Hi! I have HCM and have also had two ablations for AFib and AT.
I haven’t been abroad on holiday since before Covid and would love to go somewhere now, but when I have looked into it, apparently I can’t get health insurance because I have an echo booked in for next month and it seems that you can’t get insurance when you’re awaiting a test result!
Any advice would be very appreciated.
if you are awaiting a confirmation of a diagnosis of a serious medical condition, then a travel insurer isn’t able to calculate the price of the risk they are being asked to take on. The result of your test might or might not signify a change of diagnosis or medication or whatever - no-one knows.
Please do not travel abroad without adequate insurance in place. A few weeks ago in the news was a man who decided to go to turkey on holiday without insurance, he was hospitalised and the hospital would not release him until something like half the medical bill of £80,000 had been paid.
A holiday in the UK might be a better idea?
Or, once you’ve had the results of your test and everything has settled, you might consult the websites of Moneyhelper or Moneysavingexpert.
Thank you very much for your message. Really, many thanks.
hi sliding door agree with happyrosie that if you are awaiting confirmation diagnosis of regular condition you are unlikely to get cover. If however the echo is part of regular monitoring of a diagnosed condition you might. I have had echos every few months and was covered until condition reached the stage I needed an operation . Key thing is to discliose to your insurer. I had to cancel my holiday to Portugal recently which was a pain as the cardiologist said I was fit to travel. I did consider relying on the equivalent of the EHIC but decide it was not worth the risk. If your echo is a regular monitoring type echo may be worth trying another insurer. If not I had a nice time in Devon?
Thanks so much for that Lexi!
Yes and no!!
It is partly routine to see how much thicker the heart wall is now compared to last time, but it was advised because I now have episodes of VT ( V tach)
Devon is lovely but was hoping for a warm sea and sunny weather type holiday!
I won’t risk it though and will wait to see what the Echo shows.
sorry meant diagnosis of a new condition not regular condition
Try 0800 1387777 for companies that may be able to assist.
Thank you.
Thank you!
I'd suggest that you type 'insurance', 'travel insurance' and/or 'holiday insurance' into the search box on this site. There can't be much left to say that hasn't already been said.
Thanks!
Maybe try InsuranceWith.com who specialise in insurance for people with health conditions.
Thank you!
That is true.
I have two holidays booked for next year and took out annual insurance with Avanti (a Staysure company) in July this year. After a 22 hour episode of A.Fib in September I was told I would need and echoc.g. I rang Avanti to tell them what had happened and they immediately cancelled the complete medical declaration I had made, because I have to have the echo. Even though I was not told to call them again when I had the result I am going to, because the premium I paid covered the medical declaration and it has not been refunded.
If you are waiting for an investigation, or have an undiagnosed condition, then insurers are reluctant to take you on, or if they are you will pay proportionally more for the risk they are taking on. I suggest you try a comparison site for travel insurance with pre existing medical conditions, or talk to a local insurance broker, and then take it from there, ensuring you answer all the questions fully and honestly. But as others have said do not take the risk of travel without adequate medical insurance cover, set up at the time you book.
I will do that. Thanks very much.
Having worked in the insurance industry for over 40 years unfortunately it's the same for any type of protection insurance. Basically until the insurance company knows exactly what the problem is they can't underwrite the application. For example you could be anything from 100% fine to being terminally ill, so until all investigations are completed they won't offer a quote but ask you to reapply when all your results are finalised. We initially just went on UK holidays, but there is another way. If you can become a member of a group travel scheme, ie. through a relative or friends business, a group scheme can be set up for as little as 3 people, the premium is based on group risk which means the average ages of the group. There is no underwriting for medical conditions so it's automatic acceptance. A lot cheaper too as you can imagine. I became a sleeping director of my SIL's business. It's all official with companies house with no costs involved and very easy to set up, and we communicate with each other through the companies email address and pay the premiums through my SIL's business account.
That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing that with me. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Your very welcome.
My understanding of arrhythmias is this;
AFib. This happens when the sinus node fires the Atria in a fast and chaotic fashion.
This shows as small squiggly waves with no clear P waves to be seen.
Not all of these fast, chaotic signals pass through to the ventricles due to a Refractory Period in the AV Node. This is a pause of 90ms where no signals can pass so not all the P waves pass through to the ventricles.
(Flecainide causes this pause to lengthen thereby slowing the pulse rate.)
AFlutter. The most common Flutter is the re-entry Flutter or AV Node re-entry Tachycardia (AVNRT).
This is when a rogue pathway exists in the AV Node. This is a circular pathway that sends some of the signal back to the Atria to pulse it once again and it then follows through to pulse the ventricles for the second time. This is the 2:1 ratio or double normal rate at about 120 bpm. It can also be 3:1.
This pathway is easier to ablation due to its position in the right side of the heart.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
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