There’s no way around it: canceling, cutting short, or altering your travel plans due to illness is a total bummer. There are more than memories at stake; your money and your health are on the line, too. If you have prepaid costs invested in your trip, you may not get a refund. And if you get sick while traveling overseas, you could end up paying thousands out of pocket for your medical care.

In situations like these, travel insurance can save the day. But insurance doesn’t cover every single sickness-related scenario. It specifically protects you from unexpected losses caused by a covered illness, injury, or medical condition.

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What does “covered illness” mean?

A covered illness is any illness that meets the specific conditions outlined in your travel insurance plan. These conditions also apply to covered injuries and covered medical conditions.

• For trip cancellation and interruption benefits, a covered illness is an illness disabling enough to make you or a travel companion cancel or interrupt your trip.
• If you’re canceling or interrupting your trip because a family member is sick, that illness must be considered life threatening by their doctor or require hospitalization.
• For emergency medical benefits, a covered illness is a sudden, unexpected illness that could cause serious harm if it is not treated.

Those are just the general descriptions. Let’s dive a little deeper into how your Allianz Travel Insurance plan can help when you, a travel companion, or a family member experiences a covered illness.

Does travel insurance cover cancellation due to illness?

It can! If you have trip cancellation benefits as part of your plan, then you can be reimbursed for your lost, prepaid, non-refundable trip costs if your trip is canceled for a covered reason. One of the most common reasons is illness. But how do you know if your specific condition is a covered illness?

In the world of travel insurance, covered illnesses aren’t described in a comprehensive list of all the possible ailments that could cause you to cancel a trip. Instead, certain conditions must be met to be eligible for coverage.

• The illness (or injury, or medical condition) affecting you or your travel companion must be disabling enough to make a reasonable person cancel their trip.
• Because not everyone defines “disabling” the same way, a doctor must advise you or a traveling companion to cancel your trip before you cancel it.
• If that isn’t possible, a doctor must either examine or consult with you or the traveling companion as soon as possible within 72 hours after the cancellation to confirm the decision to cancel.

What’s considered a covered illness for trip interruption?

For trip interruption benefits, a covered illness must meet conditions similar to those for trip cancellation.

• The illness (or injury, or medical condition) experienced by you or your travel companion must be disabling enough to make a reasonable person cancel their trip.
• A doctor must either examine or consult with you or the traveling companion as soon as possible within 72 hours of the trip interruption to confirm the decision to interrupt the trip.

Also, you must not have traveled against your home country’s government advice or against local authority advice at your trip destination. For example: If the government of a state in Brazil advises travelers to stay away because of a chikungunya outbreak, and you ignore the warning and get sick, then travel insurance would not consider that a covered illness.

If you have to cut your trip short due to a covered illness, your trip interruption benefits can help you in multiple ways. Your plan can reimburse you (up to the maximum limit specified in your plan) for:

• The unused, nonrefundable portion of your prepaid trip expenses
• Additional accommodation and transportation expenses you incur during the interruption (for instance, if you have to rest in your hotel for two extra days while you recover from your illness)
• Additional accommodation fees you are required to pay, if you prepaid for shared accommodations and your traveling companion has to interrupt their trip
• Extra expenses to continue your trip, or the cost to return to your primary residence

Does travel insurance cover trip cancellation or interruption due to family illness?

It can. A covered illness affecting a family member must be considered life threatening by their doctor or require hospitalization. For example: If your dad gets a bad cold, that’s not a covered reason for trip cancellation/interruption. If your dad gets pneumonia and ends up in the hospital, that can be a covered reason for canceling or interrupting your trip.

Make sure you understand how travel insurance defines a family member. The definition includes immediate family and close relatives; cohabitants; stepparents and stepchildren; adopted and foster children; certain in-laws; paid, live-in caregivers, legal guardians and wards; and service animals. Specific inclusions and exclusions apply.

Does travel insurance cover illness during your trip?

If your plan includes emergency medical benefits, you can be reimbursed for the cost of eligible medical care if you experience a covered illness while traveling. This is really important for international trips. Medical providers overseas do not typically accept U.S. health insurance, and they often require payment up front. Medicare and Medicaid do not pay for medical care outside the U.S.¹

For these benefits, a covered illness is a sudden, unexpected illness or medical condition that occurs while you’re on your trip and could cause serious harm if it is not treated.

