of cover isn't that great, although probably acceptable.

The was I'm reading it, you get up to US $10,000 per incident, with optional up to $200,000 cover for major accident, plus repatriation expenses and such.

The other not-so-good news is that it's rather expensive. Depending on the deductible, the premium runs from about $1,000 for the 3 months with $2,500 deductible to almost $2,000 with a $0 deductible.

Feel free to browse for yourself - you don't need to enter any personal information to get the basic quote, only the age, gender and the relevant countries.

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  • @pnuts $30k per incident with a maximum of $300k for example would allow for 10 incidents at $30k each or more at lower cost per incident. You'd have to ask whether a stay in hospital would count as one incident or several (each day for example could be an incident, or each procedure performed, etc.).
    – jwenting
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 7:06
  • I think in this case, the idea would be to stabilize the patient enough for repatriation, and then his own national insurance.
    – Andrew Lazarus
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 22:40

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