Cap Schengen review: €30,000 hospital coverage, and the only plan that still insures an 85-year-old

Cap Schengen is a Schengen visa insurance plan sold by the French broker Chapka. It pays emergency hospital treatment anywhere in the Schengen Area up to €30,000 per person per year, adds repatriation at actual cost, and issues the certificate consulates ask for. HelloSafe scores it 3.4 out of 5. Updated September 2026.

That €30,000 figure is the number that matters for a visa file, because it is exactly the minimum the Schengen visa code sets. Cap Schengen meets it. So do the six other Schengen plans on our shelf, and four of them cost less. For a 34 year old spending 14 days in France, we priced this plan at €46 on 11 September 2026 against €19 for the cheapest compliant alternative.

So the honest question is not whether the plan clears the consulate, it is what the extra money buys. Our read of the full policy wording (contract CGE23_080-16CJ_2312_FAV1, general conditions dated 22 December 2023, plus the product information document) found one answer that stands up: age. Cap Schengen quoted travelers up to 85 in our tests, while every rival on the shelf stopped at 75, 69 or 59. From age 76 it was the only plan our comparator could price at all.

The rest of the file is thinner than the price suggests. There is no trip cancellation, no baggage guarantee, no personal liability, and the medical guarantee only opens when the stay in hospital passes 24 consecutive hours. Those are not hidden traps, they are written plainly in the table of benefits, but a first time applicant rarely reads that far. This review reads it for you, figure by figure, and says where the contract contradicts itself.

It pays emergency hospital treatment, and almost nothing else. The general conditions define a medical emergency as a stay of more than twenty-four consecutive hours in a public or private hospital, for treatment that is not scheduled and cannot be postponed. A walk-in clinic visit, a prescription picked up at a pharmacy in Lisbon or a scan booked for next week falls outside that definition.

That single definition shapes the whole plan. What is reimbursed inside it: hospital medical expenses, medicines prescribed by the hospital doctor or surgeon, an ambulance to the nearest hospital when your own health scheme refuses to pay for it, the cost of staying in hospital for as long as the assistance doctors judge you unfit to travel, and emergency dental treatment up to €150.

Three limits then apply to every euro of that. Reimbursement is calculated on French social security tariffs, which the contract says apply across the Schengen Area whatever the local price of care. The guarantee pays second, after any health scheme you already belong to, and only at the first euro if you belong to none. And €80 per person per procedure stays with you as an excess, so a €400 emergency admission returns €320 at best.

What is missing is as telling as what is there. Read the same table for the things a traveler assumes are standard and the column is empty.

• ✕
  Trip cancellation: If you fall ill the week before departure, this plan returns nothing on your flights or hotel. It is a medical and assistance contract only.
• ✕
  Baggage and personal belongings: A suitcase lost by the airline is not a claim under this policy at any price.
• ✕
  Personal liability: If you break something or injure someone in Europe, you are on your own. Two rival Schengen plans include liability coverage of €50,000 and €3.5 million.
• ✕
  Non-hospital medical care: A GP appointment, an outpatient scan or a pharmacy bill after a short consultation sits outside the 24-hour hospitalization definition.
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  Care your own doctor could have handled at home: The assistance doctors can decide that treatment can wait until you return, and the guarantee then stops.
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  Pregnancy, childbirth and fertility treatment: Excluded outright, along with any pregnancy within one month of term for repatriation purposes.

This is where the extra premium is actually justified. We ran the same 14-day trip through the HelloSafe funnel at every age from 5 to 90 on 11 September 2026. Cap Schengen returned a price up to and including age 85, and nothing at 86. From age 76 upward it was the only Schengen plan on the shelf that returned a price at all.

A grandparent flying in for a grandchild's wedding is the classic case. At 78 the plan costs €48 for two weeks, two euros more than a thirty-year-old pays, which is remarkable pricing for that age band. At 81 the premium doubles to €96 and stays there to 85.

One caveat has to be stated plainly, because it comes from the contract rather than from us. The general conditions define an insured person as someone who meets the age limit set, and then never state a figure, in either the French or the English version. So the ceiling of 85 is the one our funnel applies, not one we can point to in the binding wording. Before insuring a traveler in their eighties, ask Chapka to confirm the age limit in writing and keep the reply with the policy documents.

Not always, and this is the finding that surprised us most. Article III of the general conditions restricts coverage to the countries and territories of the Schengen Area as defined in the policy, and Article VIII then excludes insured persons traveling outside that defined area. So the list in the definitions is not decoration, it is the map of where you are insured.

