Annual travel insurance now void?

GrassSnakeUK

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice they could offer me please.
I purchased an annual multi trip insurance policy last August for a trip to Lanzarote in October (and forthcoming trips). The policy was billed as "covid friendly" along with the usual cover provided. At the beginning of September my wife and I both caught covid, although not particularly poorly I thought I best contact insurers to let them know, in good time, we had the bug but we would hopefully recover in time for our trip. We were out of quarantine 3 weeks before our flights, tested negative regularly and went off and had a fine holiday.

Now, here's the rub, we are booked on another Lanzarote trip in March but we are being told that we won't be covered for Covid for this trip because its a "pre-disposed medical condition"...

Whilst I understand this, it just doesn't sit right. We suffered no really serious effects, we have been clear for 3 months, but it's a repeatable disease, one that can be caught and recovered from time and again, it's generally not a long term medical condition. I'm at a bit of a loss now as to if I should cancel it and claim half of my premium back and reinsurer with another company or try and contest their decision...

Any thoughts?

GrassSnakeUK

Hi forum-ites, 
Thanks for all those taking time to read my post, I have been in touch with CAB and they said to ask the insurer to clarify what is insured and what has been excluded. There may be a breach of contract argument to be had, as the policy is an annual one and there was no mention of how many times a claim can be made for one illness and I didnt have it at the time of taking out the annual policy. a similar principle to taking out an annual car insurance policy but only being able to have one claim...

GrassSnakeUK

Anyone have any advice or comments?

Annemos

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/travel-insurance/change-in-health

Please see section......    

If your circumstances change during the period of insurance

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And this..... 

Putting things right

• If you did tell your insurer about a change in health

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And the case study in there on the ear infection. 

=======================


This is all I could find about this. Could it be worth ringing them up and asking to speak to a Manager. Then point out what the Ombudsman is saying. Would they be prepared to accept a medical statement from your doctor saying you are both fit and well and fit to travel? I can't say if it would work, though. 

If you want to take it to the Ombudsman, you have to submit a Formal Complaint to the Complaints dept on your policy. Then they have 8 weeks to respond with a Final Response. And then you have to submit your complaint to the Ombudsman within 6 months of that Final Repsonse. (And the queue at the Ombudsman is then months long!) 

GrassSnakeUK

Thats awesome, thanks for your reply!
I await their response before deciding on a course of action but this is certainly an aide to my response to them. 

Annemos

Good luck GrassSnake. You can also do a search into the Ombudsman's decisions on that website. 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions


As consumers, I find that we get a gut feeling for what is unfair, but because we are not experts, the reasons we come up with might not be the ones that would be accepted by the Insurance Industry and Ombudsman. 

So it is useful to try and get inside their way of thinking. 

So the CAB was looking at number of claims etc. But actually when you do look at the FOS, it is the Risk that they are looking at. 

GrassSnakeUK

Hello again, I have received a reply to an email asking for clarification on what my policy covers after giving them my policy number etc. The reply is as follows:

Dear David,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

We’re pleased to let you know that our travel policies will provide you with enhanced cover for claims arising as a consequence of COVID-19.

 

Before you travel, we’ve included cover for cancellation due to you falling ill with COVID-19 and being unable to travel or being required to self-isolate, subject to medical certification or an official test result.

During your trip, all our policies include cover for any medical claim due to COVID-19 while travelling if there was no Foreign, Commonwealth and Development (FCDO) warning against all or all but essential travel due to COVID-19 when you departed.

This extends to reasonable additional transport and/or accommodation expenses up to the standard of your original booking (for example full or half-board, all inclusive, bed and breakfast, self-catering room only), if it is necessary for you to stay beyond your scheduled return date because you’ve failed a COVID-19 test and are required to self-isolate or quarantine at your trip destination.

 

Please contact the AXA Emergency Assistance team before committing to additional costs, as you may be expected to check whether transport tickets can be arranged without cost or with a nominal administration fee through your original service provider.

 

We’ve also included cover for curtailment (if you need to come home early) due to the illness of a close relative back home due to COVID-19.

If you choose to travel against FCDO advice (that is to a country, specific area, or event when the FCDO, or other regulatory authority in a country to/from which you are travelling, has advised against all or all but essential travel) our policies will continue to provide cover for any insured losses unrelated to the specific reasons for the travel advice/restrictions.

 

For example, should you travel against FCDO or other regulatory authority advice that is in place due to COVID-19, your policy will not provide cover if you suffer with COVID-19 when abroad, but would provide cover for claims that are not directly or indirectly linked to COVID-19, for instance if you broke your leg.