The key things to understand:

• The covered illness must be sudden and unexpected. Travel insurance doesn’t cover treatment for chronic or ongoing conditions, normal pregnancy, or preventive care.
• The covered illness must occur on your trip. Travel insurance doesn’t cover treatment for medical emergencies that happen before you leave, or your treatment once you’ve returned home.
• The covered illness must be capable of causing serious harm if not treated. Not sure whether your illness is serious? Use the Allyz^â app to schedule a global doctor visit, wherever you are.

If you experience a covered illness during your trip and our medical assistance team determines that local medical facilities are unable to provide appropriate medical treatment, emergency transportation benefits can reimburse the cost of medically necessary transportation to the nearest appropriate facility. These benefits can arrange and reimburse the cost of your transportation home (with a medical escort, if needed) once your condition is stable. They can also arrange to send your dependents home and/or transport a friend or relative to your bedside, if you’ll be hospitalized for more than 48 hours during your trip.

Can pre-existing medical conditions be covered illnesses?

People sometimes think that travel insurance won’t cover them if they have a pre-existing medical condition. It can! But to ensure you’re protected, you’ll need to meet certain requirements.

Here is how Allianz Global Assistance defines an existing medical condition:

An injury, illness, or medical condition that, within the 120 days prior to and including the purchase date of your policy:

1. Caused a person to seek medical examination, diagnosis, care, or treatment by a

doctor;

1. Presented symptoms; or
2. Required a person to take medication prescribed by a doctor (unless the condition or symptoms are controlled by that prescription, and the prescription has not changed).

It’s important to know that the illness, injury, or medical condition does not need to be formally diagnosed in order to be considered a pre-existing medical condition.

Here, you’ll see a list of all Allianz Travel Insurance plans that can cover losses caused by pre-existing medical conditions. Each plan has requirements that need to be met in order to qualify, which may include you being medically able to travel on the day you bought your plan, buying your plan within 14 days (or a specified time) after paying your first trip deposit, being a U.S. resident, etc. Be sure to read through your plan to find the specific requirements.

Which illnesses are not covered by travel insurance?

Not all illnesses and conditions can be covered by travel insurance. Before you travel, read your plan documents so you understand what kinds of things are excluded. These include, but are not limited to:

• Any loss, condition, or event that was known, foreseeable, intended, or expected when your policy was purchased. An example: If you know you’re getting sick when you buy travel insurance, then you cancel your trip because you’re sick, that’s not considered a covered illness.
• Normal pregnancy or childbirth (that is, free of complications) is notcovered by travel insurance from Allianz Global Assistance, except as a covered reason for trip cancellation (if you find out you are pregnant after purchasing your policy, or you need to attend the birth of a family member’s child.)
• Any illness and injury caused by the use or abuse of alcohol or drugs, or any related physical symptoms.
• Participating in an extreme, high-risk sport or activity. For example, if you get decompression sickness because you were scuba diving below 60 feet, that’s not a covered illness.
• An epidemic or pandemic, except when and to the extent that an epidemic or pandemic is expressly referenced in and covered under trip cancellation coverage, trip interruption coverage, travel delay coverage, or emergency medical/dental coverage.

What if I need to cancel my trip for an illness that’s not covered?

If you’re concerned about having to cancel a trip for any reason that’s not covered, you may want to purchase the Cancel Anytime upgrade. Available as an add-on to OneTrip Prime and OneTrip Premier, Cancel Anytime can reimburse 80% of your unused, pre-paid, non-refundable trip costs if you cancel your trip for almost any unforeseeable reason your plan does not already cover. (Cancel Anytime is not offered in all states. Check your plan documents for full details.)

How do I prove illness for travel insurance?

In order to be eligible for reimbursement regarding losses caused by a covered illness, you’ll need to file a claim within 90 days of your loss.

We make it as simple as possible to file a claim: You can do it online or even on your phone, with the free Allyz® app. Submit all the requested documentation to prove your illness and show your losses, which may include a Physician Statement Form, statements and records from treating doctors, documentation of refunds received from travel suppliers, and more. Here’s a full list of Allianz Global Assistance’s required documentation by coverage reason.

If you need help filing a claim, we’re happy to assist you! Contact us anytime, online or by phone. And if you get sick while traveling, 24-hour assistance is always there to help.

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