Travel insurance: cancer-free but still a risk?

Which advice is look at as many policies as you can I do just that and have always found cover at a reasonable price But many people do not take notice of advice so what can you do to help Just let them be and ignore their moans

Personal health is only one of many risks and perils that can disrupt a holiday. The consequences of an illness or death can be costly but they should be kept in proportion. If Debbie’s normal holiday insurance premium is £20 for such a trip then her changed circumstances might justify some increase but not a twenty-times increase. For many holidays travel insurance is compulsory so accepting the risk yourself is not an option. There appears to be a lot of competition in the travel insurance industry but it doesn’t seem to have much affect on premiums. This is because almost every one of the companies offering travel insurance have their policies underwritten by one of a small number of big insurers and that is where the decisions on qualifications, limitations and exclusions are made. It would be useful to know what percentage of holiday policies sold result in a health-related claim.

I have had cancer 3 times, the 3rd is being treated now. 2 years ago I wanted to go on holiday to Spain for a week just to relax. The reason being I had just got over having the upper section of my left lung removed with the tumour on it and being cleared of any more traces of cancer. In 2002 I had my prostate removed and the ongoing checks were positive. When I applied for travel insurance the minimum was £820 for one week and the maximum £1280. My reaction was I do not want the cancer to be included on the policy. This meant I was insured and that condition had been mentioned. The cost was £32 for the week. I was insured for everything else as normal. If I had the cancer come back while on holiday and it was life threatening, it was cheaper to purchase a scheduled flight home than paying £820 for insurance. The moral of this is insurance companies are blatantly ripping off cancer sufferers. I believe strongly that this matter should be addressed to stop insurance companies using this practice.

My mum has been enlisted in a tumour marker research project at her local cancer hospital, which involves her seeing her oncologist for a brief update and a blood test every three months. She has agreed to do this to help other cancer sufferers in the future, to enable early tumour detection and recurrence through simple blood tests. However, this has had the undesired effect of her now being considered “an unacceptable risk” where obtaining travel insurance is concerned, as three-monthly hospital visits are considered to be too frequent, and no insurance company will cover her. Eventually, after dozens of phone calls to travel insurance companies, she was told by the only company that would consider covering her, that a trip to the US would set her back £2,000-£3,000 and she would also require a detailed medical report; they would then base their final decision on the report. She knew her oncologist would support her wish to travel and would consider her fit enough to travel, but the premium was just not worth it. She dropped all ideas of going to the US. So much for the “Bucket List” we all hope to complete during our lives!

We were told it wasn’t worth risking travel without insurance for cancer as they will tell you that the trip over the broken paving slab that broke your ankle occurred as a result of having had cancer, and you’re not covered for cancer so therefore you’re not covered for the costs incurred by the broken ankle.

Good luck Debbie and happy travelling…!

There are two obvious points here;

1. That no body is keeping track of statistics regarding holidays and illness claims. I have made the point in relation to products and recalls. If consumers only speak to the manufacturer or the insurer then they are the only people with access to the statistics.

My remedy would be for a body, such as a Cancer charity to log all people travelling abroad and the claims , and non-claims. You might also do this for people holidaying in the UK, and people without insurance.

Insurance is a numbers game and if we, consumers, are not prepared to get a handle on them we will always be complaining.

I sold insurences , including travel insurances, so have some experience in the last century of speaking to different firms nad going to underwriters [rarely]. One of the main tools of insurance companies if they do not want a business sector is to hype the price to silly levels so they are unattractive to buyers.

There is a point about whether you should force companies to trade when they do not want to – I am against that. However if I could prove it was statistically profitable to take ex-cancer sufferers etc then with data a case could be made.

One thing not voiced here is the number of ill people who die on holiday in accidents – or possivle suicides. The cruise industry probably have stats on the number of people who fall overboard at the end of a cruise for instance.

Perhaps this needs to be considered.

The second point is why do you need insurance? Surely at least for the Uk and Europe you can drive, train abroad. As for desires to go to the US , the most expensive country in the world to have any illness I would think it wiser to go pretty much anywhere else.