Pre-existing medical conditions - Insurance

A snowHead

Having been told many years ago, that if you omit telling your travel insurance company about any pre-existing medical conditions, however minor, your insurance will be void. The small print of most policies require you to be specific about any treatment received, investigations and medication. They can refuse to pay out even if you omitted something as minor as attending your GP because you had a back pain, even though no treatment was needed and rest cured it.

The problem is that when you do declare something, they either won’t cover it, and any other ‘related’ aspects, or they hype up the premium. When I asked one of them, what they meant by “related” they said if for example you declared an old back injury, and they excluded the back injury from your policy, and you then subsequently had a fall and hurt your knee, they could claim that the knee injury occurred because your back made you unbalanced. So technically, (IMHO) they could in fact make a link back to anything – bit like the song, “your head bone’s connected to your neck bone, and your neck bone’s connected to......”

Bearing all this in mind, we have always paid quite a hefty some for our insurance, as we have to declare medication for high blood pressure, medication to lower cholesterol, 3 meniscus knee cartilage tears between us, and arthritis in a toe joint.

This year though, instead of going with the same insurance company, I checked out some of the feedback on here, and shopped about. We have now got all our pre-existing medical conditions covered (and the knee ops were only in Sept/November 07) for half what we normally pay, including all the usual ski stuff like luggage, cancellation, repatriation, and so on. I know the real test of a policy is when you come to claim, but so far the small print looks good. If anyone else in similar circumstances needs insurance, try Direct-Travel (we did the Single Trip Premium Plus - and paid extra for no excess)

We have 14 days cooling off period, so if anyone thinks we should think again, please PM me.

A snowHead

direct -travel have a very good reputation, so you should be okay with them, i have been using them for our holidays for years, although have never had to claim.

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

We buy an annual policy, 2 adults 2 kids, just re-newed this years only last week with Insure and Go. Got their top level (black) cover for £95ish Smile

told them about my High BP and it was no extra cost.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Dont you just love the way insurance companies wriggle to get out of paying, on a technicality Evil or Very Mad

It would seem direct Travel is the way to go then Smile

On a similar theme, if you have had the meniscus tear operated on, therefore no more tear is this now a pre existing medical condition ? Or if you had boken your leg as a child would this need to be declared as the break would have healed and not given any trouble since, is that a pre existing mdical condition.

I would have thought a pre existing condition would be something you were being treated for before you took out the policy not something that had happened in your past medical history Shocked

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

The Snowcard health declaration is clear and seems reasonable to me.

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

Here is a interesting point. I have a problem with my left knee. I have seen a consultant orthopeadic surgeon who says that there is absolutely no problem in my skiing (he skis so hopefully he should know). The question is how much weight would that hold with the insurance company? Puzzled

After all it is free

I've foudn direct travel to be great - Mrs NBT's been ill for some time and we recently got a diagnosis, in fact the diagnosis only came though *after* i took out the insurance but before the end of the cooling-off period. I rang them to see what they said and they sorted me an amended policy with cover for the new diagnosis at no extra cost. I'm very happy.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

sharon1953, I always use www.gotravelinsurance.co.uk. £71 last year for annual cover inc. wintersports and that's with a pre-existing medical condition.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Bode Swiller, It’s not quite that simple. The old policy reads - underlined!:

“Your insurance is based upon the information provided to the insurance company and you must ensure that all such information is complete and accurate, and that any facts that MAY influence the insurer’s decision to accept and pay a valid claim, are disclosed. Failure to disclose 'material information', including but NOT LIMITED TO medical conditions, may invalidate your insurance cover and could mean that part, or all, of a claim may not be paid”.

The most worrying part is:
“Where cover is not provided for your declared condition, there will be no cover for claims relating directly OR INDIRECTLY to that condition”.

My understanding of this statement is that yes, don’t declare it by all means, you’re not covered, but they can then say that the condition you are claiming for, (that should be covered) is related (or not related in this case) to the uncovered condition. So you’re not covered!

You also have to declare the health of anyone with you that might cause you to cancel or curtail your stay. So if someone in your party has a pre-existing condition that might cause you to cancel, or curtail, and make a claim, they need to know about them in advance. Same applies if you have a family member, partner in business etc, that you might need to get back to if they are ill, and it was related to a pre-existing condition, they need to know about it. This is the previously mentioned “Material Information”.

I had a back op in 1986, they do cover it, but I have to declare it... sure as eggs are eggs, if I don’t and I make a claim, they will relate the condition I am claiming for to my back. I could be a sceptic, but having waited 9 months whilst my insurance company for our house contents (Specified items) spent 9 months trying to wheedle out of settling our claim, I feel my scepticism is justified (cheque arrived just this morning)

Bones, They will usually insure any condition that has been stable for 12 months (some policies say 6) and does not require any further treatment or follow up. This varies from company to company, so check the small print.

