Travel Insurance in an Emergency

anitamarie

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a travel insurance policy but having difficulty for two reasons:

- My boyfriend and I are asthmatic which doubles the premium if we want it covered, even though we're never been hospitalised, etc. This I can tolerate begrudglingly.

- What bothers me more is I just rang a well known insurer and asked how it works if, for example, we're in a car crash in the US - what's the process? To which they said, you must call in before you have any major surgery or your claim may not be valid. I asked how exactly we would do that if we'd just been in a car crash to which she said she didn't know, but that was their rule.

I've heard worse than this too... "You must ring us before an ambulance or you aren't covered" etc... Does anyone know of an insurer who does actually cover you in the event of the worst? Because that £10m cover is worth nothing if the claim is ruled out on a techicality.

Many thanks,

Anita

vikingaero

It's unlikely that a claim would be ruled out on the technicality such as that. The FOS would take a very dim view. If you were both unconscious there's nothing the insurer can do to reasonably make you call them! The only reason insurers try and stipulate pre-ambulance calls is that if there are two hospitals close by and one is their "approved" hospital then they will steer you towards that one. The call centre operative is talking horsesheet!

On the other hand if you need treatment and one of you is OK then that party should attempt to make a call to mitigate the insurers losses

RibAd

anitamarie wrote: »

- What bothers me more is I just rang a well known insurer and asked how it works if, for example, we're in a car crash in the US - what's the process? To which they said, you must call in before you have any major surgery or your claim may not be valid. I asked how exactly we would do that if we'd just been in a car crash to which she said she didn't know, but that was their rule.

I've heard worse than this too... "You must ring us before an ambulance or you aren't covered" etc... Does anyone know of an insurer who does actually cover you in the event of the worst? Because that £10m cover is worth nothing if the claim is ruled out on a techicality.

Many thanks,

Anita

That's where common sense and reading the policy before you travel kicks in (or doesn't from experiences I've read here). It would be detailed in your policy wording what you're meant to do. Some companies may only ask you to ring assistance if the cost of treatment exceeds a certain amount.

For something like a car acident as you described, obv you're not going to be able to contact assist straight away - if you have your policy document there with you, it is common that the hospital will contact your assistance company to inform of this and get the go ahead. Obv in a very serious life saving situation this would be dealt with afterwards. And also, if the hospital doesn't call assistance or your behalf, then it would be the earliest available opportunity that you have to contact assistance after the event has taken place to inform them of it.

However, in saying the above, some hospitals will NOT give you treatment UNLESS you can produce your policy booklet that confirms that you hold a valid travel insurance and would be well within their right to do so. They are also in their right that if they feel that the policy booklet is insufficient proof, they can call the insurance company and have confirmation from them that you are in fact insured.

MagnificentMe2006

interesting theme
for contacts MagnificentMe2006@wikichat.com

anitamarie

"That's where common sense and reading the policy before you travel kicks in (or doesn't from experiences I've read here). It would be detailed in your policy wording what you're meant to do. Some companies may only ask you to ring assistance if the cost of treatment exceeds a certain amount."

Well indeed, that's what made me raise my eyebrows and ask for clarification. Plus the US aren't renowned for their friendly attitudes to the potentially uninsured where health treatment is concerned.