Pre-existing medical issues for travel insurance - how can anyone answer the questions?

agent69

I'm trying to get travel insurance before booking a 4 week holiday to somewhere exotic around February next year. I have some pre-existing medical conditions so tried getting a quote from some of the companies that advertise on TV. They all use the same algorithm to ask question, but the person you speak to has no medical training so if the question isn't clear how do you work out what the answer should be. For example:

1. I was asked if I had a raised cholesterol level. When I asked if this was bad cholesterol (LDL) or total cholesterol they couldn't say. When I asked what I should compare the level to in order to see if it was raised they couldn't say. I advised them what my LDL and total cholesterol levels were, and pointed out that they were both below the cut off levels quoted on the NHS website. So I asked her how I should answer the question and she said she couldn't say.
2. I was asked if I had any undiagnosed medical conditions, and I asked what constituted a medical condition, and what constituted a diagnosis. As an example I asked what would happen if I went to the doctor with a pain in my leg and the doctor said he didn't know what was causing it, but it was nothing to worry about. Was the pain in my leg a medical condition, and if the doctor didn't know what was causing it does that make it undiagnosed (or would saying it was nothing to worry about count as a diagnosis).
3. 
   

I've had dealings with travel insurance before and they can be a slippery lot. However, how can you accurately answer the questions when even their representative can't tell you what they mean?

twopenny

Agent it's worse than that.
My doctor said my cholesterol was a little bit up and I asked if that was the good or bad cholesterol.
"Oh the test doesn't show that" was the answer.

sheramber

From Staysure information

Are any travellers experiencing any undiagnosed symptoms?

• This is when a medical condition hasn’t been diagnosed by a doctor. E.g. unexplained pain

According to that your pain is an undiagnosed condition.

If your doctor does not know the cause how can he say it is nothing to worry about? 

luci

agent69 said:

I'm trying to get travel insurance before booking a 4 week holiday to somewhere exotic around February next year. I have some pre-existing medical conditions so tried getting a quote from some of the companies that advertise on TV. They all use the same algorithm to ask question, but the person you speak to has no medical training so if the question isn't clear how do you work out what the answer should be. For example:

1. I was asked if I had a raised cholesterol level. When I asked if this was bad cholesterol (LDL) or total cholesterol they couldn't say. When I asked what I should compare the level to in order to see if it was raised they couldn't say. I advised them what my LDL and total cholesterol levels were, and pointed out that they were both below the cut off levels quoted on the NHS website. So I asked her how I should answer the question and she said she couldn't say.
2. I was asked if I had any undiagnosed medical conditions, and I asked what constituted a medical condition, and what constituted a diagnosis. As an example I asked what would happen if I went to the doctor with a pain in my leg and the doctor said he didn't know what was causing it, but it was nothing to worry about. Was the pain in my leg a medical condition, and if the doctor didn't know what was causing it does that make it undiagnosed (or would saying it was nothing to worry about count as a diagnosis).
3. 
   

I've had dealings with travel insurance before and they can be a slippery lot. However, how can you accurately answer the questions when even their representative can't tell you what they mean?

1. The question about cholesterol usually asks if you have ever been advised that you have high / raised cholesterol. This means total cholesterol, which should be around 5.0. It also asks if you have ever been advised to take medication for it. Those questions should be easy to answer. You don’t need to go into whether it’s good or bad.

2. A medical condition is anything you have consulted a medical professional about, whether it be for advice or treatment.

There are specialist medical insurers and BIBA would be able to advise you on that.

Lorian

If you have the NHS app and and look in my health record - test results - serum lipids - it should tell you all the details of your cholesterol any time it's been tested by the GP, in detail.

It has other useful information for insurance questions too, like diagnosis and medications.

luci

Lorian said:

If you have the NHS app and and look in my health record - test results - serum lipids - it should tell you all the details of your cholesterol any time it's been tested by the GP, in detail.

It has other useful information for insurance questions too, like diagnosis and medications.

I wish we had this in Scotland. It would make life so much easier.

I am so pedantic about declaring everything that I asked to see my medical records. I found a few things the doctor had noted, but not mentioned to me at the consultation. I can't declare what I don't know.

