We are going to Australia for approx 3 months (staying with friends) leaving in just over a week. We've booked flights and I've just started trawling through insurance and was horrified to see that despite not needing any treatment, the quotes for me are around £1000 or more (eek!) that's a lot more than our flights.
I'm 65+ which also seems to add a lot to the premium.
I've been looking at both single trip and annual policies but it's hard to find one that allows for long stays for people with a diagnosed medical condition who are over 60.
If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear about them, thanks.
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Patternista
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I normally go with World First but once went with Avanti. The maximum stay has been 6-7 weeks. I did have to stay longer at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. I got insurance from an America company insubuy as I was in the US but it doesn't want to cover over 70s
Hi Patternista. I've not been on such a long journey, but I regularly use insurancewith.com when travelling to the EU. It's easy to add CLL to this, it's on the application drop-down form. Worth a look?
Welcome to our community - I see you've just joined.
It's a pity that the timing of your CLL diagnosis was just before you left for your trip to Australia, because as a UK citizen, you can enrol with Medicare Australia, as the UK and Australia have reciprocal health care agreements for medically necessary care, but approval can take several weeks.
The agreement covers:
- medically necessary care out of hospital
- medically necessary care as a public patient in a public hospital including inpatient and outpatient services
- some PBS prescription medicines at the general rate.
The above reference explains how to enrol on line, or what documents you need to bring to enrol at a Medicare office in Australia. I would recommend that you still proceed, so that you'll have cover for the balance of your trip, plus"If you get medical treatment in Australia before you enrol in Medicare, you may get a Medicare benefit for it."
Have a safe trip and enjoy your time here. Autumn is the best time of the year in the most populated areas of Australia.
Cant really advise on insurance quotes to get but try to go for under 3 months...as it gets even harder after that.
My limited experience with travel insurance is that they do not have any shades of grey. So if if you have CLL on W&W.......and having significant intervals between visits to your haemotologist, the risks of your CLL going belly up (requiring immediate treatment) while away may be very low. Ditto if you are not particularly prone to infections/ not on IVIG etc, again your risks may be very low. This subtlety is not reflected in praemiums.
If you haven't already I suggest at least telephone consult with your haemotolgist in particular to clarify your current risk profile (for your peace of mind) and a To Whom It May Concern letter would also be a good idea in case you do need to see a GP/ go to hospital/ carry or get antivirals here, as well as a copy of your most recent blood tests.
As @AussieNeil already mentioned there is a reciprocal health agreement with UK ...so get you application in ASAP.
As an aside presuming you are on W&W and if your GP/ haematologist knew you were travelling they should have let you know what vaccinations were advisable before travelling.... COVID may be the best that you can get at short notice... and if you can bring anti virals (paxlovid or lagevrio) these can be hard to get here at short notice esp if remote from a major city. Biggest risk is in crowded spaces and on aircraft.. so wear your N95 mask as much as you can.
My experience too - now being 80 - 46 days maximum coverage for any trip - void if you actually stay longer without cover or with an alternative so pretty black and white.
thanks wiganfan, so far LV has come out way below the others because as you say they do not cover any issues arising from CLL . They are one of the few who cover for up to 3 months for someone they probably class as 'ancient' ie 68 😂
I was quoted £3,500 for a 2 week trip to Barbados. Ended up not going.I'm afraid it's very hard to get reasonable health insurance. Good luck and have a fantastic time.
I’ve used Allclear for years now and found their prices to be the best especially because as well as having CLL I have other health issues. My friend has also found them the cheapest too and she has different health issues. I renew each year and as long as nothing has changed I don’t need to go through the health check each year. The prices you’re being quoted depends on the zone you’re travelling to as there are 3 zones and I think Australia is probably in zone 3 which is the most expensive like the USA. Good luck sorting your insurance and I hope you have a great time in Australia. Take care.
Try Staysure, staysure.co.uk "We're pre-existing medical conditions specialists with no upper age limit". I did use them before and they were competitive.
We use Allianz for travel insurance, that seems to be reasonable. Unfortunately due to one of my treatments and my immune system drop, we had to cancel a cruise. It has not been an issue so far with insurance. Sucks to lose the cruise, but if I can get my immunity level up, then I can do the cruise another year. Prior to my diagnosis I would have never used insurance at all. But now, its just an added expense, but its a nice buffer in events like this. Good Luck.
thanks for the info. It looks as though Allianz are the same as LV Insurance recommended by wiganfan, which so far has proved the most competitive - see above.
Best wishes for getting to go on another cruise soon.
We also use Allclear. They ask the right questions, but even then the cost is always expensive. Unfortunately we have now recognised that the cost of insurance has to be built into our travel budget at the outset.
I can’t understand people not having travel insurance - we aren’t worried about cancellation or losing personal effects. It’s the potential medical bills (particularly for my husband with a compromised immune system) or potential repatriation costs ( either alive or dead).
I found Direct Travel quite good. I think. I looked on Money Supermarket for insurance with pre exisitng health conditions. Just shop around and you should get a better deal.
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