Travel insurance

[Paffette71]

Does anyone declare their B12 or Vit D deficiency when getting quotes and if so have premiums increased?

[Cankita]

I have just taken out travel insurance with Aviva for a 2 month holiday to South Africa and Namibia and declared both B12 deficiency and high blood pressure. Whilst the premium was increased it was not by much and Aviva were still considerably cheaper than anyone else.

I thought that having seen 5 consultants as a hospital outpatient (they all ask if you have been an outpatient in the past two years) and having been finally diagnosed that it would be almost impossible to get insurance at a reasonable rate but that seems not to be the case (it did take me hours and hours to find though!). I was tempted not to declare my B12 deficiency since I don't really see that a condition that I have had for two years might suddenly hospitalise me while on holiday and I was happy not to have any such cover. The problem is that I can't find a definitive answer as to whether a travel insurance policy would still cover, say, a broken leg or be voided altogether for failure to disclose a totally unconnected condition.

My experience with insurance companies has always been that the very first reaction to making a claim is 'How can we get out of paying this?'. I have no idea if insurance companies can check your medical records but on the off chance that they can I'd suggest playing safe and declaring everything rather than risk a voided policy. You can be sure that any insurance company will try to get out of paying a claim if they possibly can.

[Paffette71 in reply to Cankita]

Thanks. I have the same feelings about insurance too

[Lisahelen in reply to Cankita]

It was probably the high bp which loaded your premium, it happened to me a few years ago when i first had to declare it.

Have trouble enough getting gps to acknowledge b12d if insurers were hot on it it might have more clout at the surgery. Lol

[Cankita]

The ridiculous thing about travel & medical insurance is that they will load premiums or refuse cover for fairly innocuous conditions such as high blood pressure yet they never ask questions like 'Has your blood pressure ever been tested?' There must be a huge number of people who never go to the doctor and are prime candidates for a heart attack on holiday yet because they have no idea what their blood pressure is they get cover at normal premiums. Likewise they never ask 'Are you overweight?' or 'How much do you drink?' so a 25 stone near alcoholic can get cover at normal premiums whereas someone who has a vitamin deficiency gets penalised.

All of the travel insurance companies allow you to declare B12 deficiency and ask the same questions which boil down to 'Are you incapacitated or have you ever been hospitalised as a result of the condition'. All seem to load the premium anyway if the answers are no. Aviva was the only one to ask different questions including whether your Haemoglobin has been below a certain level. I had no idea so to play safe I said yes and it did increase the premium slightly but not significantly. Better to pay a little more than be denied cover when you need it.

Aviva were still by far the cheapest at £210.90 for a two month holiday in South Africa covering myself and my wife (both with high blood pressure and me with B12 deficiency). Saga (well we are both over 50) wanted £760!

The most amusing multi-choice option to the question about whether B12 deficiency affects your daily life has to be the one that says 'Yes, I am confined to bed'! Shame there's no space to add 'Why else do you think I want travel insurance'!

[pugdogs10]

Hi..... yes I always declare my PA when taking out travel insurance. In any case they always ask what medication You are on and you then have to tell them about B12 injections.

They then ask if you have sustained any nerve damage if the answer is yes they will load the policy even more. They do not have access to medical records but in the incidence of a claim they can obtain information from your doctor.

In the event of a claim, if you have not answered every question truthfully then the whole claim will be invalid. No way you can win really is there??

While we are still in the EU reciprocal medical treatment is free in European countries. The only thing that one might have to pay is repatriation of a body, which I understand is very expensive. So..... if you are willing to be cremated in the country where you are on holiday ( cheaper than here probably) it might as just be feasible not to bother with travel insurance.

The reason I know all this depressing stuff is because my husband used to work in Guess what? Travel Insurance......

[Cankita in reply to pugdogs10]

Fair enough if you actually die (when I wouldn't really care anyway what happens next) but not so useful if you have a car accident. That's another thing I don't understand - why can't you take out travel insurance that just covers treatment resulting from an accident rather than an illness?

[pugdogs10 in reply to Cankita]

Because if it doesn t cover other things they wouldn t be able to charge you as much. Any way South Africa is amazing ,,,ENJOY.

[taka Administrator in reply to Cankita]

I declared my PA and a couple of other things. I remember getting asked about my haemoglobin levels too. Despite having PA I've never actually been anaemic to my knowledge so it didn't increase my costs in any way (part of free european cover through my current account). Not sure how I'd fare now though as since then I've had iron deficiency, peripheral neuropathy (due to a disk in my back compressing a nerve root) and MRI to check out the sudden numbness associated with it and am currently waiting to hear if I need to see a gastroenterologist re the low iron / gastro symptoms!

Enjoy south africa!

[Cankita in reply to taka]

The biggest problem with insurance seems to be when you are awaiting test results. Then they won't cover you even if the tests are quite minor and are likely to come back negative.

[Aurora12]

Travel Co's only started asking MORE Q's since the change in the law a few years ago, the gist of which was more or less "If they haven't asked the relevant Q - to enable you to disclose it, they can't refuse your claim, based on non-disclosure" - so long as you're completely honest, of course.

Quotes I had a while back - one said they caegorised PA as a Circulatory disease and another as a Blood disease! They do now ask if you have Peripheral Neuropathy.

I wouldn't be going away if I expected problems - so I disclose and ask for my conditions NOT to be covered - to keep the premium down. Otherwise, Insurance could waste more money that cost of the holiday!!

[Paffette71]

I'm still fighting my GP at the moment to take my symptoms seriously so I think I'll leave my insurance to the last minute as I don't want to have to amend it.