Pre-existing Travel Insurance Guide Discussion

luci

I was diagnosed with gall stones and was due to have surgery 3 weeks after we were going on holiday. I contacted the insurer, UK Insurance via the then free Nationwide FlexAccount, and they agreed to cover it without any additional premium.

Fredflos_mum

Big panic 3 weeks ago and thought we may not get on our holiday to Greece!
We're both over 70, have an annual policy for Europe with Staysure. I had a cataract op in November 2023 and like 20-50% of patients got blurriness behind the new lens. I was booked in for 1 minute of non-invasive laser treatment 2 days after we got home so told Staysure 2 days before we went away as I couldn't get an appointment b4 departure. They rescinded insurance for my declared medical conditions (nothing serious), refunded me £9+ and left me high and dry....
I tried Avanti who included laser eye treatment it said on their website but they wouldn't insure me.
At this point my husband pointed out we had our EHIC cards so we went ahead with our holiday.
Had my treatment on Saturday and was discharged so rang Staysure on Monday who re-instated my medical conditions and charged me £45+ for the privilege!!!
I find this astonishing and am sure Staysure are not alone BUT surely common sense can prevail, not a computer algorithm?
Thank goodness we weren't going to the States or outside Europe-would they have paid out for cancellation of the trip????  

Fredflos_mum

ScareyLogon said:

I bought an annual worldwide policy with Staysure last year to cover a holiday in September this year. I declared several medical conditions (which they said they would cover). I rang up today to declare an additional health condition which has just surfaced, for which I don’t yet have a diagnosis. I was told that from this point onwards they would no longer cover the declared medical conditions until I have a diagnosis even though the new medical condition has nothing to do with any of the existing conditions. (They are giving me a very small refund to cover this.)  I’m confused – what’s the point of having an annual policy or buying the insurance well in advance of the holiday if a new health condition nullifies any cover for existing conditions? Luckily none of my existing conditions are serious and likely to affect me travelling but if they had been, I would have had no cover for a very expensive holiday I’ve got booked in Sept. I used this insurer which was expensive as I was led to believe it offered good cover (particularly for people with existing health conditions), and that is what you are paying for. I’ve never experienced this before with any other insurers and certainly wouldn’t use them again. It doesn’t make sense. Is this usual practice now? (It seems that you are paying and taking all the risk.)

See my post below dated 19.6.24 regarding Staysure! The holiday was a special trip for our Silver Wedding!

bazzarone

This "guide" doesn't actually link to any insurance sites if you are over 65 with medical conditions. You keep getting sent back to the guide for those below 65. Can you fix please