Travel insurance for pre-existing medical conditions

Medical cover is one of the most important parts of your travel insurance. When you go away, you don’t want a medical emergency to run up massive bills that aren’t covered by your policy. Most companies offer somewhere in the region of £2 million as standard; at InsureandGo we give a minimum of £5 million.

Your policy’s medical cover won’t always cover you for existing medical conditions as standard, however, and you’ll need to declare it during the travel insurance quoting process. Your condition may need to be covered specifically and there may be an extra cost for the cover.

What conditions might incur extra costs?

Medical conditions – typically referred to as “pre-existing conditions” in insurance documents – may mean you need to undergo medical screening to see if the condition will be covered and/or it will incur extra charges.

This may apply if you have any of the following:

• Heart-related conditions
• Blood circulatory conditions (e.g. high blood pressure or high cholesterol)
• Diabetic conditions
• Breathing conditions (e.g. asthma)
• Mental health or psychiatric conditions (e.g. anxiety or depression)
• Neurological conditions (e.g. epilepsy or stroke)
• Treatment and conditions related to cancer (usually within the last five years)
• Conditions related to in-patient hospital treatment or surgery (usually within the last year)

How to declare your pre-existing medical conditions

As part of the travel insurance quote process, you’ll be asked to provide information about your previous and current state of health. There are a few easy-to-answer questions that may then lead to a medical screening process where you’ll need to disclose pre-existing medical conditions including recurring illnesses or injuries, on-going or lifelong conditions, previous surgeries and any conditions you are currently suffering from.

This information will then be used to determine any extra premium (the amount of money you pay for your insurance), higher excess (the amount of money you pay towards a claim) or a medical-related exclusion.

What happens if my medical situation changes after I get my insurance?

Your policy could be affected if there’s a change in your medical condition. If you purchase standard travel insurance and then you develop a medical condition, you will need to disclose this change. In many circumstances you may find that your insurance is unaffected, but you must check.

If you have a pre-existing condition and you purchase an insurance policy that covers it, your insurance may extend to illnesses related to or arising from that condition. But no policy can cover every eventuality, so it’s not always clear whether your personal circumstances will be covered.

If you’ve got insurance with InsureandGo and your situation changes, you should contact us as soon as possible on 0844 888 2760 .

What’s not covered?

Not all pre-existing conditions may be covered by your travel insurance. Also, you may not be able to be covered if you make a claim that arises directly or indirectly as a result of one of the following scenarios:

• If you’re receiving or waiting for medical tests or treatment for any medical condition or set of symptoms that have not been diagnosed
• If you’re travelling against the advice of a medical practitioner or travelling to get medical treatment abroad
• If you’ve been told you have a terminal condition

If you plan to travel while you’re currently undergoing a programme of chemotherapy for cancer, for example, you may not be covered for claims arising from your condition or the treatment of the condition, especially if your doctor has not declared you fit to travel.

If your condition isn’t included (perhaps if a medical exclusion is applied), you will not be covered for any claims related to your pre-existing medical condition. In this instance, you must consider the risk of falling ill without travel insurance while you’re away from home.

Resources

Advice on medical travel insurance:

Travelling with prescription medication: