David, my husband was diagnosed with CLL about 2 years ago.
He went through a very bad time in June with an strep A infection. He fortunately recovered following 2 doses of antibiotics. We had to cancel our holiday to the Lake District in the UK and claimed on our years Travel Insurance with StaySure and got most of our money back!
We now have a planned a holiday to N America: Chicago, Michigan, Indianapolis and Boston. My husband is now being treated with Calquence /alacalabrutinib for his CLL following the infection. He feels 100% better. We had to declare that he was now on treatment to StaySure. They got back to us today to say they would no longer insure us! They could either cancel the policy or we could cancel our holiday. They are recommended by cancer charities, so we couldn’t believe it!
Does anyone know of an insurance company who would insure him with CLL,now he is being treated, so we can go to the US in October.
He is very upset especially as he is feeling so much better.
Kindest Regards
Anne
Written by
Porty14
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When they were informed that you were traveling to the USA where medical costs are 4 times the cost for the same treatment than in Europe, they did the smart thing and backed out. I don't blame them.
I have CLL and I managed to get insurance for our 4 week cruise to USA and Canada from Avanti for £750. While I know this is quite expensive I had had quotes for well over £2000 prior to this quote.
Have you considered a specialist broker? Every country is different but I know I had to show stable disease for at least 3 months. For life insurance it was 12 months. Maybe a part of the problem is that your partner has been treated for a short time. It could be worth asking if that makes a difference.
It’s horribly disappointing & frustrating when holiday plans get cancelled. Insurance isn’t fair, it’s about their risk. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but please make sure you are fully covered for medical expenses before travelling to the US. If anything were to go wrong, even if not CLL related, medical expenses are astronomical & can mount up quickly.
I hope that you find an insurer at a reasonable price.
Make sure you get a letter from his consultant for travel. Also take copies of his medical file. We did this for my husband as he has CLL for our trip to NZ in Dec 2019
Hello, pleased that David has made a good recovery. I too am puzzled about what you say. Staysure covered me with Acalabrutinib but chose not to renew with them because they couldn't answer all our questions. This year we have an annual European policy with All Clear. This doesn't cover cruises or anywhere outside of Europe. We usually go down to Cape Verde in the winter but it was going to cost an additional £800. We didn't ask how much cruise cover was. I was diagnosed in 2018 and began treatment with Acalabrutinib in 2021. My blood counts, at the last check were within normal ranges and my consultant told me that I have good partial remission. I asked her to put this in writing for me and along with copies of my blood tests, I take the letter with me.
This issue crops up regularly in posts from people in the UK.
Despite (or perhaps because of) my husband’s CLL we still want to get on with living life and have been through a whole range of responses from travel insurers - one cancelling the week before a trip in 2019.
Cruising seems to be a particular problem (we have never cruised, but we are going on a sailing holiday in Greece - flotilla type sailing - and even that has been classified as ‘cruising’). My husbands insurance (in remission) costs 3x more than mine. We now accept that we have to build the high cost of insurance into our trip budgeting.
Anecdotally, based on our experience over many years, it seems that undergoing treatment seems to be the issue, regardless of whether the treatment will be ongoing and gives a virtual remission. I guess it will take time for the insurers to catch up with modern treatments - hopefully the blood cancer charities will be able to bring them up to speed.
For us, the highest risk is the flight - once we started wearing masks (since before covid) my husband has not caught infections during the flight. Once again this is anecdotal.
I would suggest taking COVID tests, getting some paxlovid and several broad spectrum antibiotics in case you get ill on the trip. I believe there are infectious disease docs that specialize in travel that you could see to advise you in more detail
I would also suggest a letter from your CLL doc explaining your disease, treatment side effects and the need for a work up like chest x-ray, blood, throat, sputum and urine cultures and starting broad Spectrum antibiotics if you get a fever above 100.4 F to take to any ER you might need to go
The problem here is that UK insurance companies put BTK inhibitors in the same risk bracket as FCR and bone marrow transplants. Got quotes of £800 to £2k for a five night stay in NYC.
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