There was also a note in the summary of me having had encephalitis, a serious brain condition. I knew for a fact that I'd never had that. I can remember things from when I was 2 years old and I would have remembered if my mum had told me about it. I made an appointment with the Practice Manager. She couldn’t find details of it being diagnosed, not even on the paper records from before everything was computerised. She said there was always a small percentage of errors in notes. They cannot remove an entry on your medical records, but she put a note saying, “This condition does not relate to this patient”.

elsien

Do you have any undiagnosed conditions e.g. leg pain? if not, why are you worrying about it?

TELLIT01

The OP has said their cholesterol level is below the NHS upper limit, so I would have answered 'No' to that one.

If I went to may GP with a problem and they said they didn't know the cause but don't worry about it, I would either demand a second opinion or find a new GP.  The sad reality is that more and more people are being brushed off by GPs.  A friend of mine was in agony at work, they had stood up from their seat and couldn't sit down again.  Phoned the GP and were told it was probably a trapped nerve, no face to face consultation.  That was nearly 3 months ago and they are still in agony despite being given various different pain killers.  They phoned the surgery again a week ago and have another telephone appointment next week!

GrubbyGirl_2

If I was answering that I would say no and that would be true, but I'd also have to say I was taking statins, that being the reason why I didn't have a raised cholesterol!

agent69

sheramber said:

From Staysure information

Are any travellers experiencing any undiagnosed symptoms?

• This is when a medical condition hasn’t been diagnosed by a doctor. E.g. unexplained pain

According to that your pain is an undiagnosed condition.

If your doctor does not know the cause how can he say it is nothing to worry about? 

This is different wording to the question I was asked, and still isn't clear. It just raises more questions.

What does 'experiencing' mean? Lets just say that I get occasional mild chest pains. They last a couple of hours and I've had them about once a year for 10 years. I've been to various doctors and hospitals and none of them can tell me what's causing the problem, but they all say it's nothing to worry about. So if I haven't had a problem for 6 months am I 'experiencing undiagnosed symptoms', or does the pain have to occur at the exact time I am filling in the insurance form?

As another example, I came back from holiday a year or so ago and couldn't stop coughing (coughed more in a week than in the last 5 years). Went to the doctor and he sent me for a chest Xray and some blood tests. Everything came back normal and he said coughs can take many weeks to clear up, so if it doesn't improve in 3 or 4 weeks time get in contact. When I was coughing I was experiencing undiagnosed symptoms, but at what point did I stop experiencing them?

So ultimately, to be 'experiencing' something does it have to be happening now, or could it be something that has happened in the past but which has the possibility of happening again in the future?

I may just be getting paranoid about these things, but as I said earlier travel insurance firms are a slippery lot to deal with.

luci

TELLIT01 said:

The OP has said their cholesterol level is below the NHS upper limit, so I would have answered 'No' to that one.

If I went to may GP with a problem and they said they didn't know the cause but don't worry about it, I would either demand a second opinion or find a new GP.  The sad reality is that more and more people are being brushed off by GPs.  A friend of mine was in agony at work, they had stood up from their seat and couldn't sit down again.  Phoned the GP and were told it was probably a trapped nerve, no face to face consultation.  That was nearly 3 months ago and they are still in agony despite being given various different pain killers.  They phoned the surgery again a week ago and have another telephone appointment next week!

I had a very similar thing during Covid. I've never felt pain like it and it was an 11 out of 10. I couldn't lie down or stand, so I was bouncing between the two. Had to call 111 at 3 in the morning, once I was able to speak. On call doctor said to get the OH to collect Amitriptyline. I was forced to call every day for almost 2 weeks, as nothing they gave me touched it, including Tramadol, and I was in agony. I eventually had a phone consultation with a doctor who said that some people don't react to opioids and prescribed a couple of other meds. Eventually, a Duty Doctor asked me to go straight down. She called the Neurology Dept at the hospital for advice, then carried out a test they asked for, which involved sticking needles in my rear end to see if I could feel them. She called the Neurology Dept again and I was sent for an urgent MRI scan the following day. They suspected Cauda Equina.

Your friend should insist on a face to face appointment, as they can’t diagnose something like that over the phone.