Insurance came through — fast

After 50 years of traveling, my wife, Alma, and I, both 82, had our first experience with the need for medical insurance on April 17, 2008.

In Majorca, just 48 hours into our 4-week stay at the Riu Playa Cala Millor on a package booked through Saga Holidays, Ltd. (Enbrook Park, Folkestone, Kent CT20 3SE, U.K.; phone 011-44-130377119, e-mail overseas@saga.co.uk or visit www.saga.co.uk), Alma suffered a severe fall in a restaurant.

That day, we were on one of the four tours included in the hotel package. Fellow guests helped us onto the tour bus, and on our return to the hotel, another Saga guest, a nurse traveling with a church group from England, insisted the bus divert to a hospital.

We were dropped off at Juaneda Hospital in Palma, capital of the Balearic Islands. A Saga rep stayed with Alma in the ER. X-rays identified a fracture in Alma’s left pubic bone. Bed rest was the only treatment. We returned to our hotel, an hour away from Palma in Cala Millor, where the staff gave us wonderful assistance.

We used a Saga-arranged doctor at the hotel, and the chief Saga rep followed Alma’s progress and provided help as needed — very caring and helpful people, as was the Riu hotel staff! It was our third year visiting the hotel, so we were well known. We were the only Americans on the Saga tour and in the hotel, as is usual.

Unfortunately, complications arose that required Alma to spend April 21-25 and then April 28-May 6 in the hospital. The care given her was grand. The hospital was modern and immaculate. Fluent English interpreters were available 24/7, so at no time were we at a loss to communicate.

We were flown home to the rehab facility in our retirement community in Quincy, Pennsylvania, on May 6, escorted by a Spanish-speaking nurse sent out of Toronto by our travel insurance carrier, AIG Travel Guard (Stevens Point, WI; 800/826-4919, www.travelguard.com).

Alma and the nurse traveled in business class on Iberia Airlines to Washington Dulles Airport and then traveled by ambulance 100 miles to Quincy.

We have booked fifteen 4-week resort stays with Saga Holidays since 1990 (Saga closed its Boston office after 9/11). This 4-week package, which cost £2,328 (near $4,656) for 28 nights, also included all food, drinks and entertainment.

Saga accepts foreign bookings (we booked via phone and e-mail) but requires that we provide our own travel insurance from the U.S. For our resort stay, April 15-May 13, we had purchased AIG Travel Guard insurance for $298 for both of us.

From the time I reported the accident to Travel Guard, we received a helpful call every day from them as they followed Alma’s recovery progress. They had Spanish-speaking nurses and doctors in the U.S. speak to their peers on the Juaneda staff.

We have Medicare and AARP secondary medical coverage. Travel Guard knew Medicare would not cover the accident abroad but contacted AARP through a conference call with me in Majorca to check if our AARP coverage would cover any medical expenses. To my surprise, AARP covered 80%.

That is when I realized that our travel insurance trip coverage of medical expenses applied only after normal coverage already in place had paid.

We paid most bills by credit card. These piled up, spanning two credit card statements. The tab overall exceeded $13,000. If not reimbursed promptly, we would be hit with high interest charges.

I was able to list our medical expenses and make copies of bills and receipts, then fax these claims to AARP first through the Juaneda Hospital and then at home through our local bank. I sent the first request for payment to AARP on April 26, following Alma’s first hospitalization, and the second on May 12. As AARP paid, I faxed their statements to Travel Guard.

Both AARP and Travel Guard processed our claims promptly enough so that we never paid a penny in interest. We received checks from AARP on May 17, May 26 and June 6. Travel Guard paid for all the rest — the balance of the medical expenses plus a refund of unused holiday expenses (including 15 of 28 hotel nights) — by a check received June 20. We are grateful.

BOB MITCHELL

Quincy, PA