When I started posting the 2024 Koningsdam Eclipse and Repositioning Cruise blog I got several questions from people asking how we finally ended up with our insurance claims from the 2023 Grand World Cruise.  I also got questions about my health.  I am doing well.  Here is my answer to questions about insurance.

It has been a year since we were evacuated from Zuiderdam.  Our insurance ordeal is finally settled.  To learn about our travail please look at earlier posts for the 2023 Grand World Cruise.  They will put this into context.

It took almost 10 months for Medicare to deny our health claim for care on both the Zuiderdam and in Mauritius, a necessary step to apply for Medicare Part F and for the HAL PPP plan coverage.

When Medicae finally rejected our bill entirely, as we knew they would, we submitted the medical bills to our Medicare Part F through Premera Blue Cross.  We had thought we would only be covered for expense during the first 60 days of our trip.  Part F covers 80% of expenses in the first day out of the country, up to a $50K lifetime draw.  There is a a $250 deductible for each occurrence.

To our surprise, since the illness started on day 57 (considering the dateline) Premera Blue Cross decided to cover the whole thing!  So they paid much more than I expected and the HAL PPP plan, which is limited to $10K comfortably covered the entire co pay and the deductible. 

It took a little over a year, but we were made whole.

If we had been in a more expensive place for health care, or even had another day or two on the ship that may not have been the case.  For further travel we are adding Geo Blue (A blue cross travel plan) on top of our HAL PPP and hope we never need it again.

For now we are in the middle of  sea days between Mazatlan and the Kona Coast of the big island of Hawaii and will begin taking longer cruises when our current jobs at Raven Radio end in September.