Osteoporosis insurance

A snowHead

I have been classified as Very high risk of fracture with osteoporosis soon to commence treatment. Have previously sustained a broken wrist 2017, and ankle 2019. Both skiing injuries, the wrist after a fall going too fast in poor visibility (Excuse = I was late to meet up with friends). Informed recently that I have a couple of vertebral fragility fractures that I had no idea about. Unsurprisingly advised not to do any high impact activities. Struggling with the idea of not skiing - what a waste of perfectly good kit.
Anybody got any suggestions for an insurance company that might insure me once the daily injections (!) have commenced? Yes, I know that this is not the most sensible thing I could do.

A snowHead

No experience but I'd expect most insurers would exclude osteoporosis related injuries or want a sky high premium. Have you considered picking a resort with good proximity to state medical facilities and relying on EHIC /GHIC and self funding any repat.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Don't you just have to declare it as a pre-existing medical condition:

Such as https://www.staysure.co.uk/medical-travel-insurance/osteopenia-osteoporosis/

As your man DotM says the premium may make it uneconomical.

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Thanks. We ski in PdS from Champery and have a valid EHIC for France but would need insurance for Switzerland. Could buy the add on PDS insurance to get me off the slopes if necessary. Yes, does have to be declared as existing condition but then they ask you a whole load of “difficult” questions. When I tell them I need daily injections they might not like it. When it was plain old osteoporosis it was fine as long as I was being treated - albeit for a £40 additional premium.
Still hoping I can sort it!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You might get some info here: https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/getting-medical-conditions-travel-insurance/

You'll need to Register first of course.

@pat51, the daily injections are part of the treatment, and are designed to improve bone mass and density to avoid injuries, so I would make it very clear that you are being treated, and go through all of the questions in detail. Osteoporosis causes brittle bones and microfractures, so they won't be surprised that you have additional issues which are directly caused by that.

That said, you've had medical advice not to do "high impact activities" - that's open to interpretation, and I'm guessing you're not an active rugby player so you might argue that skiing is not high impact. The insurer will disagree when it becomes so - you can't argue that it is not high impact if you hit a fence or someone else on the mountain and end up in intensive care.

At that point I would say that your options are limited - the suggestion from @Dave of the Marmottes is probably the best if you can afford to self fund. If you can't, it may be time to consider cross country skiing or snowshoeing, or maybe knitting, much as that pains me to suggest.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks folks. Basically I’m in denial!

After all it is free

Might be worth trying Staysure?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@pat51, I'm no doctor, and I like that you want to keep going, but: broken ankle skiing? That's not common, and seems to be proof positive that the advice you've already received is sound. My question would be: is treatment expected to get you past this eventually? If so, seems like waiting for that would make sense. Also, and maybe this is paramount: you mentioned the word "vertebrae". I'd take risks with my tib and fib all day, but not my spine. Good luck regardless.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Your EHIC is just as valid in CH as it is in FR, it will not help with private treatment in either country. The lift-pass insurance will get you off the hill, not sure about repat.

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

+1 for snowshoeing. We started to take this up about five years ago, after seeing lots of older locals doing it. In many resorts, you get right away from the crowds very quickly, but you're still very near to the town itself, so it's easy to turn 'round and get back if you've had enough. Normally you won't need to use the lifts, so saves money. Often, different itineraries are accessible via the navette. We realised how often we'd gone out in unrewarding conditions just because we'd bought a week's ski pass: at the moment, we welcome flat light or low cloud days as an opportunity to take a break and use the racquettes. I imagine that as time goes on, we'll do more and more. In many ways, it's just the winter equivalent of the hikes we do in the summer.

Of course, you'll need to check with any travel insurer that even snowshoeing is covered. Just because it is the corollary to summer hiking it doesn't mean they'll be happy to cover you.

You still need travel insurance even with a valid GHIC, because GHIC won't cover the cost of staying to recuperate if you're not fit to travel, or the cost of flying someone out as a helper, or the cost of a flight and extra seats on a return flight, or the cost of repatriation if you need/want to come back for treatment and they have to hire a medical plane. The cost of the latter is so high that there's a huge incentive for the insurer to get you back to the UK, even if it means all the costs above - an incentive that works in your favour. And any local healthcare service isn't going to be keen to engage in longer-term surgery and support because of the pressures from their own citizens, so there's always the suspicion that you'd be better off getting home.

There's a common view that general hospital care in, say Switzerland, is somehow at private care levels. But having been through the system last year when my wife broke her arm, I'd say it was much the same as in the UK: professional and effective, but not like some sort of private clinic.

Help!!

Osteoporosis insurance

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