The policy wording booklet outlines your insurance coverage. It provides important contact information in the event of a claim. It also contains clauses that may exclude or limit your coverage. Please ensure that you download the wording booklet for the policy type that you have purchased. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your coverage, please contact your BCAA Insurance Agent. Home, condo and tenant policies Comprehensive wording booklet (save as PDF to your computer) Named perils wording booklet Residential strata comprehensive wording booklet Residential strata named perils wording booklet The policy wording booklet outlines your travel insurance coverage. Please read carefully and take a copy with you when travelling. It provides important contact information should you need to contact us during regular business hours to extend your policy while you are travelling, or 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the event of a claim. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your coverage, please contact your BCAA Insurance Agent
Policy Wording Book - Effective Jun 1, 2016 Onward - PDF file Policy Wording Book - Effective Jul 15, 2015 - May 31, 2016 - PDF file Advantage Auto wording booklet - Effective January 15, 2017 Onward - PDF file Advantage Auto wording bookletAlthough purchasing travel medical insurance is the best way to avoid the potential financial hardship of a medical emergency while out of the province or country, it's important to know that even the best policy has limitations. Don't find this out the hard way by taking some time when purchasing the policy to ensure you understand how your policy works. Here are a few of the items you should know about before you leave home. Review the eligibility criteria and ensure you meet these requirements prior to purchasing a policy. These requirements vary by provider and if you don't qualify you will not have coverage. For instance, if you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, you would not have coverage under most policies.
It's also important to ensure you answer all questions relating to your health as truthfully and accurately as possible. Failure to do so could lead to high deductibles or even voiding of your policy. If you are unsure how to answer don't be afraid to ask your physician to assist you. If you have a pre-existing condition, you may not be covered if you have a re-occurrence while on vacation. Coverage for this will vary by policy and in some instances you can protect yourself by purchasing additional coverage. You will want to pay special attention to the coverage limitations, conditions and exclusions. Every policy has them and they may limit or exclude coverage for things such as participating in sporting events or if you are intoxicated at the time of your injury or sickness. Most policies will only cover necessary and urgent treatments and certain benefits, such as dental services, may have a dollar limit or may require that treatment be done within a specific timeframe.
It's important to note that even if your claim is not covered you still have access to the other benefits of your travel insurance policy. For instance, a reputable travel insurance provider should help you find quality care and remain in regular contact with the hospital to ensure you are receiving adequate and necessary treatment and can help with arrangements to get you home to continue treatment. They will also provide you with translation services, among other benefits, if required. Familiarize yourself with your coverage before you leave. By following these few guidelines you can sit back, relax and enjoy your time away.High-risk holiday activities can end up being the furthest thing from a cheap thrill, especially when insurers dismiss a claim following a costly injury. The price of an adventure-related mishap abroad was underscored this week after a B.C. woman's skydiving accident in Arizona. During a jump over Arizona April 6, Kenzie Markey's parachute collapsed, sending her plummeting to the ground.
Kenzie Markey, 32, plummeted to the ground when her parachute collapsed. She suffered a collapsed lung, a broken femur, pelvis and eye socket, and brain swelling. Although she survived, Markey has racked up $500,000 in medical bills in a little more than two weeks. Her family was stunned to learn afterwards that her insurance claim had been dismissed as invalid because Markey was participating in an extreme sport. It's not an unusual circumstance, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, which represents most of the more than 60 health and life insurers in the country. But do insurers ever cover activities like skydiving or parasailing?some plans don't," said Wendy Hope, vice-president of external relations with the national organization. "If you are travelling and planning to engage in a high-risk activity, you should make sure you buy travel insurance, but you should also be asking some very, very specific questions to ensure the activity you plan on participating in is covered, because not all plans will cover them."
John Thain, president of the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada, said holiday surveys show that travellers are more prone to "risky behaviour" when on vacation abroad. What constitutes a hazardous or extreme sport isn't always so clear in insurance policies, however. That's why Thain advises Canadians seeking thrills in another country to scan their policy and look for an exclusion list that clearly defines whether an insurance carrier considers a particular activity to be dangerous. "Find a policy that's very specific," he said. "If it's a very general exclusion of ‘hazardous sports,' then what is a hazardous sport? To avoid those situations, you want to try and get clarity before you travel." Adventurous activities that might be excluded include parasailing or hang-gliding. If a traveller is unsure, the simplest thing to do is call an insurance provider's toll-free number to ask, Thain said. A 2013 survey by the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada, which represents about 80 travel insurers, brokers, underwriters, air ambulance companies and other organizations in the travel insurance field, found that 35 per cent of Canadians forego travel health insurance.
By Thain's estimate, less than five per cent of all travel insurance claims are denied. Licensed insurance brokers can also guide people towards higher-risk policies that would suit a more daring lifestyle, he said. Some companies have more restrictive exclusion lists than others. "They read something like: ‘We will not cover any motorized speed contest,'" said Bill Bailey, who specializes in sports risk with WL Edwards and Hudson Henderson insurance. "If you're planning on anything on the outside edge of normal like, say, mountain biking downhill, parasailing, skiing on extreme-risk, black-diamond-type hills, motorized sport speed contests, it is the responsibility of the person travelling to look at what is covered and what isn't." Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, shown in a 2009 file photo, died during a training run at a Utah event sponsored by an energy drink company. Even professional athletes need to know when their travel insurance is covered by their sanctioned athletics association, and when they're on their own.
Bailey pointed to the case of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke. The 29-year-old died two years ago after crashing on the superpipe at a Utah event sponsored by an energy drink company. Burke did not have her projected $200,000 in hospital bills covered by the Canadian Freestyle Skiing Association because the event she was participating in was not officially sanctioned. "You cannot get insurance for most pro athletes," Bailey explained. "They have to go through the sanctioned body, so if you're a PGA guy, you have to go through the Professional Golf Association." Vacationers who decide to engage in a high-risk activity would be wiser to study their travel insurance policies rather than to leave it up to chance, Bailey said. "Don't think that if you buy one [policy], you buy them all and they're all the same," he said. Sarah Burke's medical bills covered by donations He estimates that about 75 per cent of the travel medical insurance policies offered to Canadians would exclude skydiving or parachuting.