Travel Insurance for Older Persons (2007)

rochbroch

I am considering taking my 94 year old father on a 7 day cruise.
The ports of call are all in Europe. He is in good health. Is travel insurance necessary for medical emergencies or does the EHIC suffice?
If I need to get insurance for him, who would cover a man of his age. Quite happy to exclude existing medical conditions.
Any/all advice appreciated

maclean2

Hi Intune part of Age Concern and recently launched backed by Liverpool Victoria have no age limit sound as if they are worth trying

0800 022 3161

anonymousie

I'm very interested in this, as my 83yr old dad and 78yr old mum are finding this nigh impossible without huge excesses (they are both on wafarin, but actually the real bu**eration has been added this year with a pacemaker for Dad and catarct ops for mum- surely both make you leass likely to drop dead and safer as you can see better

TBH, for my parents (and your Dad I guess) likely if they fall seriously ill abroad they will die (eg in Malta the facilities are not huge and you will be at sea) but as my Dad says, if you are going to die you may as well do it somewhere nice! Insurance needs to cover the real expenses of airlift/medical staff etc and I don't know if you will get this if you exclude current medical problems. After all, if you die, you get cremated etc and I don't really see the point of "bringing the body back" (though what customs might make of a package of suspicious grey powder as hand luggage:rotfl: ). I know if I die abroad I will be happy to be left there as I know wakes etc could happen here just as well without my corpse being present!

Will await your updates..

Errata

There is a long article on travel insurance for older people in last Saturdays Guardian, gives info on quite a few insurance companies and might be worth a look.You'll find it on guardian online.

RibAd

The EHIC is NOT INSURANCE.....
This only allows access to certain hospitals within the EU. It does not and will not cover similar to Medical and emeg exp as found in travel insurance. It would be on a similar basis to NHS.

If you have an existing travel insurance policy with a company, you should check if you can add "Guests" onto the policy for an additional premium for the duration of the holiday - as long as you're travelling the same dates and destination - Often it would be similar cover given to them as it would be to you, however, with possible excl for medical (or in some cases, depending on medical declaration may cover med conds.).

anonymousie wrote: »

been added this year with a pacemaker for Dad and catarct ops for mum- surely both make you leass likely to drop dead and safer as you can see better

QUOTE]

I think I can answer that one - if declaring a pacemaker, which regulates the heart rate (and can be internal or external) customer should be aware that pacemakers are generally fitted in the case of an irregular heart beat (also known as Arrythmia).... most insurance companies excl heart and cancer related conds, especially heart attacks, strokes, tias, cabgs, pacemakers, arrythmia, angina..... the list is endless....
and just to mention, I know a lot of people are good honest folk, but if they're having trouble getting cover with the medical conditions, I hope they dont fall into the situation of non declaration of medical conditions as undeclared medical conditions are typically not covered. Shop around instead!

spiderspider

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a travel insurance company that will insure my Dad? He's 71 and suffers from high blood pressure and cant get a single quote on-line (so far) He's only travelling to Barcelona for a 3 day break!
Any ideas?

Thanks for your help

anna77_2

Saga should be worth trying, as they specialise in the over 50s. This is their website: http://www.saga.co.uk/finance/
HTH

vonvonvon

My dad is 81, just been on the Queen Mary 2, used Help the Aged travel insurance. My SIL sorted it and she ALWAYS gets the best deals. Hope this helps.

http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb/OnlineShop/Insurance/Travel/

spiderspider

Thank you - will pass the messages on ......