The French version of that list names 26 states. The English version of the same contract, the one an English-speaking applicant will download, names 25: Spain is missing from it. Neither version names Croatia, which joined the Schengen Area in January 2023, nor Bulgaria and Romania, which became full members in January 2025. The contract does say that a new member state is added when the information notice is updated, and this notice has not been updated since 22 December 2023.

The gap is a documentation lag rather than a deliberate restriction, but the wording is what a claims department reads. So treat it as a practical rule: if your visa is for a trip that begins or spends time in Croatia, Bulgaria or Romania, choose a plan whose wording names your destination, or get written confirmation from the insurer first. If you are heading to Spain, the coverage is there in the French wording, but download the French general conditions alongside the English ones so your file carries a document that names the country. Our Schengen visa document checklist explains what a consulate expects to see in that file.

Cap Schengen works from a closed list. The general conditions state that where a leisure or sports activity is not on the list, the insurer provides no coverage at all. That is stricter than most travel policies, which exclude a named set of dangerous sports and cover the rest by default. Here, anything unlisted is out unless you call and get agreement first.

The good news for a winter visa trip is that skiing is on the list, which contradicts what our own comparison sheet says about this plan. Piste skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, monoskiing on piste, snowshoeing and recreational sledding are all named. What is absent is a ski guarantee in the usual sense: there is no mountain search and rescue line, no piste rescue allowance and no equipment or ski pass coverage, so an accident on the slope is treated as an ordinary emergency hospitalization under the €30,000 ceiling.

• ✓
  Named and covered without conditions: Piste skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, hiking, running, swimming, cycling and mountain biking excluding downhill, tennis, golf, football, paddle, padel, ice skating, snowshoeing, bowling, table tennis and around fifty more.
• ✓
  Named but only with a qualified professional: Scuba diving to 20 meters, kitesurfing, water skiing, horse trekking, archery, via ferrata, parascending, sandboarding, deep sea fishing, paintball with eye protection, ballooning and gliding as a passenger only.
• ✓
  Snorkeling: Diving with mask and snorkel is covered outright, which matters for a Mediterranean or Greek island trip.

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  Anything not on the list: Including scuba below 20 meters, downhill mountain biking and off-piste skiing. The contract's wording is that all other activities are excluded from this policy.
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  Competition of any kind: Races, matches, rallies, bets and the training sessions that prepare for them, even at amateur level.
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  Any sport practiced professionally: A flat exclusion, with no exception.
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  Motorized leisure activities: Quad, jet ski, scooter excursion or microlight: hospital costs from an accident during one are capped at €1,000 per person per year instead of €30,000, and anything above that is excluded.
• ✕
  Activities where you signed a liability waiver: Signing the organizer's discharge form cancels the guarantee, as does an organizer without sufficient insurance of their own.

The first one. Article IX of the general conditions is unambiguous: only a telephone call from the insured at the time of the event triggers the assistance benefits, and expenses incurred without prior agreement are not reimbursed. This is the single clause that costs travelers the most money on plans of this kind, because paying a hospital first and claiming later is the natural instinct.

1. Call the 24/7 assistance line on 00 33 5 18 27 01 33 before you spend anything, or have the hospital or a companion call for you.
2. Do it within 48 hours of the event. Past that window the contract says the team can advise and direct you, but can no longer take on the claim.
3. Write down the assistance file number you are given on that first call, and quote it every time you make contact afterwards.
4. Send the medical information the assistance doctors ask for within 12 hours of the request. Missing that deadline is itself listed as an exclusion.
5. Keep every original invoice. Reimbursement is made only against originals, sent to the claims department in La Rochelle.

The advance of hospital costs is the feature worth understanding properly, because it is the difference between producing a credit card at admission and producing a phone number. The insurer pays the hospital directly, but only when the assistance doctors have established that immediate repatriation is impossible, when the treatment is agreed with them, and when you or someone acting for you lodges a financial guarantee equal to the advance.

Two further conditions sit behind it. You must claim the cost from your own health insurer within 15 days of receiving the paperwork, and hand back anything they pay within one week. Miss either deadline and the whole advance stays yours to repay. And Article X states that the advance is only available if you hold a health policy at all: the contract says plainly that where an event is not covered by your health insurer, the assistance services cannot be provided.

