I've posted this question because I've never bought travel insurance and I'm interested in the consequences of editorial errors. To illustrate such an error, I've posted a specific example from a real company with a good reputation (a financial institution that sells but does not service the travel insurance).
From the financial institution's website
You will be provided with a complete Plan Document upon purchase of the plan. If you would like to review the Plan Document, please click below.
Download Plan Document
Selected text from the downloaded plan
Benefits are not payable for any loss due to, arising or resulting from:
- participating in bodily contact sports, skydiving or parachuting except parasailing, hang gliding, bungee cord jumping, extreme skiing, skiing outside marked trails or heli-skiing, spelunking or caving, or scuba diving if the depth exceeds 120 feet (40 meters) or if You are not certified to dive and a dive master is not present during the dive;
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This is how I interpret the text:
We do not pay benefits for any loss that is due to, arises from, or results from your participation in these sports: bodily contact sports, skydiving, or parachuting.
Except we do pay for parasailing, hang gliding, bungee cord jumping, extreme skiing, skiing outside marked trails or heli-skiing, spelunking or caving, or scuba diving if you do so at more than 120 feet or if you are not certified to dive and a dive master is not present.
Assumptions and Question
In the original text of the plan, I bolded the word "except" so that it would stand out to anyone reading this post. The word "except" is reading (to my eyes) as an exclusion to an exclusion, so the listed sports are ok as long as you do something extra risky. (Note: To catch the nuance, you might have to slowly read the original out loud or have someone read it to you.)
One could also assume that the purchased plan documentation will (a) supersede all other plans, and (b) will not have the same type of error.
But what if it (the purchased plan) does have the same error, and you engage in one of the "excluded except [for]" activities? For example, do purchased insurance plans tend to have clauses that give them an "out?"
Note: There may be no real answer to this question. In which case, I hope readers at least find some dark humor here. It's also possible that I've misread the text and need to be guided on how to read (interpret) it in a different way. If so, then American English is the standard.