COVID-related travel insurance not guaranteed for trips abroad: specialist

A travel insurance specialist says people planning to travel out of the country amid COVID Omicron advisories should check with their insurer in case their policies are now void.

A travel insurance specialist is warning travellers to take extra precautions if they’re planning a trip abroad, as the Omicron COVID-19 variant continues to surge around the world.

Canada’s new foreign travel advisory is causing “incredible issues” and “nightmare” scenarios for travellers, pushing some insurers to bring back a top-up pandemic plan rider for travellers who want to be covered for COVID-related expenses, Travel Secure president Martin Firestone told 680 CJOB on Thursday.

Firestone says his company’s been swamped with calls from concerned clients wondering whether their contracts still hold.

Anyone already on their trip should be covered if they obtained insurance, he said, but those yet to travel out of the country should check with their insurer to make sure their policies aren’t voided.

“Some insurers, I will warn you right now, have suggested that if you’re purchasing a policy after the advisory’s been put in place, which is Dec. 15, that you will not be covered for COVID and you need to either purchase a rider, a pandemic plan rider, or nothing is available period,” Firestone said.

“You have to be careful here because the last thing you want to do is go away, get COVID and then call your government and say, ‘Please help me. I need help.’ And then you know what they’re going to tell you, because they told you not to go.”

“Be very careful.”

People leaving the country should also watch for cancellation policies, Firestone said.