Hello,
In the past, when purchasing travel insurance I’ve always listed my medical conditions to the insurer.
One of the conditions was benign prostate enlargement. In January of this year, I had green light laser surgery, with a wonderful result.
When I next apply for travel insurance can I now forget about this condition, has anyone any knowledgeable experience?
Regards
D
Depends whether the application form asks if you’ve had surgery
There are folks on the forum who work/ have worked in the insurance industry, who hopefully can clarify. Like you i would be nervous about not mentioning……and then being in a hospital abroad and then they find out?
My understanding is that if you fail to declare something, you are not covered for anything rising from that condition. The question remaining - and which only someone from the particular insurer you take the policy out with can confirm definitively - is whether failure to prepare something else might invalidate the policy even if a claim has nothing whatsoever to do with that undeclared condition. Anyone on this forum who is currently or has recently worked for insurance may be able to shed a bit mire light.
Always declare everything. What you describe is unlikely to cause any increase in premium but you will almost certainly be asked for 'previous operations '. Possibly with a time limit.
Even if you had a condition entirely unrelated on holiday if the insurer had to access your medical records they could say your policy was invalidated because you haven’t followed the declaration rules
My wife has had two lots of major cancer surgery, the last over 8 yrs ago. She doesn’t pay any extra but it is listed on the policy. I do, for very mild high blood pressure!
Any excess cost is likely to be trivial compared to the cost of a holiday anyway!
Bruce
I would declare it. Travel insurance companies could use it for not paying out if you had a urinary tract issue and needed treatment whilst on holiday. A family member got caught by not disclosing a surgery from many years ago and the insurance company wouldn’t pay out.
It might be worth trying a few specialist companies that insure people with medical issues. I use insurancewith dot com, excellent for cancer and related issues. I attended a seminar about travel insurance for people with cancer and the people from insurancewith were one of the few companies that used a different algorithm that actually reflects real risks for specific conditions rather than generic risks. An independent actuary who was there thought they and the Post Office travel insurance were usually the best for cancers or cancer-related conditions whilst advising that sometimes other companies were good. Most of the big-name companies are not usually that good and ramp up the premiums.
Thank you everyone for your replies, I’ll continue to declare then. Previously, I purchased my insurance from the Post Office, last time being prior to the COVID lockdown.
Regards
D
There are many places to buy travel insurance on line, Paul’s suggestions are very likely right, but in any case declare any condition is definitely the only sensible thing to do.
Insurance companies are very adept at finding loopholes to avoid paying out wherever they can.
I am flying out to see my daughter and grandson on Friday. They live in Florida. I got the all clear today from Bowel cancer. Up till now I have been unable to get any quotes at all even though my operation to remove two tumours was 15 months ago and my surgeon said he was pleased with the way the surgery went. For good measure he had me undergo a couple of months of chemo as well. I listed my high blood pressure and the Post Office have accepted my medical history. I would not risk travelling to the States without Insurance. All the best with your health and finding Insurance.
Home insurers have been known to reject claims when, say, your house has been burgled through the front door, after an assessor found that a window that played no part in the break-in had a defective lock. In some cases, such insurers have been told by the courts to pay up and stop looking for excuses to reject valid claims. I can see that there could perhaps be parallels drawn with attitudes in the travel insurance market.
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