Travel Insurance

izingolweni

A question regarding "Travel Insurance" Can anyone comment or advise on the following regarding Travel Insurance.
I am looking to travel to South Africa in a few months time. Being of a certain age group there are health consideratons. Basic Travel insurance to cover flights delays, lost baggage and cancellations is not that expensive. Unfortunately it is always expensive once you start declaring health issues.
My question is, is it possible to have a medical insurance to only cover your medical conditions while in another country and to have a seperate basic travel insurance?
Has anyone tried or done this? If so is it cost effective?
Would appreciate any information or feedback.

DullGreyGuy

You can get an international version of PMI but it's normally an annual policy and expensive but it covers you at home and overseas. A quick check on Bupa's version and it's about 75% more expensive than the UK only version for us.

Could work out if you are travelling a lot to different countries etc but travel insurance with the declared conditions is likely to be much cheaper even on an annual policy.

NoodleDoodleMan

I would have thought it is just as costly to have medical insurance separately alongside standard basic cover as it would be to have a comprehensive policy with health conditions declared ?

The medical conditions have to be declared regardless.

sheramber

Why would a separate policy for medical expenses be any cheaper than if included in regular  travel insurance?

it would also mean if a medical reason prevented you from travelling you would not be covered for cancellation.

John_Gateshead

Admiral is recommended here for travel insurance but I for one am avoiding it after wasting a silly amount of time trying to buy a policy on its web site.

I tried signing up for an account, then a portal account using three different email addresses and no verification email came through either to my Inbox, my Junk Mail or Spam folders on any of them. My initial attempt was at the start of the year; I tried again on 5th and then again today but there has still been no sign of any email from them. I tried ringing them about this, was kept on hold for 20 minutes ("High call volume" - when isn't it?) and then gave up. I switched to StaySure for my policy and got the verification message on the first attempt.

Has anyone here had similar problems communicating with Admiral?

silvercar

It is sometimes possible to buy local health insurance in the country you are visiting. Couple that with basic insurance without medical and it could work. (Friends have done this when travelling to a country where the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel, so impossible to get insurance here). Downside is that there are gaps - you won’t be covered if you need to cancel before travel, for anything that occurs while travelling or for repatriation. 

michele-p

My husband has an ongoing new medical issue we have to declare. I priced up insurance for us with SureStay who we've used before, and it was astronomical, over £1500 for a 2 week USA break.

We asked his medical team, and they gave us a list of insurers to try, we have just taken an annual policy using https://www.insurancewith.com/  with all his conditions covered for just £300 for both of us with WORLDWIDE cover, and that's with me adding on the cover for earthquakes/natural events and strikes. There would be an extra £200 excess for him however, but that's only if we claim, worth it for the much lower policy price.

Worth a try anyway!

Stresser

My husband has pre-existing health conditions.  Two heart related conditions recently diagnosed are Mild Dilation of the Right Ventricle and Mild Dilation of the Aortic Sinuses.  Brokers and Insurance Companies do not recognise these conditions.  Can anybody help with alternative wording that these companies will recognise please. 

katejo

John_Gateshead said:

Admiral is recommended here for travel insurance but I for one am avoiding it after wasting a silly amount of time trying to buy a policy on its web site.

I tried signing up for an account, then a portal account using three different email addresses and no verification email came through either to my Inbox, my Junk Mail or Spam folders on any of them. My initial attempt was at the start of the year; I tried again on 5th and then again today but there has still been no sign of any email from them. I tried ringing them about this, was kept on hold for 20 minutes ("High call volume" - when isn't it?) and then gave up. I switched to StaySure for my policy and got the verification message on the first attempt.

Has anyone here had similar problems communicating with Admiral?

I have been having the same problem with Insure and Go today and yesterday. I have used them many times before so tried to log into my account. I requested a reminder of the password 10 times but the reply doesn't reach me. I have checked junk/spam folders several times but no luck.

DullGreyGuy

Stresser said:

My husband has pre-existing health conditions.  Two heart related conditions recently diagnosed are Mild Dilation of the Right Ventricle and Mild Dilation of the Aortic Sinuses.  Brokers and Insurance Companies do not recognise these conditions.  Can anybody help with alternative wording that these companies will recognise please. 

Dilated cardiomyopathy would be the first one, if I remember my ancient languages correctly @stresser .

I'm not confident enough if the dilation of the sinuses could be captured in a definition that discusses the heart or if it needs to be described as an aneurism given its impacting an artery. Your GP or specialist should be able to give you the more generic medical term.