Does trip insurance cover me if I get COVID-19 before or during the trip?

Many travel insurance policies offer medical coverage for Covid-19 related illnesses. Trip Interruption and Trip Delay benefits vary from policy to policy, company to company.

Each policy differs but for the two that Friendship Force offers, both the Friendship Force Travel Protection Plan and the Safe Travels Elite*, COVID-19 is covered and treated as any other illness. Please see the policy documents for the definition of illness to see how illnesses are handled according to the benefit schedule of the policy you have purchased.

If your trip is extended because of a required quarantine, Trip Delay benefits will likely be applied even though one might think that Trip Interruption benefits should be applied. After all, if you are required to stay in country due to necessary quarantine, your trip home is interrupted. However, the insurance company views this type of quarantine as a Trip Delay, unless there are pre-paid, non-refundable costs involved.

Trip Delay benefits are typically much lower than Trip Interruption or Trip Cancellation benefits so there is still quite a bit of risk you assume when you travel in this post-pandemic world. For example, the Trip Delay benefit is capped at $500 on the Friendship Force Travel Protection Plan. That means you will only be reimbursed for expenses related to your quarantine (hotel, meals, etc.) up to $500. There are additional “Quarantine Policies” you can purchase that offer higher benefit limits. The website: https://www.insuremytrip.com/ is a great resource for information and for price/benefit comparison.

Both of the policies that Friendship Force offers are available for Friendship Force travel or personal travel and are available for your friends and family to purchase as well.