Travel insurance excluding pre-existing conditions and/or non-disclosure

RevNigel

Am I right in thinking that a failure to disclose (and screen for) pre-existing medical conditions will result in the blanket invalidation of a travel insurance policy?   I’m happy to declare my pre-existing medical conditions and have these excluded from cover, but can’t find insurance companies who will give this option.  I’m only travelling to Europe (when COVID restrictions allow) and am happy to rely on the reciprocal EHIC arrangements for most eventualities, so really only want cover for medical repatriation in the event of an emergency unrelated to pre-existing medical conditions (i.e.  I’ve had a bad back for decades, but want cover should I happen to get knocked down by a car and need to be brought back to the UK).  I’ve tried searching for repatriation insurance only but without success. 

TELLIT01

If you are looking on price comparison sites then you probably won't find options to exclude pre-existing conditions.  You will need to discuss with the individual company.  Failure to disclose will almost certainly result in the entire policy being invalidated in the even of any claim, even if there is no connection between the reason for the claim and the undisclosed conditions.

[Deleted User]

 But your bad back could be the reason you were knocked down by a car, hence no repatriation and the need for the correct cover. 

twopenny

I always check a policy with a phone call to be sure I've got everything I need. That's not always evident just working online.

Oh the irony that I'd got an exercise injury from overworking a muscle that affected a joint. They did say that I could discount that from the policy (but had to be declared) and as Shel points out, should I have fallen or been mown down, hit my head, broke something it could be because I couldn't move properly................

I did try to argue that surely it proved I was fit as a flee with the exercise but they wouldn't wear it

Do discuss it. A reasonable person from a good company on the other end will talk you through the best way to do it.

Yes it would invalidate your policy because you agree legally that you have given full information.

silvercar

You will need to call up. Even if you find a policy on a comparison site, you can call up and get your query answered, take out the policy online and if necessary call again to get the info added to the policy.
It definitely exists as an option as I phoned up with that sort of query and they gave a price to include the pre-existing and one with it excluded.

Sandtree

Non disclosure and pre-existing conditions are two separate issues... if the insurers don't ask you about pre-existing conditions (eg if you buy via certain aggregators etc) then they cannot decline a claim unrelated to your conditions because of non-disclosure. 

Most insurers via most channels will do pre-existing condition screening in which case they will say one of three things, either the condition is covered for free, the condition can be covered for an additional £X premium or the condition wont be covered. Some however do low friction sales and simply blanket exclude all pre-existing conditions in which case there is little point asking about them at point of sale.