IMG - Travel health insurance frequently asked questions

1. Unfortunately, this simple question has a complicated answer. The answer is: it depends. Firstly, it depends on whether you are a US resident traveling outside the US or a visitor to the US. US residents can purchase trip cancellation insurance like the Travel Lite, Travel LX and Travel SE plans and they can cover pre-existing conditions. These plans however may have specific requirements in order to waive the usual exclusion of coverage for pre-existing conditions (like purchase them within a certain number of days of your initial trip deposit or that you have a primary domestic insurance plan in the US), so you should check these details carefully if this is important to you.
2. Non-US residents or US residents traveling into the US have much more limited options to insure their pre-existing conditions are covered. Some plans offer coverage for "acute onset" of pre-existing conditions. However, this is misleading, since a careful look at their definition excludes chronic or congenital disorders from such coverage. Chronic illnesses are those that worsen over time and congenital disorders are issues one is born with. They exclude emergencies due to chronic illness because they will say that is not "acute" it is simply a worsening of your condition. There is a policy we know of that offer temporary medical insurance with coverage for pre-existing conditions. It is IMG's Visitor's Protect.
3. Firstly, they define pre-existing conditions in the following way: A pre-existing condition is a condition for which the insured received treatment or took medication for in the previous 12 months before the start of the policy. If the medication dosage has not changed and is taken as a maintenance medication, this would NOT count as a flare up or treatment of the condition. In that case, very stable conditions that have no flare ups in the past 12 months are not even excluded as pre-existing conditions. Conditions that have had flare ups or doctor recommended treatment or change in medication, are still covered by the plans but with a higher deductible and a lower maximum.
4. IMG Visitor's Protect is a comprehensive plan offering fairly complete coverage. The plan must be purchased for at least 90 days and can be quite pricey for seniors, but they offer the only real coverage for chronic conditions. Temporary medical insurance with coverage for pre-existing conditions. The other option, of course, is to take a plans with little ($1000) or no coverage for pre-existing conditions and take a risk that that condition will not flare up during the trip.

Some plans boast they offer "full" coverage for pre-existing conditions, this can however be a little misleading. Firstly, any regular treatment or medication that is required by the condition is never covered. The main advantage to the IMG Visitor's Protect is that they cover sudden illness/injury regardless of whether it is pre-existing or not. The only difference is that a pre-existing condition will be covered with a higher deductible at a lower maximum than any other "new" illness or injury. However, coverage is not limited to an emergency or life-threatening situation. This plan offers temporary medical insurance with coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The "Acute Onset of a Pre-Existing Condition" is a sudden and unexpected outbreak or recurrence of a pre-existing medical condition which occurs without any advance warning either in the form of physician recommendations or symptoms and requires immediate care (within 24 hours of first symptoms).

A Pre-Existing Condition that is a chronic or congenital condition or that gradually becomes worse over time will not be considered acute onset. The acute onset coverage benefit does not include coverage for known, scheduled, required, or expected medical care, drugs or treatment existent or necessary prior to the effective date of coverage. An example of this might be someone who has a food allergy or bee allergy and is unknowingly exposed to their allergen and requires immediate medical attention.

Acute onset of a pre-existing condition can be defined as the sudden & unexpected occurrence of a pre-existing condition which requires in-patient, emergency hospitalization within 24 hours of exhibiting first symptoms. The main difference between acute onset & full pre-existing is that with Full Pre-Existing coverage, is that one is covered for all pre-existing conditions and associated medical costs and this includes follow up visits, hospitalizations and doctor’s visits, etc. The acute onset coverage will only cover the in-patient hospitalization expense.

A plan now offered by IMG called Visitor's Protect is temporary medical insurance with coverage for pre-existing conditions. The plan must be purchased for at least 90 days. Note that IMG plans is not available to green card holders.

Yes, Patriot America Plus from IMG offers coverage for acute onset of pre-existing conditions up to the age up to 70, Patriot Platinum also offers acute onset of pre-existing conditions up to the age up to 70 and Visitor Protect from IMG temporary medical insurance with coverage for pre-existing conditions up to 99 years. The plan must be purchased for at least 90 days.