Do I have any pre-existing conditions?

princess

Hi, I am about to take out travel insurance and was wondering what constitutes a pre-existing condition. I feel perfectly well and always have done, so in the past have said I have no pre-existing conditions as I am not having treatment for anything, but now wonder if any of the following would count as worth being mentioned

Cholesterol levels that were slightly high but now reduced to normal levels by diet.

Some bone loss detected by routine bone scan, but not significant enough to be osteoporosis and not requiring treatment

Temporary heart arhythmia a year ago, no treatment required and now completely normal

An unpassed kidney stone, no treatment required at this stage

Scarring the the cornea (eye) monitored yearly in hospital eye dept, but no treatment needed

Slight anemia, no treatment required

Wow! I look really sick when you read it all together. But seriously, are these the sorts of things I should be mentioning or do we just mention conditions that are being treated?
Many thanks for ploughing through this.

Incapuppy

If it was me, I would ask your potential insurers these questions - they will have heard them all before and will just be able to say yay or nay ;0)

It is much better to ask than not mention something and find out you are not covered. I am no expert but I would think the only thing they may be concerned about is the kidney stone - if that starts moving around (or whatever kidney stones do ) then you could find yourself in agony and needing treatment.

dmg24

Insurers will look for anything to pay out on a claim, so if you want to be covered, I would mention them.

I have health conditions that (if they were declared) would make my insurance cost as much as the holiday. I just don't declare them, but am aware that if I needed treatment for them when I was away I would not be covered x

Edit: I obviously weigh up the possibility of me becoming ill before travelling! x

nlwsaint

I have high cholesterol which I control with statins. Last year I was looking to renew our yearly insurance & noticed that most insurance companies list this in their pre conditions section. I ended up ringing several companies & informing them & they all said they just make a note of it but it doesn't affect the premium. The thing is, there are an awful lot of people out there who don't even know they have high cholesterol so are not in a position to control it. At least I'm trying to do something about it & would be really upset if I was refused insurance or a claim because of that.

*jobags*

If you declare it to a travel insurance company you have to pay and additional amount - perhaps for each condtion.
My son has a serious life limiting condition, my husband has an under active thyroid and I have lupus with no complications

We have annual travel insurance and as I declared these conditions at the outset I paid £27 each (£81 total) for the sheer privelege (??spelt wrongly) of answering a few additional questions

The figure is completely arbitrary, our son is very high risk, husband is virtually no risk, I am moderate risk and yet they are still charged the same amount each

I know if we made a claim relating to any of the pre existing conditions they'd no doubt wriggle out of it, but if I made a claim completely unrelated (e.g falling off a log) and they found out about any of these pre existing conditions our cover would be invalidated

It's up to you - it's all a game of risk

Jo XXX

Incapuppy

*jobags* wrote: »

If you declare it to a travel insurance company you have to pay and additional amount - perhaps for each condtion.

I'm not sure that this is necessarily the case - it will depend on the insurer concerned, AFAIK some are happy to cover non-serious pre-existing conditions without any further charge.

We use the 'free' insurance provided by my OH's NatWest Gold account and were pleasantly surprised that we were covered by our (mine and OH's) collective pre-existing conditions.

ceejayblue

I've got a few pre-existing conditions only one of which I am taking medication for but I have had to declare them all. Having said that if I make a claim I'm sure that if they did hard enough into my medical history they are bound to find something that I've forgotten that I ever had treatment for!

My insurers, Direct Travel, are pretty good and gave me a good price for my insurance of about £30, considering what I've got on my list of things that isn't bad because I was quoted nearly £70 by another company.

TomsMom

*jobags* wrote: »

my husband has an under active thyroid

We have annual travel insurance and as I declared these conditions at the outset I paid £27 each (£81 total) for the sheer privelege (??spelt wrongly) of answering a few additional questions

The figure is completely arbitrary, our son is very high risk, husband is virtually no risk, I am moderate risk and yet they are still charged the same amount each

I know if we made a claim relating to any of the pre existing conditions they'd no doubt wriggle out of it, but if I made a claim completely unrelated (e.g falling off a log) and they found out about any of these pre existing conditions our cover would be invalidated

It's up to you - it's all a game of risk

Jo XXX

I've had an underactive thyroid for over 30 years and declare it each time when arranging travel insurance. Each time, with whatever company, I have been told, "Oh, that's fine, there is no loading for hypothyroidism".

Oldernotwiser

dmg24 wrote: »

Insurers will look for anything to pay out on a claim, so if you want to be covered, I would mention them.

I have health conditions that (if they were declared) would make my insurance cost as much as the holiday. I just don't declare them, but am aware that if I needed treatment for them when I was away I would not be covered x

Edit: I obviously weigh up the possibility of me becoming ill before travelling! x

The trouble with that is that undisclosed conditions would invalidate your insurance even for new medical conditions or accidents. Unless you've got your crystal ball very well tuned in it's difficult to foresee something like breaking a leg!

dmg24

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

The trouble with that is that undisclosed conditions would invalidate your insurance even for new medical conditions or accidents. Unless you've got your crystal ball very well tuned in it's difficult to foresee something like breaking a leg!

No, they do not invalidate the policy that I have. I obviously checked that before taking out the policy, it would be stupid not to.

Savvy_Sue

I've declared some conditions but said I do not want them covered - the (benign) brain tumour came under that, I said "It's there but it's not going to cause any problems and I wouldn't let some foreign doctor drill into my head" and there's been no loading. Now it's out I say "It was there, they scan me every year but I won't need cover for it" and again, no loading.