Cornwall Staycation in June - Holiday insurance due to pregnancy scare

piperm87

Hi all,

Got a holiday in Cornwall coming up in June with my Parents - Me, my partner and our son stopping in one accommodation and my parents and brother stopping in another accommodation - both booked with the same letting company. We never took our holiday insurance when booking as we didn't believe it would be needed but my and my partner have since found out we will be (hopefully) be welcoming another bundle of joy into the world - expected July.

She had a pregnancy scare last week - an issue known as Preterm premature rupture of membranes at 22weeks which resulted in an hospital stay for 4 nights. The doctor who initially saw us in maternity didn't do the test properly and after it was redone Friday there was no further membrane leakage but they can't say for sure that the waters didn't break at the time as the test wasn't done properly. The doctors notes say that everything is clear and ok and just to take it easy etc etc but i'm rather wary now and looking into getting holiday insurance just incase.

My 2 questions which i was hoping some advice on are - Would we still be able to get holiday cover with pregnancy if they know we have had a suspected scare even if the doctors notes say it wasn't what we thought?, also would i be able to get cover for my parents at the same time as they don't want to go if we don't go ie would i need to add them to the same policy or would 2 policy be sufficient?

We've never bothered with holiday insurance before so i'm not clued up on how it works etc?

We have untill 8th April to make a decision should we decide to go or not,  anything before and we just lose the deposit, anything after and we lose more and more of the refund the closer to the date we are due to go away

Any help would be greatly appreciated

many thanks

matt piper

soolin

Any holiday insurance would  require you to fully disclose any existing medical conditions and almost certainly ask about recent treatment etc. Once the history is known they are likely to either charge an extremely high premium (which might mean losing your deposit is the cheaper option) or decline to cover you for any similar issues. 

Insurance is something that should be considered at point of booking or arranging anything expensive , not only after you suspect you might need it. 

Obviously there is nothing to stop you enquiring , I would strongly suggest you speak direct to insurers and not go via a comparison site, that way you can be sure that they understand what your medical records will show. 

piperm87

Thank you,

I know its a difficult one, the treatment notes from the hospital say she was in for a suspect Premature rupture of the membrane but it doesn't confirm it nore does it give any recommendations, advice or any follow ups etc.. as if they are saying no they didn't go - which they verbally told her they couldn't confirm due to the test not been done right in the first place. 

Regrettably we booked the holiday 12 months in advance and never took out the insurance as didn't see a reason too at the time. We then found out we were expanding the family from 3 to 4 and had this scare and here we are today.

 

lisyloo

I’m sure you can now see why you buy at the point of financial risk/loss.
You didn’t expect anything, but then the unexpected happened.
it’s to protect your loss from the unexpected.

You could speak to an insurer but I’d advise being entirely honest about everything.
it’s possible they would exclude anything related to that particular issue but not necessarily other issues (including other pregnancy issues), so it might be worth it for other unexpected issues e.g. covid.

I wouldn’t expect them to trawl though doctors notes just to give you a quote.

the good news is you are in the uk so have the nhs on hand wherever you go.

Personally I would expect cancellation claims related to that particular medical issue to be excluded.
if you believe it was probably nothing then that shouldn’t be a huge concern should it?

soolin

piperm87 said:

Thank you,

I know its a difficult one, the treatment notes from the hospital say she was in for a suspect Premature rupture of the membrane but it doesn't confirm it nore does it give any recommendations, advice or any follow ups etc.. as if they are saying no they didn't go - which they verbally told her they couldn't confirm due to the test not been done right in the first place. 

Regrettably we booked the holiday 12 months in advance and never took out the insurance as didn't see a reason too at the time. We then found out we were expanding the family from 3 to 4 and had this scare and here we are today.

 

Due to the complications of the event it would need to be explained to any potential insurer, that’s why I suggested a call, however it must be fully declared with no caveats about what you thought was wrong or why you believe it was un necessary. The thing to remember is that should anything at all happen whilst on holiday (even a completely unrelated issue) if they check the medical records and decide something was mis declared they may well decline to pay out. 

Off topic, but try and enjoy the pregnancy , this is a happy and joyful time and stress for any of you won’t help. If the holiday is expensive enough to concern you about not going at the last minute then cancel now and lose the deposit. If you can afford to lose the holiday then don’t stress it, go and enjoy yourself, it might be the last chance to relax for a few years without having to keep one eye out for a baby ! 

And congratulations on the pregnancy.

TELLIT01

I suspect the vast majority of us don't take out holiday insurance when holidaying in the UK.  It's worth checking to see if your bank account includes cover for holidays in the UK.  I think you will have major problems getting insurance now for an existing condition.

lisyloo

TELLIT01 said:

I suspect the vast majority of us don't take out holiday insurance when holidaying in the UK.  It's worth checking to see if your bank account includes cover for holidays in the UK.  I think you will have major problems getting insurance now for an existing condition.

Yes but it will cover everything else including possibly covid.
and if this really was probably nothing then it won’t matter if it’s excluded.
im not sure if pregnancy issues would be covered right up to the last minute (I mean cancellation not medical). They certainly wouldn’t be for foreign travel (and you can fly late on anyway).

who knows there could be death, illness, burglary, fire or flood just beforehand (let’s look on the bright side).