Last year, Liesel Dreisbach-Williams and her husband, Roger, planned an epic adventure from Vancouver to Toronto by train. But when Roger’s health took a turn for the worse, the adventure turned into an epic misadventure — an endless series of emails with MSH, their travel insurance company.
The problem: MSH wouldn’t give them a straight answer about their travel insurance claim. For nine months.
If you’re a regular reader of this feature, you probably already suspect the reason for the delay. (If not, it will soon become clear.)
“It would be nice if they paid our claim,” says Dreisbach-Williams. “But at this point, I just want an answer: Is my claim accepted or denied?”
And there are more questions. Does travel insurance cover you when you get sick before your trip? What should you do when a claim seems to be stuck in endless review?
And how can you get a travel insurance company to respond quickly to a claim?
Let’s find out.
“I still have not heard about our claim”
Before we get into the details of this case, a word about the train journey from Vancouver to Toronto. It’s an 11-day trek through some of the world’s most beautiful scenery. The majestic Canadian Rockies. The rolling grassland of Alberta. The wheat fields of Manitoba. The Canadian cities along the way are incredible and unforgettable. I have driven part of the way and taken the train part of the way. Dreisbach-Williams made a terrific choice.
The couple booked their train tour with Fresh Tracks Canada at the end of 2023. The tour was nonrefundable.
But by January 2024, Roger began experiencing “cognitive issues.” After some tests, he received a devastating diagnosis: He had dementia.
Dreisbach-Williams canceled the train trip a few weeks later and filed a claim with MSH travel insurance for $21,090, the full prepaid cost of the tour, including airfare. (Related: What’s the worst thing you’ve done on vacation?)
Then she waited. And waited.
Four months later, having heard nothing about her claim, she contacted MSH. A representative said they had sent an email requesting additional medical information. She couldn’t find the email, but MSH sent her the message again, and she complied with the instructions.
Another four months passed — and still nothing.
Dreisbach-Williams emailed MSH again. This time, a representative promised a response “in a couple of days.”
After that — you guessed it — more radio silence.
“I still have not heard about our claim,” she says.
Does travel insurance cover you when you get sick before your trip?
Have you spotted the problem yet?
Travel insurance will cover you if you get sick before your trip. But it will not cover a pre-existing medical condition.
If you buy travel insurance at the same time you pay for your tour, you can sometimes get an insurance company to cover a pre-existing condition with a waiver. But for reasons I’ll mention in just a minute, it looks like Dreisbach-Williams’ insurance did not cover this cancellation.
Why won’t travel insurance cover an existing condition? It’s the same reason you can’t buy renter’s insurance if a hurricane is headed your way: The odds of you filing a claim are much higher.
So Dreisbach-Williams’ policy would have covered them if they’d discovered Roger’s dementia after they made their booking. But it appears that something in the medical records led his insurance company to believe the dementia might have been a pre-existing condition.
Dreisbach-Williams shared Roger’s medical records with us, and while we won’t talk about his condition in detail to protect his privacy, let’s just say his insurance company had a reason to push the “pause” button on this claim. Roger, 75, had Parkinson’s and occasional tremors, and was showing signs of slowing down before they booked the train tour.
The takeaway for anyone reading this is simple: If you get insurance, make sure you choose a policy that offers a pre-existing condition waiver, which is usually available if you initiate insurance soon after you book your trip.
Still, why was MSH taking months to answer her?
What should you do when a claim seems to be stuck in endless review?
We already know that MSH sent Dreisbach-Williams a request for more information, which she never received. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say the message went to her spam folder. To avoid that, always whitelist emails from your insurance company.
But that still doesn’t explain the other four-month delay. What’s with that? I asked MSH.
“We understand the frustration that the client is experiencing,” a representative told me. ” However, we are awaiting final review of the case from our reinsurer.” (Here’s our guide to finding the best travel insurance.)
A reinsurer is an insurance company that assumes some of the risk from another insurance company. It appears Dreisbach-Williams’ case was challenging even for her insurance company, so it had to get a second opinion.
This can happen when there’s a gray area that the policy doesn’t specifically address. For example, Roger’s medical report may have suggested that he was experiencing symptoms of dementia before filing his claim without getting an actual diagnosis. There might be some wiggle room in the policy for filing a successful claim. A brief, polite email to one of the MSH executives we publish on this site might have helped.
Another way to light a fire under an insurance company is to send an email to your state or provincial insurance commissioner. Fortunately, that would not be necessary in this case.
How long does a travel insurance claim take?
Most travel insurance claims are processed within 30 days, but complex cases — like those involving pre-existing conditions or reinsurer reviews — can take months. Always follow up after 30 days of silence. In this case, MSH took nine months to resolve the claim due to unclear policy terms and reinsurer delays.
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How can you get a travel insurance company to respond quickly to a claim?
Travel insurance companies process virtually all claims quickly. Smaller claims (usually less than $100) might get processed instantly. Anything less than $10,000 will take less than a month. But larger, more complicated claims could take many weeks or months.
The best way to guarantee you get a timely decision from your travel insurance company is to send all the requested paperwork as soon as you can. And, although you can send required documents individually, my own experience is that you’re better off sending everything at once. (The reason: Some travel insurance companies have problems connecting documents on the same claim when sent separately.)
Looking back, Dreisbach-Williams should not have waited four months to contact her travel insurance company. If she hadn’t heard back within 30 days, then something was definitely wrong.
Unfortunately, your travel insurance company is unlikely to hold itself to any deadline, so you should set a reminder in your calendar to check on the status of your claim. Fortunately, you can also call my advocacy team for help, which is just what Dreisbach-Williams did.
“Not eligible” for coverage?
I contacted MSH on Roger’s behalf and my team and I worked with Dreisbach-Williams for several weeks to try to get an answer on her claim. Based on the paperwork she’d shown us, it was unlikely she could file a successful claim, but we thought she deserved an answer.
A representative reviewed her request and told us that it appeared Dreisbach-Williams “was not eligible for coverage at the time of sale.”
That probably meant that based on the medical records, Roger was not cleared to travel by his doctor. In other words, he was showing signs of some physical problem which had not yet been diagnosed.
And then, nine months after Dreisbach-Williams filed her claim, MSH finally got back to her with an answer.
“They did not allow the claim for my husband due to some lack of clarity,” she said. But they decided to process my claim as a gesture of goodwill. Thank you for trying to shake this claim loose.”
I think it’s great that MSH could honor Dreisbach-Williams’ claim. Ultimately, our advocacy team only wanted an answer for her. Nine months is way too long to wait for a travel insurance claim.
Loading ...✋ Your turn
Have you ever had to fight tooth and nail just to get your travel insurance company to respond, let alone pay up? Share your battle (or your win) in the comments below.
FAQ’s
Yes—unless the illness is considered a pre-existing condition not covered by the policy.
Anything documented (or symptomatic) before the policy is purchased, including undiagnosed issues that appear in medical records.
Buy your travel insurance within 14 to 21 days of your first trip deposit and request the waiver when booking.
Complex claims may be sent to reinsurers for secondary review. But long silences often result from internal backlog, incomplete paperwork, or poor communication.
Don’t wait. After 30 days, escalate:
-Follow up with the insurer
-Email a company executive
-Contact a state or provincial insurance commissioner
Yes. As shown in this case, insurers may still pay as a goodwill gesture — especially with public pressure or advocacy.
Pro tip: If you’re buying travel insurance and someone in your party has any medical history, don’t skip the pre-existing condition waiver. It could be the difference between getting reimbursed—or not—even if you cancel for legitimate health reasons.