I think a lot of problems arise when buying online, when not so many questions are asked. I remember our fist ski holiday came complete with the TO's insurance, they didn't ask one thing about either of us!

nbt, That's comforting to know, thanks.

snow reports

Bones, A few years ago I had a deep vein thrombosis and insurance was three times the cost of my holiday so couldn't go that year. 12 months later there was no problem getting insurance even though I declared it.

My father had insurance and declared fully his history of a stroke. He paid an extra premium to be covered for strokes and unfortunately died from one. The insurance company declined to pay as the stoke had been a bleed rather than a clot etc etc. Spoke to the Consultant doctor etc and they said it was all dangly bits. Anyway to cut a long story short I used the Data protection act to get the phone transcript as my father had declared everything in detail and correctly. Once they heard the phone call they paid. During my processes of getting this resolved I discovered that as far as I could tell they reject every claim initially.

I did feel slightly better as I set an automatic email every 5 seconds to the MD until he responded to me.

I hate insurance companies and now get a print out of my doctors report and tell them everything from it, by being anal its the only way to ensure they will pay.

You know it makes sense.

A couple of years ago after much shopping shopping around I chose Direct Travel as they seemed to offer the best cover (including off piste) at a great price.

I recently renewed with them for another year and got £10 off with Quidco and £10 off for already being a customer.... meant that 2 people, Worldwide, Premium,m Annual cover came out at about £80. No other insurance company cam anywhere close to that.

I've never had to claim off them, but have had to contact them a couple of times and they've always been great.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

magic_hat, It’s a difficult one, if you don’t and something happens, and they have sight of your records, it could affect a claim. Check the small print carefully. Your question highlights the fact that if you go privately, who knows that you’ve seen a physio? We saw an orthopaedic surgeon privately without a referral from our GP, but he asked for our GP’s details, so assume he then filed a report.

Hubby and I have both had Meniscus tears Debridged (fancy word for the rough edges being cleaned up) and the knee joints are suffering from age related wear and tear 'arthritis', which I suspect most people’s are of a certain age, but no one knows unless they look inside or you have symptoms! According to the consultant, the knee joints should now be just as they were before the tears, only the fact that they have poked instruments inside the knee, flushed it with saline solution, and you have slightly less cushioning in the joint, means the joint isn't actually as it was before, and 5 months later, we still have pain in the original medial area of the knee and swelling. Yet we know of others who are fully recovered in 3-6 weeks. Now steroid injections are being suggested to reduce inflammation, (but only because we are going skiing and want to be pain free that week!) so technically we are still receiving treatment, although the initial condition has been treated and cured! So a dilemma... to report that treatment is ongoing...or not!

A snowHead

I would like to put another good word in for Direct Travel. 4 years ago my family and me were in Fernie. On the first am, before even getting passes, my son fell off the top bunk and broke his radius and ulna. Took him to local hospital and then twice during that week to the paediatric unit in Calgary (a 3 hour drive each way, IIRC). We claimed all medical expenses and also estimated cost of petrol. We had borrowed a friend's car for the week so no other travel costs. There were other incidental expenses, not all of which were documented. On submission of detailed claim to Direct Travel they paid up without a question.

I think there is a very important point here. It is easy to slag off insurance companies for refuting claims, and sometimes that is justified. However, we have all heard 'mate in the pub' stories where people have claimed for losses that are pure fiction. A claim for a stolen camera that wasn't stolen at all, even if it ever existed in the first place. Inflating the value of things. Fabricating the true circumstances regarding a loss. Insurance is normally designed to protect you from losses arising from accidents or overt criminal activity. If you leave your iPod unattended on a table in a bar when you go to the loo is it realistic to expect it to be there when you return or for the insurance company to compensate you for your stupidity? Insurance companies are very wary of fraudulent (yes, that is the correct word) claims. I am not being 'holier than thou', merely stating what (IMHO) is the obvious.

BTW, there was a reasonably happy ending to my son's double fracture. The following week we moved on to Banff, where he insisted on skiing Lake Louise and Sunshine with one pole, arm in plaster and had a good time. the lifties could not believe what an irresponsible father I was. Not so good was the fact that he had to have his bones re-set on return to London. They could not understand how the bones had moved so much in the plaster......

A snowHead

Chris Mason, welcome to snowheads and thanks for the positive story Smile

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Pre-existing medical conditions - Insurance

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