Seizure since Travel Insurance began

MarcJ88

Hi. We're partly through an annual multi-trip travel insurance with Post Office, although I've since been diagnosed with epilepsy. Predictably, when informing PO, the price has shot up by a crazy amount. What methods can I use to lower this increase - mention levetiracetam tablets, get a note from doctor etc? And would it instead be worth getting this partial refund + starting a new claim elsewhere? Thanks.

marcia_

MarcJ88 said:

Hi. We're partly through an annual multi-trip travel insurance with Post Office, although I've since been diagnosed with epilepsy. Predictably, when informing PO, the price has shot up by a crazy amount. What methods can I use to lower this increase - mention levetiracetam tablets, get a note from doctor etc? And would it instead be worth getting this partial refund + starting a new claim elsewhere? Thanks.

 I have epilepsy and get insurance from either the post office or stay sure. Both are expensive but cover all my medical conditions ( I have 5 plus epilepsy) post office is generally cheaper than stay sure for us. 

elsien

Not sure mentioning your medication will make much difference. 

You can look at quotes elsewhere Put there may not be a huge amount of difference if your diagnosis is  recent Because it may be hard to judge how stablr it is as yet.
have you tried calling them to ask what evidence you can provide that might Make a difference?

luci

Something which may be of help to someone else in future - LV= travel insurance doesn't need to be advised of any new medical conditions mid-term, only at renewal.

The following are specialist medical directories for people having difficulty getting getting insurance or at a reasonable cost. 

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/insurance/travel-insurance-directory

Medical Cover Firm Directory

https://www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance/travel-medical-conditions/

Beeblebr0x

luci said:

Something which may be of help to someone else in future - LV= travel insurance doesn't need to be advised of any new medical conditions mid-term, only at renewal.

That's surprising. My Insure And Go annual policy requires me to advise them of any new conditions, or where the condition has worsened, at any time during the life of the policy.

MyRealNameToo

Beeblebr0x said:

luci said:

Something which may be of help to someone else in future - LV= travel insurance doesn't need to be advised of any new medical conditions mid-term, only at renewal.

That's surprising. My Insure And Go annual policy requires me to advise them of any new conditions, or where the condition has worsened, at any time during the life of the policy.

https://www.lv.com/travel-insurance/travel-insurance-if-i-get-a-new-medical-condition-or-my-health-changes

LV are a bit old school in many ways which has its positives and negatives.

MarcJ88 said:

Hi. We're partly through an annual multi-trip travel insurance with Post Office, although I've since been diagnosed with epilepsy. Predictably, when informing PO, the price has shot up by a crazy amount. What methods can I use to lower this increase - mention levetiracetam tablets, get a note from doctor etc? And would it instead be worth getting this partial refund + starting a new claim elsewhere? Thanks.

You can check the medical screening questions, most companies use one of two solutions hence they all ask the same Qs even if the websites look different. Looking at epilepsy they ask the number of seizures in the short term and medium term, hospital admissions, how many meds, how long you've had it and if it was caused by a brain injury. 

So to improve things you need a low number of seizures, no hospital admissions, low number of meds and probably having had it for a while... no idea on if its better or worse that it followed a brain injury. Unfortunately these are all going to be hard for you to control but thats what will lower the price. 

Mass market travel insurance's pricing doesnt consider individual cases being reviewed by a medical professional at the point of underwriting. Margins are far too thin for them to look at a doctors letter which, if taken seriously, would result in them asking for a report to be completed which doctors charge anywhere from £100 to £400 to complete and then needs a medical review at the insurers end and may trigger supplementary reports etc. If the insurer is to pick up the bill they have to consider that most they quote for won't buy so the cost to individual policyholders has to be many times the cost of the report to just break even.