Comparing Covid-19 Coverage of Travel Insurance

Many people in Hong Kong are still eager to plan trips to popular destinations like Japan, Korea, and Thailand. As COVID-19 cases around the world are still significant, 10Life has compiled a comparison of COVID-19 coverage across 15 travel insurance products in the market. The 10Life Travel Insurance COVID-19 Coverage Score puts a primary focus on medical expense coverage, as overseas medical expenses can post the highest risks to the customer due to the uncertainty in costs.

Although travel insurance would normally cover infectious disease related risks, many insurers had applied exclusions on COVID-19 related events after WHO declared it as a pandemic (hence a known risk). Recently due to demand many insurers have introduced selected COVID-19 coverage in travel insurance, including medical expenses, trip curtailment and trip cancellation.

Table 1: COVID-19 coverage and price (in HKD) comparison

Assuming a 7-day trip to Japan  

The 10Life Travel Insurance COVID-19 Coverage Score is made up of 5 components, including medical expense (60%), hospital cash (10%), trip cancellation (10%), trip curtailment (10%) and emergency assistance (10%) (note 1). Medical expense is a key risk due to the potential high costs in overseas medical expenses. For example in Japan, foreigners have to pay 200% of the actual hospital costs without local health insurance. Note that this score is for reference only, and readers should compare individual benefit items based on their personal needs.

The wide range in the COVID-19 coverage scores reflect significant differences across products in the market. Among the top coverage products, Allianz Travel Single Trip Gold has the highest value for money relatively low price. It is worth noting that to get the COVID-19 related cover, some insurers require the insured to be vaccinated. Prudential’s vaccine requirement also excludes any medical exemption.

Contracting COVID-19 remains one of the biggest risks of travel right now. Popular destinations such as Japan and Korea still have more than 10,000 newly confirmed cases every day. The risks of re-infection or serious illness still exist, and medical expenses should not be ignored. All products cover the cost of COVID-19 related medical expenses through reimbursement. As shown in Table 2, the coverage limit varies by insurer - Starr and FWD cover up to HK$500,000 only, while Allianz Travel Single Trip Travel Insurance covers up to HK$2,000,000.

In addition, most of the plans offer daily hospital cash benefit due to COVID-19, ranging from HK$200 to HK$1,000 per day. The most generous is FWD, offering a daily hospital cash of HK$1,000 with a total maximum of HK$14,000 (i.e. 14 days).

All products, except those issued by Hong Leong and Starr, cover emergency medical evacuation and repatriation. Medical evacuation and repatriation cover the transportation services and/or service costs if the insured needs to be evacuated to the nearest qualified medical facility (or to the insured’s home country when necessary). However, this benefit should be of less relevance for COVID-19 positive patients as currently they are not allowed board a flight to Hong Kong.

Except products by AIG, Starr and AIG, all others cover compassionate visit. Compassionate visit benefit covers part of the transportation and accommodation costs incurred for family visit if the insured is hospitalised. Usually, this benefit is only payable under upon doctor’s recommendation and/or when the insured’s hospital stay is expected to last for a certain number of days.

If the insured contracts COVID-19 during the trip and cannot continue the remaining planned trip, most insurers would indemnify non-refundable travel costs paid in advance, e.g., tickets to theme park, non-refundable hotel reservations and flights. Some products require the insured to return to Hong Kong to be eligible for the claim, while this condition may conflict with the latest government requirement to enter Hong Kong (i.e., holding a 24-hour negative COVID-19 test result).

10 products extend the trip curtailment coverage to the COVID-19 contraction of the insured’s travel companion or immediate family, with reimbursement limits up to HK$50,000.

If the insured contracts COVID-19 before the trip and has to cancel the trip within certain days before travel commencement, some insurers would indemnify non-refundable travel costs paid in advance, e.g., tickets to theme park, non-refundable hotel reservations and flights. Note that certain insurers require you to purchase the insurance policy within a specified period ahead of the travel start date for this coverage to take effect.

Over half of the products extend the COVID-19 cancellation coverage to the insured’s travel companion or immediate family, with reimbursement limits from HK$15,000 to HK$50,000.

Trip cancellation due to isolation order as a close contact is also covered by a number of products. Among them, BOC, AXA and MSIG offer up to the highest HK$50,000 reimbursement limit.

Some travel insurance products provide cash allowance on a daily basis if you are diagnosed with COVID-19 and need to be quarantined after arriving in Hong Kong. However, as current regulations do not allow COVID-19 positive persons to board a flight, the chance to receive this cash benefit may be slim, unless you are unfortunately infected during the flight journey.

While this article focuses on COVID-19 coverage of travel insurance, for information on the general coverage of travel insurance, e.g., loss of personal belongings and luggage delay, please refer to another article (Chinese only).

Note:
1. Emergency assistance includes medical evacuation or repatriation, compassionate visit, and return of minor children.
2. Assuming enrolled in the highest tier plan for travel to Asia.
3. The premium rates above are updated as of 27 Dec 2022 and exclude any insurance levy collected by the Insurance Authority.
4. The above information is updated as of 27 Dec 2022.