All of it except €75. If your visa application is refused, the premium is refunded within 30 days of receiving your letter, minus fees and penalties of €75 that the contract retains. On a €46 policy for two weeks that arithmetic is worth reading twice: the retained amount is larger than the premium, so there is nothing to recover.

The refund is a genuine benefit on longer or older-traveler policies, where the premium is €96 or more, and a formality on a short young-traveler one. Three conditions apply in every case, and all three are strict.

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  The request must arrive before the start date on your certificate: The date the registered letter is sent is what counts, so a refusal received close to departure leaves very little room.
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  You must provide the original official refusal letter: A copy or a screenshot of the consulate's decision is not accepted, and the letter must cover the insured period.
• ✕
  The request goes to the broker, not the insurer: By email to Chapka, or by registered letter to Aon France, 31-35 rue de la Fédération, 75015 Paris.

Worth knowing before you apply: a refusal is not always final, and the reason given on the form decides whether an appeal is realistic. Our guide to Schengen visa refusal reasons sets out which grounds are commonly overturned.

For a 14-day stay in France with residence in India, we captured €46 at age 34, €48 at 78 and €96 at 85 on 11 September 2026. Length moves the price less than you would expect: the same traveler pays €32 for a week, €46 for two weeks, €82 for a month and €96 for the full 90 days the plan allows. Doubling the trip from 30 to 90 days adds only €14.

Age moves it in three steps rather than smoothly. The premium is flat to 63, rises to €48 from 64 to 80, and doubles to €96 from 81 to 85. Children are charged as adults, with no family discount at all, which is why the four-person family below costs four times the solo price.

Read the two bars together and the plan's position is clear. Below 76 there is always a cheaper policy with the same €30,000 hospital ceiling, and the gap widens with the size of the party. From 76 upward the second bar is the only bar. If you want to see how the cheapest of those alternatives reads clause by clause, our Go Schengen review covers the same ground for the entry-level plan.

Three separate companies sit behind Cap Schengen, and the contract is precise about which does what. The risk carrier is Ressources Mutuelles Assistance, an assistance union governed by the French Mutual Code, registered under SIREN 444 269 682 at 46 rue du Moulin, 44121 Vertou. That is the entity the general conditions name as the insurer, and the one named in the product information document.

Worth noting if you compare our data with the contract: the plan is often listed under VYV International Assistance, including in our own catalog. VYV manages the file and answers the phone, but the general conditions say the services are provided by Ressources Mutuelles Assistance and implemented by VYV. On a claim, that distinction decides who you are actually contracting with.

In practice you will deal with one number and one address. The assistance line is 00 33 5 18 27 01 33, reachable 24 hours a day, and the claims email is ops@vyv-ia.com. Complaints go first to the mediation department in La Rochelle, then to the Médiateur de la Mutualité Française. The contract is governed by French law and the language of the contractual relationship is French, which is why the English wording occasionally drifts from the French one.

• Does Cap Schengen meet the Schengen visa insurance requirement?

  Yes. The plan pays emergency hospital expenses up to €30,000 per person per year and includes repatriation at actual cost, which satisfies the €30,000 minimum medical coverage and the repatriation requirement set by the visa code. The certificate is issued as soon as you subscribe and can be attached directly to your application file.

• Is the certificate accepted by every consulate?

  The certificate names the insurer, the insured period, the €30,000 ceiling and the Schengen Area scope, which is what consular officers check. Bear in mind that the policy’s own country list does not name Croatia, Bulgaria or Romania, and that the English version omits Spain, so if your main destination is one of those four, file the French version of the general conditions alongside the certificate.

• What is the €80 excess and when does it apply?

  It is your share of each medical claim: €80 per person and per procedure, deducted from every reimbursement of emergency hospital expenses and emergency dental treatment. It applies per procedure, not per trip, so two separate hospital procedures mean two deductions of €80.

• Does the plan cover a doctor's appointment or medicine bought in a pharmacy?

  No. The medical guarantee is built around hospitalization of more than 24 consecutive hours for unscheduled treatment. Medicines are reimbursed when a hospital doctor or surgeon prescribes them during that stay. An ordinary consultation, an outpatient examination or a pharmacy purchase outside a hospital admission is not covered.

• Can I buy Cap Schengen if I am over 80?

  Yes, up to 85. In our tests on 11 September 2026 the funnel quoted every age to 85 and refused 86, and from 76 upward no other Schengen plan on our shelf returned a price. Note that the general conditions refer to an age limit without ever stating a figure, so ask Chapka to confirm the ceiling in writing for a traveler in their eighties.

