MSE News: Millions of those with long-term illnesses struggle to access travel insurance

More than 15 million people with pre-existing medical conditions such as cancer feel "poorly served" when it comes to travel insurance, the financial regulator has said...
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'Millions of those with long-term illnesses struggle to access travel insurance'
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  • worried_jim
    worried_jim Posts: 11,631
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    So a nurse was quoted £2800 to travel to Dubai but then shopped around and got cover for existing breast cancer down to £800. Isn't that like me paying a fortune to shop in Waitrose then discovering Aldi will be half the price?
    Surely the story here is consumers are failing to shop around, haven't we all been bombarded with insurance comparison websites adverts for the last 15 years. You can lead a horse to water......
  • Dird
    Dird Posts: 2,702
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    Surely the story here is consumers are failing to shop around
    Well £800 is still a crazily high fee for insurance. If I were her I'd just stick to countries with reciprocal agreements (NHS covers the bill) or just go without insurance

    I'm just glad the FCA didn't mention anything like preventing this kind of higher pricing like with male/female drivers...would raise insurance premiums a lot for lots of people if they did
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  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,267
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    Dird wrote: »
    Well £800 is still a crazily high fee for insurance. If I were her I'd just stick to countries with reciprocal agreements (NHS covers the bill) or just go without insurance

    I'm just glad the FCA didn't mention anything like preventing this kind of higher pricing like with male/female drivers...would raise insurance premiums a lot for lots of people if they did

    A huge risk in that - the EHIC arrangements don't cover everything, notably the potential cost of maybe £20,000 for an air ambulance, even within Europe.
  • NoodleDoodleMan
    NoodleDoodleMan Posts: 3,305
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    Well £800 is still a crazily high fee for insurance. If I were her I'd just stick to countries with reciprocal agreements (NHS covers the bill) or just go without insurance
    Would the EHIC cover pre-existing illness as in the nurse's case ?

    I thought it was only for life threatening situations like heart attacks or strokes etc., or injuries requiring hospital treatment, such as broken limbs etc.

    Going without private medical insurance is lunacy IMO.

    I know of a couple who could not get travel insurance except at a huge premium but were determined to go on holiday regardless. They agreed that if either passed away abroad the survivor would arrange cremation and repatriate the ashes home.

    It had to be pointed out that dying in a foreign country was not the worst case scenario - that would be intensive care treatment in hospital and subsequent air ambulance return to the UK with no medical insurance.
  • hollie.weimeraner
    hollie.weimeraner Posts: 2,143
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    edited 27 June 2018 at 11:55AM
    No way would I go on holiday without insurance.

    My wife was taken ill at Christmas with an undiagnosed knee condition. Despite loads of investigation it's still undiagnosed.
    I had a nightmare trying to get insurance with most companies refusing as it was undiagnosed even though the consultant was happy to provide proof she was fit to fly.

    A couple of companies wanted in excess of £400 but eventually managed to go with upgrading my Nationwide Flex account and after screening it's cost us £129.

    In some ways this is one of those ther's no other news news stories so we'll run with this.

    Ring round and get the best deal but make sure you disclose everything

    If those with serious existing conditions get cheaper insurance it will simply push up policies for those that are lower risk
  • It would take only a small increase in normal insurance rates
    to enable a blanket rate to be offered
    The added cost for non pre meds would be recovered as they
    become older with problems.
  • mgdavid
    mgdavid Posts: 6,705
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    ajaxer wrote: »
    It would take only a small increase in normal insurance rates
    to enable a blanket rate to be offered
    The added cost for non pre meds would be recovered as they
    become older with problems.


    I can tell you're not an underwriter or an insurance risk assessor...
    The questions that get the best answers are the questions that give most detail....
  • I will listen to the above when they provide and publish figures
    that justify their blatant robbing ways.
  • mgdavid
    mgdavid Posts: 6,705
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    OK let's look at it from a different angle. Insurance companies are private enterprises owned by shareholders and motivated by profit. They can choose who their customers are. They are not obliged to offer insurance to everyone without regard to individual circumstances. Their pricing structure is not state-controlled.
    They do not have to quote at all if they don't want to.
    If the 15 million people with pre-existing medical conditions don't like the quotes they get (after they've shopped around, of course) they have choices; they can choose to take the risk themselves (self-insure), or they can choose not to travel.
    The questions that get the best answers are the questions that give most detail....
  • Doc_N
    Doc_N Posts: 8,267
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    mgdavid wrote: »
    OK let's look at it from a different angle. Insurance companies are private enterprises owned by shareholders and motivated by profit. They can choose who their customers are. They are not obliged to offer insurance to everyone without regard to individual circumstances. Their pricing structure is not state-controlled.
    They do not have to quote at all if they don't want to.
    If the 15 million people with pre-existing medical conditions don't like the quotes they get (after they've shopped around, of course) they have choices; they can choose to take the risk themselves (self-insure), or they can choose not to travel.

    Or we could, as a country, take the radical step of nationalising all insurance companies and operating the state-owned entity in a positive, benign way aimed at spreading the risks as widely as possible on a cross-subsidisation model so that higher risk citizens don't find themselves uninsurable.

    The Flood Re (https://www.floodre.co.uk/) model could also be used.
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