Claiming on Travel Insurance - Pre Existing Declared Condition

markavfc2

Hi all. Me and my wife have annual worldwide family travel insurance cover with Aviva. My wife has had a couple of pre existing conditions, migraines and an anal fistula, for the last 2-3 years. We had to pay an upgrade for the anal fistula. My wife had an operation to fix the anal fistula 4 weeks ago. We are due to go on holiday next Saturday but my wife is still in a lot of pain following the operation and we think it is unlikley she will be well enough to travel. She visited her GP yesterday and was signed off work for a further two weeks.

Will there likely be any problems making a claim on the travel insurance? the holiday we are due to go on was booked back in December and my wife was given a date for her operation in late January with the operation undertaken 4 weeks ago. The operation was in relation to a declared medical condition we paid an upgrade for.

Any info/advice much appreciated.

Woodstok2000

If you've paid for full cover for an existing condition, and you've got cancellation cover due to illness in the policy, there shouldn't be any issues making a claim. You should discuss with thr insurer ASAP though.

TELLIT01

Did the wording of the policy require you to inform the insurer that she had surgery and, if so, did you inform them?

The only way you can get a definitive answer is to speak to the insurer.

markavfc2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81922812#Comment_81922812

We declared her condition back in August (at yearly renewal point) and again paid an upgrade fee (we had paid a fee previously as she has had the issue for a couple of years). We booked the holiday in December, she was offered the surgery in January and she had the surgery last month. We did not at that point notify the insurer of the surgery but had told then about the issue last August. I have checked the policy and there is nothing to say that we had to inform them that she had surgery on a condition she had already declared.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

heatherw_01

Just a note, you always have to tell them if you are having any surgery or treatment as this affects cover if you come to travel while already knowing of planned treatment.

In this case, you had already booked the trip BEFORE the surgery was announced, so you should be ok to claim.

But as far as I know, if you had of travelled and then needed to claim, you would not be covered because you knew of the planned treatment and failed to tell the insurer.

In this case, you haven't travelled yet and you had booked the trip before you knew about surgery.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is how it works from what I know and from my own previous experience.

twopenny

When you declared her condition did you know of the upcoming surgery and did you inform them of that?

And it isn't the surgery that is the reason for you cancelling. It's that she hasn't recovered from it.

I think it's unlikely that they will cover this but if you don't ask you don't get. Worth getting in touch with them and asking.

My best wishes to your wife. It must be awful.

silvercar

I don’t know enough about the condition to know if an operation is always necessary. In my view you told them about the condition, paid the premium then booked a holiday. So the holiday should be covered. I would have expected that having had an operation, prior to travel you would have called them again and said that she has had an operation. Just so that it’s on record that the condition already covered has now been operated on.

I would suggest you phone them now and tell them there is a risk she may not be able to travel, but also ask if she would still be covered for anything arising from the condition and subsequent operation if you went ahead. You need to do this because insurers have a different view when people are in the immediate post op phase, rather than merely having a condition.

They may say that they don’t want to offer cover so soon after an operation and so will pay for you to cancel. Alternatively, they may say they will pay to cancel if you can produce a doctor’s note that she isn’t well enough to travel. They may not be happy just for her to decide she is not well enough to travel if the medical advice is that she is good to go.

As a very generalised statement, paying out for cancellation costs is an easily determined amount, paying abroad for treatment is a blank cheque, and insurers are putting themselves at greater risk.

NoodleDoodleMan

I reckon an insurer would expect to be informed of any surgical procedure prior to travelling.

Non disclosure is tempting fate IMO.