 

Our policies will continue to provide cover for non-COVID-19 related incidents, for Emergency Medical Costs, Baggage, Passports, Money, and Personal Accident claims, as usual during your trip.

 

You can view all the above information on our dedicated coronavirus guidance page using the following (Link removed by poster)

Kind regards

 

Ruth  

Am I right in thinking that because I have it in writing I'm fully covered? My only concern is the use of the word "our" policy, not "your" policy

Thanks again, Dave

Annemos

Good morning Dave. 

I stress I am not an expert at all on Insurance. So anything I say is just what I think. 
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I don't think it is a problem that they say OUR policies. They just mean the policy that WE have set up for you. 

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The problem I think you do have, is that this policy was valid for the first trip that you made. But the question now is as we were discussing before......

Can they now take the positon that your medical circumstances have now so materially changed which is making you a higher risk...      Is it enough that they can now change the conditions of this policy and make the fact that you have had Covid before  now count as a Pre-existing condition and therefore they will no longer cover you for it. 

(All insurance policies say something along the lines of....if your circumstances change, we reserve the right to XXX (eg cancel your policy or do other things to it.) 

I was going to ask if you can pin them down on just why they think that because you had one dose of Covid, you are now at a higher risk of having more future Covid problems? Is it age or something?

But now please see next bits which I have come across! This perhaps throws more doubt on whether you could get them to cover you for Covid on a new trip??? 

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See these links, Dave. The Americans have been looking at this, presumably because they don't have a public general health system like we do. So they have had to look at this, not just for travel insurance but for general private health insurance cover for their entire population.

These two articles do seem to imply that underwriters might be able to include Covid as a pre-existing condition and thus exclude cover. And it seems to hang off the fact that currently too little is known about Covid. 


This one discusses how "It's too early to tell"

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/28/could-covid-19-be-considered-a-preexisting-condition.html


This one asks "How costly and serious is Covid as a Health Condition". 

https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/is-covid-19-a-pre-existing-condition-what-could-happen-if-the-aca-is-overturned/

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Side note.... thank heavens we have our NHS, Dave!! In my opinion it is priceless. 


And I wonder if we go and try to buy travel insuance now....are we all going to be asked "Have you ever tested positive for Covid?" And then they could either decline cover or charge us more?? 

GrassSnakeUK

Thanks again for your great replies and assistance.

I initially sent the following, I have specifically asked for clarification of cover?

Good Afternoon, I wish to seek clarification on the following: Policy Number: Xxxxxxx

Date of Issue: 24 August 2021 I wish to confirm the level of cover currently in place on the above policy. I sent an email on the 28th of October regarding my policy cover, pertaining to covid cover provided on this policy, to which I received no response. Many thanks David

Annemos

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/318952/DRN-3099812.pdf


The Insurance Company won this one. And we can see all the arguments. 

It was not Covid in this case, but I suspect the Underwriters will use the same arguments. 
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What exactly have they offered you? 

Is it that the policy still remains, but without any cover for Covid? 


If so and you now want to cancel your 2nd holiday.....I wonder if this would apply because you now have all the risk of Covid costs upon yourself if you do travel and so you do not want to go on holiday any more under those circumstances. 


 XXX isn’t obliged to continue to offer cover if there’s been a fundamental change in the risk it agreed to cover at the outset. When there’s a fundamental change, XXX may withdraw cover or change the cover or premium. Here, XXX considered the change in the risk Miss M’s condition presented and withdrew cover.

 In general terms, insurers can decide what risks they wish to take on. XXX says that the new information Miss M provided about her health meant that its underwriting criteria wasn’t met. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that XXX treated Miss M any differently than it would treat anyone else in the same position.

 Where an insurer withdraws cover entirely in circumstances like these, we’d expect it to offer to cover the costs of cancelling any holiday which has already been booked and was due to be taken during the policy year. Even if cancellation isn’t medically necessary at that point, we think this is the fair and reasonable thing for insurers to do. 

GrassSnakeUK

Hello again, firstly thanks for your replies and help.
When I contracted covid in September, I contacted the insurer and explained that we wished to be open and honest about it. We made a full recovery and required no medical intervention. The insurer then contacted us to say, that on future trips, we would be covered but not for covid as it was a predisposed condition.
I contested this at the time but received no response. We have since booked another holiday and sought clarification per the email posted above.
I have heard this argument from a friend:

It's an annual policy, much like your car insurance, which provides cover from, amongst other things, car crashes.... they can't say to you if you have a crash, you can't have another crash but you can have a broken windscreen...