My wife and I were traveling out of the country not on a cruise ship. However the circumstances are handled similarly. When we booked our air fare we were able to buy travel insurance through AIG. Best investment ever. My wife got sick and ended up in a foreign hospital for 4 days. We had $10k in medical coverage for whatever wasn’t covered by our health insurance, plus it covered all my meals and hotels while I waited for her to be able to travel. Once she could travel it paid for us to get back to the US. Keep in mind Medicare will not cover you out of the country. Your supplemental healthcare coverage is what you will use. ( make sure yours does) I had to pay out of pocket and fill out a LOT of forms to get reimbursed by the insurance company . It took many months to get it resolved but we got every dime back. Get travel insurance and make sure that it will also cover to transport someone if deceased. That’s really expensive!

Not cruise ship. We disembarked in Portugal after cruise. Public health system used. Took about 6 hours back and forth in overworked but efficient ER. Four prescriptions filled. No insurance used. Thirty dollars total for the four scripts. Good recovery, the doctor didnt speak English but plenty of staff did.

We use UHC safe trip insurance when we travel. We use the cruise line insurance for trip cancellation etc, then we get the medical portion through UHC. They are very reasonable & they have many options to choose from. Medical ait evacuation from a ship can run you 50,000 in some cases.

medical emergency
 

I had a medical emergency on the first day out on a Carnival cruise from Tampa. They called the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard sent a helicopter to pick me up and take me back to Tampa General hospital. It didn't cost me anything. I found out that it is a public service they provide.

Our cruise this February we were travelling on Royal Caribbean. I used my USA Passport Card for my ID and online check-in and at the ship.

The agent checking my papers told me that I needed to be careful because if you use a US Passport Card (not the "regular" booklet) that if I needed to leave the cruise due to medical difficulties that the passport card would cause an issue and that in the future I should use my regular passport for Caribbean Cruises.

She said there could be an issue with payment for medical services if I use my Passport Card to book cruise.

I have not heard of this before--just passing along caution from RCCL.

You might want to consider an annual travel insurance policy with a substantial emergency medical and medical evacuation policy limit. Ours is with Allianz. If you travel a few times per year it is more cost effective then buying Insurance for each trip.

very expensive to be lifted by helicopter from a cruise ship....and that's on you, out of pocket

That is what we use.

Irrational fear? I’ve been on multiple cruises where someone has been taken off for a medical emergency, and there’s been many times where someone has died on a cruise ship.

We had to use our travel insurance a few years ago when I fell getting off a train in Dover, England, on the way to board a cruise ship for a Baltic cruise. We waited an hour for an ambulance to deliver us to an emergency room in Ashford, where X-rays showed a fractured femur. I was readily admitted after the hospital verified coverage with the insurance company. I had purchased "primary" travel insurance, rather than "secondary". My understanding is that primary insurance pays without having to wait for a Medicare supplement policy to act.

I underwent surgery the next day, and then spent eight more days in the hospital recuperating. My husband found a bed and breakfast nearby. When it was time to make arrangements to go home, On Call International, the transport part of the policy, took over. They flew a registered nurse from Florida to the hospital, where she picked us up and escorted us on to British Airways for the flight to Orlando. The nurse was a wonderfully skilled "rescue" nurse who had been in the military. She got us home to The Villages and made sure we had the proper instructions and equipment before leaving.

The hospital bill came to $11,000 (I know, low by American pricing) and it took around two months to be reimbursed. I was in close contact with someone in the hospital's billing system who patiently waited for our policy to pay before demanding payment. So, when insurance settled, I paid the hospital with a credit card, and their rep was grateful that they got reimbursed fully. And we were so grateful to have the travel insurance.

Wife got sick halfway through a Viking river cruise. Since they have no doctor on board they radioed ahead to the closest hospital and arranged where the ship could dock and have an ambulance waiting. Long story short, 7 days in Rotterdam hospital who made direct contact with my travel insurance company. I never saw a hospital bill. They then purchased a ticket to fly us back to the US upon her release. The travel company was Allianz. A very large company - DON'T BUY FROM THEM!! I fought for over 6 months to get the trip interuption, excursions, etc. reimbursed.

This scenario is what I would expect/fear. Especially if I were the patient and my shy/timid/gullible/trusts everybody wife being confronted with all the unknowns (threats).

One would like to think there is some connectivity/follow through to assure the disabled get to where they are supposed to be....then home!

Always Make Sure Your Travel Insurance is a Primary Payer
 

I also use a third party company and make sure they are primary vs secondary payer and that pre existing medical issues are covered. I've found that most travel insurance is secondary, unless you purchase the most expensive option. I have one company I pretty much use all the time (Chubb). I buy their medium option. I just completed a 27 day cruise and the travel insurance was $800 for the two of us. The total price of the cruise with airfare was over $11K. A large part of the premium is to cover their cost of having to pay for the cruise if we had to cancel for medical or other covered reasons. When I have a cheap cruise, I often just buy the medical insurance option. It's not usually worth it to pay the extra to cover the canceled cruise price. Medical insurance is very inexpensive by itself. On an 8 day cruise, it was about $45 for me and $25 for the wife.

Cruise Insurance
 

We buy GeoBlue when we travel outside of the country. You can get a 1 trip policy or multi trip policy.

My neighbor died while on a cruise . They were off the coast of Ireland. Her body was taken to a morgue where an autopsy was performed.
Her bereaved husband checked into a motel and made arrangements to have her body returned to the states. The authorities made him stay in the country for two weeks, until all of the results of the autopsy were in. At that time he flew home, with her body.
It seems it’s not uncommon for disgruntled husbands to “off” their spouse on a cruise ship.
So some countries won’t release the body or the spouse, until all questions are answered.
When you get past the emotional shock of such a tragedy, I’m sure there were big financial repercussions as well