GMS TravelStar Travel Insurance for Canadians

1What GMS TravelStar Is

GMS TravelStar is the travel insurance GMS sells to Canadians who leave their home province or territory. Its main part is Emergency Medical coverage, up to $5,000,000 CAD per insured person. You can add Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverage, or buy Single-Trip Trip Cancellation on its own.

TravelStar is not for visitors to Canada. Visiting parents, Super Visa applicants, new immigrants, foreign workers and students need a different GMS plan, called Immigrants and Visitors to Canada. For visitors, see our visitors to Canada insurance and Super Visa insurance pages.

Want to see GMS next to other insurers first? Compare travel insurance quotes from several Canadian insurers on one page.

2Who Can Buy It

To buy TravelStar you must:

• Be a Canadian resident covered by a valid provincial or territorial government health plan
• Be travelling outside your home province or territory
• Buy Trip Cancellation coverage before you leave
• Meet GMS’s medical eligibility rules (see section 6)
• For a Multi-Trip Annual plan, be under 80 when you apply

If you are 70 or older and need help from another person every day with personal care, such as washing, dressing, eating, moving from bed to chair, or using the toilet, you cannot buy TravelStar Emergency Medical or Trip Cancellation.

3Single-Trip and Multi-Trip Annual Plans

TravelStar Emergency Medical comes in two forms. Pick the one that fits how often you travel.

Summary only. The GMS policy wording sets the exact terms.

Deductible choices

You can choose a deductible of $0, $250, $1,000 or $5,000. The deductible applies per trip. GMS pays covered costs above the deductible shown on your confirmation.

Not sure which plan suits your travel? Our guide to annual versus single-trip travel insurance walks through the choice.

4GMS Travel Insurance for Seniors

TravelStar Single-Trip Emergency Medical has no upper age limit. GMS confirms this in three places: the policy wording, the eligibility card, and the brochure rate table, which runs to an open 80+ age band.

The Multi-Trip Annual plan is different. You cannot buy it if you are 80 or older when you apply. So once you reach 80, Single-Trip is the TravelStar plan for you, however often you travel. If you hold a Multi-Trip Annual plan and turn 80, plan to move to Single-Trip before the next policy year.

The medical questionnaire over age 60

If you are over 60, you answer a medical questionnaire. Your answers place you in one of five rate classes: Star, Select+, Select, Standard+ or Standard. Star is the lowest-rated class and Standard the highest.

Answer every question fully and correctly. GMS’s policy says an answer that is not accurate or complete can make the whole policy voidable, not just change your rate class.

For more on travel cover after 60, read our travel insurance for seniors guide.

5Pre-Existing Conditions and the 180-Day Rule

TravelStar uses one stability period for every age: 180 days. There is no shorter or longer period by age band. What changes is the date the 180 days are counted back from.

From the GMS TravelStar policy wording.

What stable means for GMS

A condition is stable only when all six of these are true during those 180 days:

• No new treatment was prescribed or recommended, and no treatment was changed or stopped
• No prescribed drug was started, stopped, or changed in dose, apart from the allowed changes below
• The condition did not get worse
• No new, more frequent or more severe symptoms
• No hospital stay and no referral to a specialist
• No tests, investigations or recommended treatment still incomplete or waiting for results

These drug changes do not break stability: a dose change for blood pressure or cholesterol pills; a switch between brand name and generic at the same dose; Coumadin or Warfarin adjusted to keep your INR in range, with no other change to the condition; and insulin, oral diabetes drug or GLP-1 (such as Ozempic) dose changes to manage blood sugar, with no other change to the condition.

GMS applies this test itself, whatever your doctor says. Our pre-existing conditions guide shows how other insurers handle the same question.

