have 2 holidays booked for june and septemb... - PBC Foundation
have 2 holidays booked for june and september, can anyone give the names of travel ins firms they have used that cover pbc
Why won't they cover someone with pbc? How do they know...I thought travel insurance was for your bags and stuff. I am traveling to Italy in April and now u am worried. Following.
The travel insurance will be for if you fall sick whilst on holiday overseas. You can actually travel with cover if you don't want to declare PBC but seems it could be a bit tricky if you did fall ill, used the insurance and then it was deemed to be something related to PBC as you wouldn't be covered then.
My son works at an insurance call centre here in Lancs and though he does motor insurance mainly he did enquire re travel insurance when I was diagnosed with PBC as originally I did have intentions of taking my first holiday out of the UK. At the time his employers would cover someone with PBC if they were stable and hadn't had any med change (additional meds and dosage changes that is).
But top and bottom of it is, regardless you will still pay considerably more for travel insurance now with PBC it seems.
Tracy you need medical insurance, if you become ill or have an accident on holiday, your insurance will cover any hospital/medical costs. In a worse case scenario where you needed to be flown back to the UK via air with trained medical staff to monitor you, your insurance would pay for that too. You need to declare any existing medical conditions to your insurers before you take a policy out.
In the UK, travel insurance firms ask if you suffer from any medical condition. If you declare a medical condition, the premium goes up, If you don't declare your PBC, and you end up having to have medical treatment because of it, you won't be covered, and will have to pay in full for any treatment. I declared my PBC, and the premium shot up from something like £15 to £85. However, I have since found out that you can tell the insurance firm you have a medical condition, but you don't want it covering, so if you are asymptomatic, you might want to try that.
Hi, Have just arranged my travel insurance through Columbus Direct. The cost for annual insurance flying from Uk to Europe covering PBC ( Silver cover £108 cheaper for bronze cover ) Unfortunately they only cover you flying from the UK. Good luck hope you get sorted.
Hi, I used flexicover for my holiday insurance last yr, they were the only company I could find who would insure me because of the pbc/aih, they were really helpful and I think it was roughly £125 for 2 weeks cover. Hope this helps
I have just bought my annual travel insurance from Tesco. They do not change for PBC. It's worth giving them a call or filling in the form on line. Others either just would not insure or asked for silly amounts of money.
I have annual travel insurance for myself and my family, but as I keep well and attend hospital every 2 years I have opted not to have my PBC covered. The premium doesn't change if you do not cover your condition. If anything else happened to you or needed treatment for something else you are still covered.
You must always declare that you have PBC even if you decide not to have cover for it. If a medical emergency occurs while you are away and the insurance company can link any part of it back to PBC your cover can be refused. My husband had an unexpected emergency operation in Barbados this year which cost thousands. We were with Avanti. This year we are with Explorer. You have to ring round for the cheapest quotes which can be a bit of a pain but age also comes into it and we are both over 70.
Hello kfordk.
I have never had travel insurance as never yet been out of the UK (only in my dreams!) but if you check out the Spring 2014 newsletter on the Liver North website there is a list on the back page of insurance companies who tend to be willing to insure.
I'll post the link, just click on Publications and then scroll to the relevant newsletter.
Post office - if you answer no to their questions, then there is no extra premium. Me and my son (who has coeliac and UC) are covered at <£30 in total.
I found travel insurance with world-first.co.uk/ recently, , the policy for my partner and myself cost £34.44 for a week which included £2.92 to cover me for PBC(I have no symptoms),I had to telephone them to check something and found them very helpful
I have PVNS, Fibromyalgia & PBC....I think my holidays to foreign parts have just gone out the window lol.
I use Columbus Direct too, have always found them really helpful - PBC is covered, they do ask specific questions regarding my treatment each time I renew but I feel like the cover is tailored to me and its not just a computer making the call (other companies just said "no" because they don't have knowledge of our condition). I think it's about £90pa but that is worldwide, multi-trip cover inc. winter sports - I personally feel it's worth paying the extra for the peace of mind that if anything did happen when I'm away I am covered.
I found World First very good, and they were one of the few companies I contacted who understood my conditions, did not fuss about how long the call was taking, and seemed much more up front about 'pre-existing medical conditions' - always check companies definitions of this. Lots of companies are rude, and their medical staff can be quite ignorant, and the medical databases they use can be out of date.
WFirst covered me for 3 weeks in Crete for about £50+, with 3 other conditions mentioned as well as PBC. However, I am low risk for all and answered 'no' to all the PBC questions - eg never had abnormal lfts. However, I noticed later in all the pages and pages of the policy that I was not covered if I was taken ill on a flight and the plane had to land or be diverted: okay, it's not going to happen (but I'm someone who things have happened to, so I'm easily spooked). A diversion such as this could cost you £ 10s of 1000s. They may have changed this - always read the small print.
A year earlier I was charged about £300+ for a year's Europe with Staysure.
Always tell them everything. Also, be careful, some companies WILL NOT LET YOU OMIT CERTAIN CONDITIONS. Also, if you can omit conditions, you still have to tell them all the details, you cannot get away with not telling them about a condition - this could invalidate the entire policy.
Some expect you tell them about every trip to the GP in the last year, or two, others like the PO are only interested in hospital visits and consultant visits. I like the sound of the PO, but I would want to talk to one of their actual medical people, and have never got past their charming but rather laid back (usually male) phone advisors.
I am quite paranoid about it - result of bad experiences in the past, and of being denied cover by my trusty old company the first time I even mentioned PBC. I think companies are more aware of PBC now, but if anyone's PBC condition is at all changeable or risky, I imagine that none of the companies would risk a punter who might need serious hospital treatment and air ambulance home - especially not in/from the States.
You have to remember they are only there to make a profit. A year or so ago the Ombudsman called all TI companies to account and told them to clean up their act - particularly over their vague defnitions/guidelines on 'pre-existing medical conditions' as TI Companies were the business area that the ombuds people received the most complaints about.
PS they record our messages, I intend to record mine, from now. Paranoid, maybe, but I think it's best to be very, very careful. I keep meaning to launch a major campaign about it, write to my MP etc, but on the scale of things currently, I suppose it's small fry.
Apologies for rant, I find it hard to cope with the fact that I may never be able to go to the States again.
Hi, if your in the uk, I get mine with the post office, they were really nice to chat to, and only cost me £36 for the week x
Hi Sonia 40,
Did you actually get to talk to one of their medical people? I'm tempted by the PO, but I never get past their telephone people. These are usually lovely, laidback young men, who tell me that everything is okay ... when the things I tell them are not seen as okay by other companies. Occasionally they go off and talk to the 'medical person' but they always come back and say 'yeah that's okay'. I am a terrible worrier, but I have some conditions that are not covered by their 5 health questions, and even when I've seen a consultant recently, they still say it's okay. Also, I have a friend who used to work as a phone person for a company (not the PO) and she has told me horror stories.
Hi, I found them extremely polite and put my mind at ease, I kept saying so I am covered for pbc, just to make sure, and they always said yes, you can get this sent to you in writing if you ask, hope this helps
