Travel Insurance - declaring new medical condition

uknick

My other half has an annual travel insurance policy. At the time she took it out she declared a number of existing medical conditions and paid the required additional premium. The policy has many months to run

Last month we booked flights to Boston leaving at the end of August this year.

Yesterday, in accordance with the policy, she called them to say she had to undergo a test for a racing pulse after she gets back from Boston. Instead of adding the condition to the policy and charging her, they removed any heart related conditions from her policy. She now has a policy that says if you have a problem associated with an irregular heart beat, to our mind any cardio vascular problem, we'll not cover you. Obviously she can't travel to the USA with the policy as it stands.

I've advised her to just go and buy a single trip policy with another company and only list the heart related condition. Her other medical conditions are still covered by the original insurer.

Does anybody have experience of this happening and if so what did they do?

sevenhills

uknick wrote: »

Yesterday, in accordance with the policy, she called them to say she had to undergo a test for a racing pulse after she gets back from Boston. Instead of adding the condition to the policy and charging her, they removed any heart related conditions from her policy. She now has a policy that says if you have a problem associated with an irregular heart beat, to our mind any cardio vascular problem, we'll not cover you. Obviously she can't travel to the USA with the policy as it stands.

I would have thought a insurance policy would run for a specific length of time, you both entered into an agreement, can they change the details of the agreement half way through?

Quentin

sevenhills wrote: »

I would have thought a insurance policy would run for a specific length of time, you both entered into an agreement, can they change the details of the agreement half way through?

Yes - all covered by the policy conditions which you agree when taking it out


(It's the policyholder "changing the goalposts", not the insurer as the new condition wasn't considered at the inception of the policy!)

Quentin

uknick wrote: »

I've advised her to just go and buy a single trip policy with another company and only list the heart related condition. Her other medical conditions are still covered by the original insurer.

Yes that will suffice - there are some insurers that will just cover claims in relation to the medical condition (so you don't have to pay twice to cover all the other risks the existing travel policy covers such as lost luggage/flight delay/stolen passport etc)

uknick

Quentin wrote: »

Yes - all covered by the policy conditions which you agree when taking it out


(It's the policyholder "changing the goalposts", not the insurer as the new condition wasn't considered at the inception of the policy!)

The Financial Ombudsman view is, if the insurer does not wish to cover the new condition then they can say so, but also make reparation for any cancellation charges the policy holder may face if they don't want to risk travelling.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/49/annual-travel-insurance.htm

At no time during the call to the insurer was my other half offered the chance to cancel the holiday under the terms of the policy.

sheramber

Claims for cancellation are made to a different department to the quotes department. Those on the quote department cannot advise re cancellation. You need to contact the claims department.

You will be lucky to fond a policy that covers her when there is an impending investigation.

Quentin

uknick wrote: »

The Financial Ombudsman view is, if the insurer does not wish to cover the new condition then they can say so, but also make reparation for any cancellation charges the policy holder may face if they don't want to risk travelling.

At no time during the call to the insurer was my other half offered the chance to cancel the holiday under the terms of the policy.

Yes that's an option.

Your op suggested that she wanted to continue with the trip by taking out cover elsewhere.

If cancellation suits her better she should speak to the insurer ASAP as presumably she accepted their suggestion to continue cover with the heart exclusion

uknick

sheramber wrote: »

Claims for cancellation are made to a different department to the quotes department. Those on the quote department cannot advise re cancellation. You need to contact the claims department.

You will be lucky to fond a policy that covers her when there is an impending investigation.

Yep you're quite right. She called them today and they bounced her straight to claims. We're going to wait now until she seen her GP on Monday to see if he can bring the test forward, unlikely as it's NHS. She also going to ask for a not fit to travel note to start the claim, this'll make it easier. If he won't sign one of then off, then I can see a fight coming to get our cancellation costs back. But, hey ho that's life.

uknick

Quentin wrote: »

Yes that's an option.

Your op suggested that she wanted to continue with the trip by taking out cover elsewhere.

If cancellation suits her better she should speak to the insurer ASAP as presumably she accepted their suggestion to continue cover with the heart exclusion

She doesn't want to look at other insurers, so we seem to be going down the cancellation route.

bettyboon

In my experience travel insurance is a total nightmare unless you are young, fit and healthy. I just wanted to add could you have the test done privately to bring it forward? I know this is extra expense but may save the holiday.

uknick

Going private is an option, and no doubt she'll talk to the GP about that. But, I have a feeling the cost of the private test may well exceed any excess we have to pay if we are allowed to cancel through the insurance company. Of course if the insurance company play hardball over insisting on a not fit to travel note then private may be the only option. I thought life would calm down when I took early retirement, obviously not :-(


If we have to cancel it's not the end of the world, what we were going to do in the USA can be postponed to this time next year.