Travel insurance over 65

nigelf1234

My wife & I are both over 65 but have no current medical issues. (i had cancer but more than 5 years ago). We are going in the UK with my daughter who has back pain for which she has had an injection (unsucessful) and for which she takes strong painkillers. Would it be better to book two seperate polocies - one for my my daughter & one for ourselves as we seem to be penalised for age & for medical. Or are we better to go to a broker? Any thoughts?

DullGreyGuy

Ultimately it comes down to the wordings of each policy... her back condition may be accepted under her policy but you won't have an opportunity to declare it on yours and so it will be excluded. So if her back is too bad and she can't travel she could claim for her losses but you couldn't claim for yours but maybe you would just go on the trip without her?

Similarly were your house to burn down the night before you were due to go your policy would cover you cancelling to deal with the emergency but its unlikely hers would so either she goes alone or loses. 

This in part can be offset by careful selection of the policy, there are some that will cover you if your travelling companions have to cancel for any of the reasons you could (so deals with scenario 2 above) but none will cover pre-existing conditions of people not covered. 

The downside of buying a group policy is you must have absolute confidence that she'll give you all her medical history to declare. There have been cases of claims being denied because kids dont want to tell their parents/parents-in-law of some of their medical past.

komera

Just as info for others - I was turned down by Admiral because of my medical history, nothing too bad, controlled hypertension on 1 med, chronic UTI also controlled with 2 meds. Sadly none of them look at how active you are, though I know that would be complicated. Other over 65 companies come up with very high estimates - over £1000. Avanti was our best. But we haven't yet tested their responses if we make a claim, only ever had to once about 15 years ago and it was AXA and they were fantastic. 
Great advice in an earlier message to make sure you book as a couple if one person has more health issues than the other as you will share each trip.....!