• Is skiing covered?

  Yes, as a listed leisure activity. Piste skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, monoskiing on piste and snowshoeing appear on the contract’s list of covered activities, so a skiing accident is handled as an ordinary emergency hospitalization. There is no dedicated ski guarantee: no mountain rescue allowance, no equipment coverage and no ski pass refund, and off-piste skiing is not on the list.

• Are pre-existing medical conditions covered?

  The two documents disagree, so read both. The product information document states flatly that illnesses existing before the policy was taken out are not insured. The general conditions are narrower: they exclude claims linked to a condition diagnosed, treated or hospitalized in the two years before the trip, any condition needing permanent prescribed treatment, and any heart disease or cancer diagnosed before booking. A stable condition outside those windows may therefore be covered, but get it confirmed in writing before you rely on it.

• What happens if my visa is refused?

  The premium is refunded within 30 days, minus fees and penalties of €75. You must send the request before the start date shown on your certificate, by registered letter or email to Chapka, with the original official refusal letter for the insured period. On a short policy costing €46, the €75 retained means nothing comes back.

• How long can the policy run?

  Three consecutive months at most, including any renewal. Our funnel priced trips up to 90 days and refused 91, which matches the contract. The policy must be taken out before you leave, unless it continues an existing personal policy that has just ended, without interruption.

• Can I buy it if I already live in the Schengen Area?

  No. The general conditions ask you to check that you are not a resident of a Schengen country or territory, and our funnel returns no Cap Schengen quote for a French resident. The plan is built for visitors traveling into the area on a short stay visa.

• Does it cover trip cancellation or lost baggage?

  Neither. Cap Schengen is a medical and assistance contract with no cancellation guarantee and no baggage guarantee. If you need your flights and accommodation protected, that is a different contract, and you can compare travel insurance with cancellation included.

• Does it work in every Schengen country?

  It works in the countries named in the contract’s own definition of the Schengen Area, which covers 26 states in the French version and 25 in the English one. Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are in neither list even though all three are now Schengen members, and the notice has not been updated since December 2023. Before booking a trip centered on those three, confirm the coverage in writing.

The answer turns on one question: how old is the traveler. Below 76 there are cheaper policies with the same €30,000 hospital ceiling and, in two cases, more inside the contract. From 76 upward Cap Schengen is the door that is still open, and €48 for two weeks at that age is a fair price. Check the Schengen visa requirements for your nationality before you buy, then compare the shelf on your real dates below.

Recommended for youA. Fruchard · Co-Founder & Travel Insurance Expert

Our pick for a Schengen visa file

If the traveler is under 76, you can clear the consulate’s €30,000 requirement for less. Go Schengen gives you the same emergency hospital ceiling, the same repatriation at actual cost and the same instant certificate for noticeably less on two weeks in France, and Gold Plan raises the medical ceiling to €80,000 for a similarly modest premium. Cap Schengen earns its 3.4 out of 5 on one decisive point rather than on breadth: it is the only plan on this shelf that still quotes a traveler of 76 to 85, at a comparable rate for two weeks up to 80. If you are insuring a parent or grandparent visiting Europe, buy it without hesitating. If you are 34 and buying for yourself, take one of the cheaper certificates and put the difference toward a cancellation guarantee, which none of these plans includes.

Go SchengenUnderwritten by Mutuaide

From€26.00

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€30,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Gold PlanUnderwritten by Vyv International Assistance

From€22.80

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€80,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Silver PlanUnderwritten by Vyv International Assistance

From€19.00

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€30,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Go Schengen +Underwritten by Mutuaide

From€30.00

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€30,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceIncluded

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Schengen StartUnderwritten by AIG

From€80.00

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€30,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceUnlimited

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Schengen AnnualUnderwritten by AIG

From€749.00

Included coverage

Emergency medical expenses€30,000

Direct billingIncluded

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationCovered in full

24/7 worldwide assistanceIncluded

See all 12 benefitsGet a quote

Personalized quote · no obligation

Real quotes captured on 11 September 2026 on hellosafe.com: 1 traveler aged 34, 14 days in France (10 to 24 November 2026), residence India, no cancellation option, in euros. Schengen visa insurance is sold and paid in euros, so every plan here is priced in euros. Cap Schengen charges the same premium per person at any age up to 63, then €48 from 64 to 80 and €96 from 81 to 85; the other plans on this shelf stop at 75, 69 or 59.