Travel Insurance

Lyns56

I desperately need some help and advice. I took out some travel insurance last year for a group of us going to the USA. As usual it asks if anyone in the group have on pre existing conditions like diabetes, heart conditions asthma etc within 2 years. With noone having these conditions i choose No. Unfortunately my mother became ill with heat exhaustion and her blood pressure went up slightly. She was sent to a hospital were they did 2 days of extensive tests. 
My mother has never had high blood pressure and never been on medication for this. The hospital knew it was just heat exhaustion. After 9 months of this happening and all the documentation sent to AXA insurance they have only just informed us that they will not be paying the medical bill. 
No contact from AXA for 9 months, only informed of the decline in claim from the Billing agency in USA!
Due to us not declaring pre existing conditions! after numerous phone calls i was told that any visit to the doctors be it a check up, a blood test, a covid jab, a flu jab, an x-ray, iron tablets, vitamin b tablets, MOT check up, blood sample, annual bowel cancer screening!
any visit to the doctors even for advice are deemed as direct and indirect pre existing conditions!! so they declined the claim!
has anyone else been through the same situation or can anyone help?
many thanks

AC55

This is probably the wrong forum to post this in, however is going to the financial services ombudsman an option for you? Their response seems kind of ridiculous.

Here's the page for the ombudsman: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/travel-insurance

Lyns56

Hi 
Thankyou yes I’ve been told procedure is formal complaint letter first and then deadlock then financial ombudsman. Scary to think AXA does this all the time ! 

DullGreyGuy

Lyns56 said:

I desperately need some help and advice. I took out some travel insurance last year for a group of us going to the USA. As usual it asks if anyone in the group have on pre existing conditions like diabetes, heart conditions asthma etc within 2 years. With noone having these conditions i choose No. Unfortunately my mother became ill with heat exhaustion and her blood pressure went up slightly. She was sent to a hospital were they did 2 days of extensive tests. 
My mother has never had high blood pressure and never been on medication for this. The hospital knew it was just heat exhaustion. After 9 months of this happening and all the documentation sent to AXA insurance they have only just informed us that they will not be paying the medical bill. 
No contact from AXA for 9 months, only informed of the decline in claim from the Billing agency in USA!
Due to us not declaring pre existing conditions! after numerous phone calls i was told that any visit to the doctors be it a check up, a blood test, a covid jab, a flu jab, an x-ray, iron tablets, vitamin b tablets, MOT check up, blood sample, annual bowel cancer screening!
any visit to the doctors even for advice are deemed as direct and indirect pre existing conditions!! so they declined the claim!
has anyone else been through the same situation or can anyone help?
many thanks

You need to double check the exact questions you were asked including any helper notes. For example with one of their large resellers the help text to the question is:

You must answer Yes to this question if anyone to be insured under this policy has: Any disease, illness or injury for which you or anyone else insured on this policy has:

• Taken any prescribed medication or required medical treatment within the last two years;
• Consulted a medical practitioner and/or been registered as an in or out patient at a hospital, clinic or GP surgery in the last two years.

So absolutely, if you have been to your GP and they have prescribed tablets or requested a bloodtest or x-ray in the last two years you'd have to answer yes. Once you have answered yes it will ask you dozens of other questions based on a fairly complex tree depending on what you declare. 


So what things had gone on with the Doctor that you failed to declare? Are they saying those conditions were related to the high blood pressure/heat stroke or the more generic false declaration?

Misslayed

Move to appropriate board requested