A travel claim often involves coordination among multiple coverages.
- Provincial health plan: pays first up to its (low) statutory limits. The travel medical policy is excess of provincial reimbursement.
- Employer group benefits: many employer plans include extended health and out-of-country emergency coverage. The travel policy may be excess of, or coordinate with, the group plan.
- Credit-card travel insurance: coverage included with premium credit cards. Limits, age caps, and eligibility periods vary widely; often duplicated by a stand-alone policy purchased through a broker.
- Home policy contents off-premises extension: covers personal effects (subject to special limits) anywhere in the world; partly duplicates baggage coverage.
- OPCF 27 on the auto policy: for rental vehicles in some scenarios; partly duplicates rental car coverage on travel packages.
The broker's role is to identify what the client already has before recommending stand-alone travel coverage. Coordination of benefits provisions determine the order of payment when multiple policies respond.
Common mistake: a client paying for travel medical they did not need because credit-card and employer coverage already provide adequate limits, and conversely, a client trusting that "the credit card covers everything" when the credit-card cap is well below their exposure.
⚠️ Trap: Credit-card travel insurance often has an age cap (commonly 65) or an eligibility-trip-duration cap (e.g., first 8 days only). A retired client travelling for 3 weeks may have no credit-card coverage at all from day 9 onward.
Recall: In what order do provincial health, employer group, and travel medical policies typically pay? Why should the broker review credit-card travel coverage before recommending stand-alone product?