How to declare a medical condition if none diagnosed?

kuepper

I have travel insurance via packaged current a/c and recently was advised by 111 to  go to a&e when I suddenly felt dizzy for no apparent reason .They did blood tests for sugar, thyroid, magnesium etc, took my blood pressure sitting and standing, did an ecg and various other tests and found everything normal. Discharged me advising me to make an appointment with GP and ask for a heart monitor fitted (as ecg was only a snapshot in time and a longer monitoring might show something up). So it seems to be a process of eliminating possible conditions before finding a cause. Do I need to tell insurer all this? All I can see in t&c is conditions to declare but I can't declare a condition as none has been found/diagnosed so as far as medics are concerned I'm fine as far as they know, I'm due to go on a holiday soon and may have to cancel if I don't feel better plus I have other travel booked later in the year that I want to know if I'll be able to successfully claim if I need to cancel when in effect I'm the only one who knows I'm ill but I can't prove it .

onashoestring

Yes you need to advise your insurer of a health problem that is being investigated to make sure you are covered.

A family friend had some routine health checks following what they thought was minor illness   and had not received back all of the results of medical scans etc when they went on holiday . Whilst there they sadly had a heart attack- the insurance  refused to pay for the hospital and repatriation bills ( around £10,000 ) because he hadn’t disclosed that he was waiting for results of scans etc.

Advise your insurer that you have a  health problem that is not diagnosed and being investigated. As long as you have declared it , you should be covered in case anything happens whilst you are away which is later found to be related to your previous dizzy episode.

I hope you feel after soon and if well enough have a lovely holiday.

IvanOpinion

There are a few things you could do
1. There is often a box you can tick that says you are waiting for results for an undiagnosed condition.  The problem with checking this box is that the premium may soar or, as Mrs O. found, they would not insure her
2. Do not declare it but when you get the results back contact your insurance company and get it added to your policy (may require an additional premium)
3. Do not declare it and take the risk that you will not be covered if the insurance company can relate any claim to that condition


I am not sure that onashoestring is correct in their third paragraph.  Just because you have declared something does not always mean that it is covered - check your policy carefully.

TELLIT01

onashoestring said:

Yes you need to advise your insurer of a health problem that is being investigated to make sure you are covered.

A family friend had some routine health checks following what they thought was minor illness   and had not received back all of the results of medical scans etc when they went on holiday . Whilst there they sadly had a heart attack- the insurance  refused to pay for the hospital and repatriation bills ( around £10,000 ) because he hadn’t disclosed that he was waiting for results of scans etc.

Advise your insurer that you have a  health problem that is not diagnosed and being investigated. As long as you have declared it , you should be covered in case anything happens whilst you are away which is later found to be related to your previous dizzy episode.

I hope you feel after soon and if well enough have a lovely holiday.

That may be true for a current insurance policy, but not necessarily for a new one.  I'm currently looking for insurance and when I started did have an undiagnosed condition.  At least one insurer had a blanket 'will not quote for undiagnosed conditions' message when I was on their site.

Ganga

Do not most insurance companies ask :- Have you attended a hospital /doctors for checks regarding health problems ?

onashoestring

Ganga said:

Do not most insurance companies ask :- Have you attended a hospital /doctors for checks regarding health problems ?

Yes most do when you apply for a new policy -
OP has annual travel insurance as part of a packaged bank a/c - so will need to contact them to notify them of the change since the policy started - as other posters have said this may or may not be covered .

sheramber

Ganga said:

Do not most insurance companies ask :- Have you attended a hospital /doctors for checks regarding health problems ?

Mine asked for details of all visits to GP in the last 2 years.

kuepper

Phoned AXA who said I couldn't notify them of any medical condition as my condition was undiagnosed. AXA said I'd have to make a claim part of which would be medical proof I'd have to get from my GP though presumably he can't say if i'm fit to travel or not as I haven't been diagnosed with anything.

onashoestring

If your  holiday is booked with a travel company that has a allows you to make changes ( eg BA, Jet2, Easyjet ) you could re-schedule the holiday to a later date when the outcome of the medical tests will be known ?  

katejo

onashoestring said:

Yes you need to advise your insurer of a health problem that is being investigated to make sure you are covered.

A family friend had some routine health checks following what they thought was minor illness   and had not received back all of the results of medical scans etc when they went on holiday . Whilst there they sadly had a heart attack- the insurance  refused to pay for the hospital and repatriation bills ( around £10,000 ) because he hadn’t disclosed that he was waiting for results of scans etc.

Advise your insurer that you have a  health problem that is not diagnosed and being investigated. As long as you have declared it , you should be covered in case anything happens whilst you are away which is later found to be related to your previous dizzy episode.

I hope you feel after soon and if well enough have a lovely holiday.

Insurers refuse to cover you at all until you have a diagnosis. They don't accept anything if investigations are pending because it is an unknown quantity.

katejo

sheramber said:

Ganga said:

Do not most insurance companies ask :- Have you attended a hospital /doctors for checks regarding health problems ?

Mine asked for details of all visits to GP in the last 2 years.

I refuse to buy a policy with any insurer which says that. Prior to Covid, I used to use Insure and Go (now disappeared as far as I can see or taken over) and they only required you to declare certain categories of condition such as heart, blood or neurological plus cancer of course. Mind you visits to the GP in the past 2 years should be ok. Absolute zero because they won't let us in the building