Comprehensive plans clarification

[magraj]

Can anyone clarify the below questions that i have regarding purchasing the comprehensive plan for my parents who are visiting us on Feb 23rd'09.

1. My mom DOB is June/09/1949 and she is 59 yrs old now. She will be here with us till Aug 16th'09. What should i mention under the age criteria when i purchase the comprehensive plan for 6 months. Is it 59 or 60?

2. What is difference between comprehensive plan and speciality plan?

3. Is there anything different in the benefits between Patriot America vs Protection America vs Atlas America. Patriot america seems to be cheaper then the later two. When i checked the brochure for all the three, i see almost the same contents, couldn't any differences. Am i missing anything?

4. Speciality plan of Patriot GoTravel America and WorldMed Lite, seems to be cheaper then all the comprehensive plans. Is there anything that is not covered in this plan when compared to the comprehensive plans.

5. My understanding is all the comprehensive and the speciality plan mentioned above are refundable, if cancelled before the policy end date. Am i correct?

6. My dad is 67 yrs old, is there any other limitations in any of the above plans that one should be aware of. I do understand that none of the plans cover pre-existing conditions.

I have spend quite bit of time in going through all the postings in the forum and based on that i learnt many have very good opinion about Narendra's services and his contribution to this forum. So, i have pretty much decided to go through insubuy.com. Just that i am bit confused which one to go between comprehensive and speciality plans. I have to consider the premium, benefits and customer service when deciding a plan. Any help/inputs on this would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Magesh

[insubuy]

1. 59 years.

2. Specialty plans are similar to comprehensive plan but each of them have something special that you should be aware of before deciding to buy it.

e.g.,
Patriot GoTravel America is similar to Patriot America:
However, Patriot GoTravel America does not include emergency medical evaucation, repatriation of mortal remains, loss of checked luggage and injury to teeth in an accident. And Patriot America covers all of them as per the provisions of the policy.

Liaison Continent Plan B vs Liaison International option 1:
After deductible, Liaison International option 1 pays 80/20 for first $5,000 and 100% after that up to policy max. That means you pay deductible plus max $1,000 out of your pocket.
While, after deductible, Liaison Continent Plan B pays 75/25 all the way up to the policy maximum. That means you pay deductible plus max 25% of the policy max out of your pocket, which is deductible + $12,500 for $50,000 policy max, significantly higher than Liaison International option 1.

And so on.

3.
Patriot America and Protection America are from the same company and practically provide the same coverage. The major difference is that you must purchase for miniminum 3 months initially (and pay minimum 3 months upfront) in Patriot America in order to be able to renew further, while you can purchase Protection America for any duration and still be able to renew it.

Atlas America is a similar plan from a different company. Therefore, the coinsurance, the PPO network and few other minor benefits are different that you can look up in our comparison at https://www.insubuy.com

4.
Patriot GoTravel America: Please look answer #2 above.
WorldMed Lite: This plan is actually not listed in specialty plan but in accident plan. It covers sicknesses up to $5,000 and accidents up to $100,000. Therefore, it is primarily an accident plan, while comprehensive plans are sickness & accident plan.

We put the plans in different categories so that even if people didn't have chance to look at the details, at least people start wondering there must be really some difference for them to be cheaper and look for more information and get them clarified. That is in everyone's best interest and we try our best to educate the customers at every possible stage.

5.
Most of them are fully refundable before the effective date of the policy. However, some plans like Diplomat America have cancellation fee of $25 even before the effective date.
Look at https://www.insubuy.com/clients/ to find out the exact refund policy of each plan.

6.
Some plans like Patriot America, Protection America must be purchased either before arrival or maximum within 30 days of arrival in the US or must have prior insurance that didn't expire more than 30 days ago.
Liaison Contient must be purchased within 3 months of arrival and so on.



While making this big decision, please don't look at few dollars and choose the plan that may not have some benefit that you may end up needing or end up paying large amount out of your pocket.

To give you an example, one of my customers purchased Patriot GoTravel after comparing both Patriot GoTravel and Patriot America and being fully aware of the differences. He thought he would not need any of the extra features of Patriot America that Patriot GoTravel does not have. Unfortunately, while they were driving through a national park in California, far from any major city, they got into an auto accident and were taken to the nearby clinic. The nearby clinic didn't have enough facilities such as CT scan etc. that were needed. Therefore, the father was flown by a helicopter to a nearby city (more than 100 miles away) where adequate care would be given. The treatment bill was around $47,000 that the insurance company paid but the helicopter ride bill was around $22,000 that was not a covered expense as it was emergency medical evacuation and Patriot GoTravel America does not cover that. Well, the premium difference was only few dollars (may be around $10 for total duration). Therefore, I recommend that you choose one of the comprehensive plans.

I hope these answers all your questions.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to post them here or contact us at any time.