Girls Appendectomy Shows Why Insurance Is Important

It's not everyday that a helicopter drops a basket on the back of a cruise ship, but for a teenage girl on vacation on the Dawn Princess, it saved her life. She was airlifted to the USS Ronald Regan where she had to have an appendectomy. If you have heard or read about this in the news, its a heart warming story but does not go into any detail about who pays for things like this. While I have no information on this case, its common for the family to get billed for the emergency evacuation along with the surgical bill. This is where trip insurance kicks in. Many people think that getting the extra insurance is only needed if they may have to cancel the trip or cut it short for some reason but many forget to think about medical emergencies and the prices they can carry when in a foreign country or in this case out to sea. The doctor's on board a cruise ship are not equipped to handle major situations, and even for the minor ones, even this has a price. Cruise lines contract with doctors and there is a fee for services rendered. I have to admit that even I don't get trip insurance every time, but when I read stories like this one, I start to think how stupid I am when I don't.