6Medical Conditions That Rule You Out

Even if a condition is stable, you cannot buy TravelStar Emergency Medical if any of these apply to you:

• You are waiting for tests or treatment for a heart condition
• You have an untreated vascular aneurysm, congestive heart failure, or an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD)
• In the last 12 months you were diagnosed with, or had new or changed treatment for, a heart transplant, atrial flutter, atrial or ventricular fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease, stroke or mini-stroke (TIA), or blood clots
• You take insulin for diabetes and also take heart medication (pills only for cholesterol or blood pressure do not count)
• You use home oxygen, or take oral steroids, for a lung condition
• You are being treated for cancer
• In the last 12 months you were diagnosed with, or had new or changed treatment for, liver failure, bleeding in the stomach or bowel, AIDS, or a terminal illness
• In the last 12 months you had heart valve surgery, kidney dialysis, or an organ, stem cell or bone marrow transplant
• You are 70 or older and need daily help with personal care

Breast and prostate cancer on hormone therapy

Cancer treatment is on the list, with one exception. Breast or prostate cancer treated only with hormone therapy does not stop you from buying TravelStar. GMS’s visitors plan does not have this exception, so the two plans are not the same on cancer.

7Call GMS Before Treatment

If you need medical care on your trip, call GMS Travel Assistance before you get treatment.

If you do not call first, GMS pays at most 70% of your medical costs, to a total of $50,000. If it was medically impossible to call before treatment, you must call within 24 hours of the treatment.

Heart procedures need GMS approval

TravelStar does not cover cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, heart or blood-vessel surgery, or putting in an ICD or pacemaker, including the tests that go with them, unless the procedure is needed in a medical emergency and GMS approved it first.

8Trip Cancellation and Trip Delay

TravelStar Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption can be bought with Emergency Medical. A Single-Trip Trip Cancellation plan can also be bought alone. A Multi-Trip Annual Trip Cancellation plan cannot: it comes only with a Multi-Trip Annual Emergency Medical plan.

You cannot buy TravelStar Trip Cancellation if:

• You are not a Canadian resident with a valid provincial or territorial health plan
• You have already left on your trip
• When you buy, the Government of Canada advises against non-essential travel, or all travel, to your destination (cruise ships included)
• Your trip costs more than $20,000 per person
• On a Single-Trip plan only: your trip costs $12,000 or more per person and you have one of the serious conditions in section 6

Travelling companions

The travelling companion cover on one GMS policy counts up to 4 people, you included. You can claim if a companion cannot travel, even when that companion is not insured with GMS. A group of 5 or more needs two policies for everyone to have this protection.

Trip Delay

Trip Delay benefit: $150 for each day of delay, with a maximum of $500. An optional Trip Delay Upgrade, for delays of 12 hours or longer, raises this to $500 a day, to a maximum of $1,500. It also adds up to $200 for event tickets you miss and covers transport to rejoin your trip.

Discounts

GMS takes 10% off when you buy Emergency Medical and Trip Cancellation and Interruption together, and another 5% when a spouse or dependant is on the same policy. Up to six children under 16 can be listed on a Single-Trip Emergency Medical plan at no extra charge. This does not apply to Multi-Trip Annual plans.

9Extensions, Top-Ups and Refunds

Extending a Single-Trip plan

You can buy an extension if you tell GMS before your policy ends and you have had no claim and no treatment on the trip so far. After a claim, you cannot buy an extension.

Coverage extends by itself for 72 hours if your return is delayed by a medical emergency confirmed in writing by a doctor, a delayed common carrier such as a plane, or a vehicle accident, breakdown or road closure ordered by police. If you need more time after a claim, you would need a new GMS policy. That means meeting all eligibility rules again, and pre-existing conditions may not be covered.

Topping up another policy

A top-up adds TravelStar days after another travel policy ends.

In both cases the top-up starts the day after the other policy ends, must cover all remaining days, and may not cover pre-existing conditions.

Coming home early

On a Single-Trip Emergency Medical plan you can get part of your money back for unused days if you come home early and no one on the policy has made a claim. Send written notice with proof within 30 days of your return. Once GMS issues a refund, you can no longer claim any medical emergency under that policy, whenever it happened.

10Claims and What Is Not Covered

The rules that most often cut a TravelStar claim are:

• Getting treatment without calling GMS Travel Assistance first: payment drops to 70%, to a total of $50,000
• A pre-existing condition that was not stable for the full 180 days
• A wrong or incomplete answer on the medical questionnaire, which can make the policy voidable
• A heart procedure that GMS did not approve first
• Any medical claim after you take a refund for coming home early

Read your policy documents for the full list of exclusions. Our guides to travel insurance exclusions and making a travel insurance claim explain these terms in more detail. If you need help with a GMS claim, contact EGE Insurance and an advisor will help you.

11Frequently Asked Questions