Travel and Health Insurance

swabaxter

Why do Travel Insurance companies
offer cover for pre-existing conditions
for an additional premium but Health Insurance
companies do not ?

InsideInsurance

By health insurance do you mean Private Medical Insurance?

The issue is the uncertainty aspect. If you've had a heart condition in the past you may or may not have an issue with it in the 3 month lead time to the holiday and the 2 weeks you are there, to a severity to need treatment whilst on holiday or to cancel the holiday. Cancelling the holiday generally isnt too much of a concern for insurers as its an attritional claim of a couple of thousand and so really their bet is simply on the 2 weeks your on holiday where the big loss can occur.

PMI generally is considered almost long term insurance and so they are covering you for a number of years and all of it is potentially high cost claims.

That said, some PMI will provide cover, particularly if you have existing cover or if its a company policy but this is done by phone/ broker rather than internet.

The last company I was an employee of gave PMI as a staff benefit and it had full cover for all pre-existing conditions. When I left I was able to buy private PMI with cover for our pre-existing conditions as I already had cover in place.

thegirlintheattic

Your more likely to need to claim on a medical policy rather than travel?!