Evening all,
We're off to Noo Yoik for six days at the end of next month and I'm looking for travel insurance.
Now, I fully appreciate that you must declare everything right down to your last bunion otherwise Very Bad Things will happen. However, the difference in price if I do declare mine and my wife's conditions is rather startling.
I have depression, successfully kept under control with Sertraline. I have never needed hospitalisation. My wife has IBS, kept under control by medication. She is also on HRT. Again, she has never need to go into hospital with either.
Do I really need to declare these? I cannot envisage either of us being hospitalised by any of these conditions whilst we are there.
As always, your thoughts are most welcome.
Cheers.
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>> Do I really need to declare these? I cannot envisage either of us being hospitalised
>> by any of these conditions whilst we are there.
You missed the point. The chances of being hospitalised by these is, as you say very remote indeed. The chances of an insurance company invalidating your cover if they find out when you claim for *anything* else is very high. As your claim for hospitalisation in the US can be astronomical - sums of money you could never believe, its a risk I wouldn't (and haven't) taken.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 9 Apr 14 at 17:35
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>>The chances of an insurance company invalidating your cover if they find out when you >>claim for *anything* else is very high.
Hmmm, thought so. It does seem ridiculous that a claim for treatment for a broken arm (for example) can be refused because I didn't tell them that I have depression. How on earth can that be pertinent to the hypothetical injury?
*grumble grumble* ruddy insurance companies *grumble*
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Why are you taking travel insurance? Presumably *in case* something happens, not because you think it will.
So why do something which potentially removes that option?
You'd be just as well pretending you've got medical insurance, it'll be about as useful.
You judge a risk by considering how likely it is to happen, and how bad it'll be if it does. Well, you getting sick and your insurance company dodging astronomical medical bills might not be very likely, but it'll be pretty damned bad if it does happen.
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Excellent point, well made. If I'm not going to declare our conditions then I might as well not bother with the insurance in the first place.
Still, *grumble grumble* ruddy insurance companies *grumble*
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Also consider two other points;
You might not get sick, you might be hit by a car or trip over or anything.
These hospitals are not going to let you run up a bill and then find out how you're going to pay afterwards. If you haven't got insurance they will want a credit card approval *before* they start spending stupid money on you.
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On my travel insurance policy I declared certain medical conditions (hypertension, depression) and was given the option to cover these and related issues. I declined. But the company knows and if I get run over in Greece or somewhere I hope I will be treated.
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>> I declared certain medical conditions (hypertension, depression) and was given
>> the option to cover these and related issues. I declined. But the company knows and
>> if I get run over in Greece or somewhere I hope I will be treated.
Not if you run out in front of a car on purpose.....
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Shop around, there's a couple of declared conditions (none serious though) on my joint policy and some companies weren't that interested.
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We had this issue a couple of years back when our daughter was awaiting open heart surgery. In the end we found Virgin to be very helpful. Took all her details and came back to us the following day once they had agreement from the underwriter.
Think it was about £80 for 2 weeks family European cover - would have been about £20 without conditions
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Shop around first then try Googling for travel cover with pre-existing conditions. There are companies that specialise.
My son has a kidney condition which causes him no problem other than occasional blood in urine and for which only medical intervention is annual check up with a nephrologist. Some companies have a fit of the vapours over it and refuse cover for any consequence, others accept it without demur or apparent loading.
Used a specialist when holidaying in France immediately after coming off crutches after hip surgery. Provided I could sit comfortably and wasn't on anything more than 2*30mg codeine for pain relief (by then only needed if I overdid it) then they covered at reasonable rate.
Both above examples are in EU though where reciprocal EHIC arrangements and a sane approach to state involvement in healthcare limit bills. US is different, implying higher premiums but every reason to make sure you're fully covered.
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Try "Insure and Go". I have pre existing conditions and they were the cheapest we found when we went to the Caribbean last year.
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Mentioned here before. 'er indoors who deals with these matters uses Stay Sure who have proven to be both professional and reasonable in their charges. Online is one price where she looks and then she phones them. She is very happy which is a relief! Although we have yet to have a claim!! I think that they are worth a go as we have health issues that 'may' affect 'ordinary' insurance.
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"'...if I get run over in Greece or somewhere I hope I will be treated.'
'Not if you run out in front of a car on purpose...'"
I am suitably warned.
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I think if you cannot afford appropriate medical insurance when you tell the truth, then you should seriously consider whether or not you should travel.
About 2 months ago a friend of mine was in Chile and tripped whilst walking up some steps to a tourist site in Valparaiso. A set of steps that I have walked up many times, sober and not.
It turned out he had sprained his big toe and his ankle, so hardly serious albeit extremely painful. However, it cost about $1,000 to find that out. Medical care here is outstanding and world class, if you can pay for it.
When I had my accident recently they took me to a public (free) hospital for the alcohol blood test. It was not the sort of place you want your skin pierced. And what an eye opener. You would never again complain about *anything* in an NHS hospital if you had witnessed what I saw in the three hours I was there.
When my Grandmother in law fell ill last year, and ultimately died, her last month or so cost $50,000, and she didn't have insurance. But what do you do? Put her somewhere indecent, refuse to pay? Or suck it up?
I had a snowboard accident about 10 years ago. I had insurance to cover the $27,000 bill.
Consider that young girl who was hit by a taxi and lost her foot a year or so ago in New York. Now I have no idea whether or not she was insured, but if she was not and you were her parent, would you refuse to sell your house to pay for adequate healthcare?
Would you want to put your offspring or other family in that position?
These are not situations, expenses or dilemmas you want to get involved in.
I've seen what can happen.
Get medical insurance or don't go.
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I agree with the majority - declare every little thing to insurers or don't bother taking out insurance.
Make sure you get a joint policy - it's a lot cheaper than 2 separate ones for him and her.
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I had to declare anxiety on mine, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the price, at least it was very cheap. No doubt next time I will have to declare my cyst on my back.
Basically when ever you go to your GP they want to know what it was for. Think of it like car insurance you have to tell them everytime you get caught doing 32 in a 30 etc.
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The link for this was broekn but a precis of the headline was "The refusal of some Spanish hospitals to accept EHICs sparked anger in the ... number of clients reporting problems when presenting their EHIC in Spain. .... electing to ignore the obligations imposed upon them as members of the EU. ... for failing to honour EHIC scheme · ABI blames Spanish hospitals for"
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It's nearly a fortnight since my wife and daughter headed off to Sydney to visit my wife's sister. The highlight of their visit was to be a trip to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef this coming Sunday, staying there for the final 5 days of their holiday.
Unfortunately, tropical cyclone Ita is currently lurking just off the NE Australian coast and is likely to seriously screw up their plans. I feel desperately sorry for them but of course, to put it into perspective, there will be many who will suffer real hardship.
Internal flights and accommodation for the Sydney/Cairns trip were booked over there by my SiL. BUT ……………….. we simply didn't think about the fact that any bookings made OUTSIDE the UK will not be covered by their UK-purchased travel insurance policy.
The cyclone is reported here www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26966769
and can be seen on the world wind map earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=140.85,-18.82,1648
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Travel Insurance Question - Zero
