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Global medical insurance for the over 80s?
lad22
Posts: 81 Forumite
Hello all.
My elderly father came to visit me in South Africa where I'm currently working for a 2 week holiday. It had been booked for 5 months. Unfortunately he forgot to buy travel insurance, and I forgot to remind him. He lives alone in the UK and it would be pretty bleak for him to be all alone for months, plus he has early stage dementia and is highly unlikely to remember not to do his routine trips to the supermarket, pub, etc in the UK, putting him at additional risk. However, South Africa is likely to get much worse as the virus will spread like wildfire in the townships (shanty towns), but at least I would be with him to give him some support. Public hospitals are already overwhelmed, and infection in them is rife due to TB, HIV/AIDS, etc. Private hospitals cost a fortune. I looked into 'after the event' travel insurance such as World Nomads, which is expensive but better than nothing. Unfortunately the cut-off age is 65, and my father is in his 80s. He's physically fit, but clearly very high risk. I doubt there is such a thing now Coronavirus is here, but if he stayed with me in South Africa for a few months, is there any way for him to buy medical insurance? SA insurance has a 2 month wait-limit, so even if I could find him some insurance at his age, it's not much use if he gets the virus in the next few weeks. Any responses gratefully received.
My elderly father came to visit me in South Africa where I'm currently working for a 2 week holiday. It had been booked for 5 months. Unfortunately he forgot to buy travel insurance, and I forgot to remind him. He lives alone in the UK and it would be pretty bleak for him to be all alone for months, plus he has early stage dementia and is highly unlikely to remember not to do his routine trips to the supermarket, pub, etc in the UK, putting him at additional risk. However, South Africa is likely to get much worse as the virus will spread like wildfire in the townships (shanty towns), but at least I would be with him to give him some support. Public hospitals are already overwhelmed, and infection in them is rife due to TB, HIV/AIDS, etc. Private hospitals cost a fortune. I looked into 'after the event' travel insurance such as World Nomads, which is expensive but better than nothing. Unfortunately the cut-off age is 65, and my father is in his 80s. He's physically fit, but clearly very high risk. I doubt there is such a thing now Coronavirus is here, but if he stayed with me in South Africa for a few months, is there any way for him to buy medical insurance? SA insurance has a 2 month wait-limit, so even if I could find him some insurance at his age, it's not much use if he gets the virus in the next few weeks. Any responses gratefully received.
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