Why is Travel Insurance Costlier For Senior Citizens?

In the second innings of life, everyone wishes to fulfil all the dreams that were hitherto postponed due to various obligations. In the pursuit of fulfilling the family goals and securing the future of their children, most parents often forget to accomplish their personal goals. One such long-cherished dream of many parents is to travel alone after retirement. While there are so many medical and financial risks associated with elderly age, there is an ideal travel partner that can cover all such risks— travel insurance for senior citizens.

When it comes to providing comprehensive coverage to the senior citizens, there are certain key aspects that impact the cost of coverage. This article will dive into those crucial aspects to give you a better understanding of the reason behind higher cost of travel insurance for senior citizens.

Why is Travel Insurance Essential for the Senior Citizens?

One of the most important reasons why senior citizens need travel insurance is their vulnerability to various risks while travelling afar. 

• Though, the elderly readers should get demoralised by reading this, it is a well-known fact that the ability to cope with unanticipated situations or potential threats generally decreases at an older age. 
• Despite availability of unfaltering services and comfortable airlines, senior citizens need to take an extra precautionary measure by getting the most reliable travel insurance plans to cover all types of unforeseen threats.
• Moreover, medical expenses tend to increase exponentially with age. Due to the absence of a concrete source of income, the senior citizens urgently need ample coverage for the unforeseen health risks that may arise during their journey abroad.

Key Issues Faced by Senior Citizens While Travelling

Here are the four key issues senior citizens generally face while travelling:

Age-related Vulnerability to Health Issues

Travelling in old age can be as tough as running the gauntlet, where health and financial risks can surround and hit a person from all sides. People in their 60s are vulnerable to all sorts of medical emergencies. As the age matures, there are high chances of weakening of the five senses, particularly the eyesight, audibility, and ability to taste and smell. Adding to it, the stiffening muscles and decreasing bone density can further deteriorate the physical health of a person. 

Lack of Social Excellence

Due to weakening of eyesight and hearing ability, common aspects of social interaction such as understanding a foreign language or unfamiliar customs can become a great challenge for the elderly people. This can make them susceptible to societal risks such as misinformation or even phishing. This is why the elderly folks need adult companionship during a distant journey to maintain social equilibrium. Moreover, physical exertion itself can cause mental stress to the old travellers. All these difficulties make travel insurance necessary for the senior citizens.

Susceptibility to Financial Risks

Emotional stress related to the journey can cause even young people to forget many things. For elderly people who face memory related issues or a serious condition such as Alzheimer's, lack of focus and memory can lead to great financial risks. Situations like loss of baggage and travel documents such as passports can cause great awkwardness. The travel insurers are well aware of the different degrees of financial risks. A best travel insurance plan for senior citizens can be of great help, as it can cover the elderly people for their medical costs as well anything that may amount to a risk, such as loss of travel baggage, medical evacuation or cost of issuance of a duplicate passport.

Exorbitant Medical Expenses

In case of a medical emergency during the journey or stay abroad, such as a critical illness or an accident, only the most trustworthy travel insurance plans offer coverage for it. If you require medical evacuation to the nearest hospital or need to be evacuated back to India, only the best travel insurance policy can cover the cost of emergency medical evacuation.

What Makes Travel Insurance for Senior Citizens Expensive?

While comprehensive travel insurance offers all-inclusive coverage of medical costs as well as financial risks involved in a journey, it also engulfs a huge chunk of your savings in the form of premium. 

Let us try to know why the travel insurance premiums are generally higher for the senior citizen:

Pre-existing Illnesses

Generally, the premiums for travel insurance policies for the senior citizens are way more than the standard travel insurance plans due to their abject vulnerability to various illnesses, such as heart stroke, hypertension, and a bout of suffocation due to asthma. All the reliable insurance companies offer optional coverage for such pre-existing diseases, including life-threatening conditions such as cancer, asthma, and diabetes for a higher premium. This is because the risk of raising a claim by a travelling senior citizen policyholder is higher than an average citizen. 

Longer Duration Stay

Usually, senior citizens plan their trip abroad for a longer duration as compared to the average citizen. They generally visit a foreign country to visit their children who are already staying and working there. In such situations, the international travel insurance plans play a vital role as they cover the elderly parents for an additional period of stay. Depending upon their requirement, these plans can be further extended to an additional 180 days. This gives them a complete year in case they need to be a part of their children’s life milestones like marriage.

Higher Risk Involved

There is always a high degree of financial risk involved at an older age. Due to their decreased physical and mental capabilities and weaker eyesight, senior citizens travelling are more vulnerable to potential risks to life and money. Moreover, there is a high probability of claims due to possible health issues, which is why a lot of the insurance companies offer travel health insurance to senior citizens against a high premium. Moreover, in case of loss of passport and/or other travel documents, the Travel Insurance Provider in India must provide you consular access to the Consulate or Embassy of the country of your destination.

Incidence of Sub-limits in a Plan

Mostly, the insurance providers offer comprehensive travel insurance plans that come with a break-up of the sum insured for different types of coverages. For instance, a travel insurance plan can provide a specific coverage for the hospitalisation bills, but it might put a cap on the SI for coverage of a specific medical treatment. Hence, it is always suggested that the senior citizens should carefully look out for the amount of sum insured in a travel insurance plan for which the coverage  is available. 

Pre-existing disease

Due to the increased likelihood of getting diagnosed, most insurance providers provide coverage of a pre-existing disease or PED against a higher premium. Hence, it is important to look for the amount of premium charged for the pre-existing illnesses.

Mandatory Medical Check-up

Mostly, the reliable Insurance companies make it compulsory for the senior citizens to undergo a certain medical examination before buying travel insurance for international trips. This is due to the vulnerability of the senior citizens towards certain illnesses. These medical tests add up to the cost of coverage.

How to lower the premium for travel insurance?

The important rule is that the premium for the travel insurance is bound to increase once you hit 60. So, here are some effective ways to reduce your travel insurance premium after you have attained the age of 60:

No sub-limit: In case you are already diagnosed with a chronic illness such as diabetes, you must look out for a travel insurance plan that has no sub-limits. This will effectively channelize your premium on a better plan with higher coverage.

Buy Online Travel Insurance: If you really want to save money while buying travel insurance, you must only prefer to buy it online. You can easily prevent a huge chunk of your savings from going in vain by way of intermediary commissions and hidden costs that an agent will obviously charge you.

Always go with a Best Quote: While choosing the best online travel insurance plan, you must effectively browse different travel insurance plans as per your medical conditions and age, and compare the prices of various plans. This way you can avoid exceeding your budget. 

Get Multi-Trip Insurance: If you are a frequent traveller, buying separate travel insurance plans for every trip can be really expensive and time-consuming. Best way to reduce your premium is to opt for the annual multi-trip travel insurance plan for all your trips you will be going during the year. This way you can also save a lot of money in the form of taxes.

Use Travel Insurance Premium Calculator: The best way of planning any type of budget is to calculate total expenses. While buying an online travel insurance plan, you can easily keep track of the total cost of insurance by calculating your premium using the Travel Insurance Premium calculator. You can easily get the precise amount of the insurance premium by entering your correct details and your medical requirement in the Travel Insurance Premium calculator.

Disclaimer: All plan features, benefits, coverage, and claims underwriting are subject to policy terms and conditions. Kindly refer to the brochure, sales prospectus, and policy documents carefully.