This holiday insurance requirement is ludicrous and should be changed

Anything you aren’t clear about, or don’t understand the relevance to the cover, you’re better putting your Qs to your insurer. Whether it’s part of a bank a/c, or a stand alone policy - they can answer the Qs. None of us here have access to the specific policy T&Cs that you are referring to or thinking about so nothing we say counts here. Different policies have different levels of cover, cover different things, some extend to other people, some are narrowly focused only on the person insured.

Do people declare autism as a condition? 2 of my dc have a diagnosis of autism but it does not impact on their physical health other than the sleep difficulties/melatonin

Policies will usually cover you to curtail or cancel so long as it’s unexpected. If you book a trip knowing that a close relative has cancer etc & then you need to take the risk yourself. I think a lot of what is reported in the press is inaccurate as insurance is tightly regulated nowadays.

Yes if it's currently on her prescription list. If she doesn't need it ask the practice to cross it off.

Yes if she's going with you. Anything prescribed, any health conditions just list it.

And my elder dds mefanamic acid for periods that she never actually taken? 🤔

Gawd, do I need to tell my holiday insurance company about my dds being on prescribed melatonin?

I think you are being a bit unreasonable. If people were free to book holidays and take out holiday insurance, knowing that there was a signficant chance that they would need to cancel and claim on the insurance, but without revealing that fact to the insurance company (so that the premium could be appropriately adjusted), then the cost of insurance for everyone would go up. The insurance company should pay out if the death was completely unrelated to any knowable conditions, but not otherwise.

In all honesty I’ve not thought about it since pre covid, as due to that and serious health issues with several elderly relatives, my elderly neighbour and a flare up of one of my own conditions we’ve had no great wish or energy to plan a holiday abroad. We’ve just had a few uk breaks.

I’m just grateful I read the news item, as the luck we’ve all been having recently, I can imagine jetting off somewhere, having a massive medical emergency and the insurance declining me for my HRT patches of all things. At least now I know to inform them. I wonder if I will find they want to add extra charges for it too? The joys of aging!

Agree, I’ve actually had three quite significant house insurance claims - of course my premiums are now higher as a result but at the time I really needed the claims to pay out.

any other kind of insurance has been a necessity in case of things going totally tits up but broadly a waste of money IMO

Sorry, realised it was with your bank account.

I had mine through my Lloyds bank account previously as a perk. But if you read the policy, it does say you need to update them with any illness and medications etc. I would always recommend reading the policy to ensure coverage. I've actually cancelled my bank account perk insurance as additional charges for health (nothing serious though) were making it pointless. I currently have a yearly policy that I make sure covers everything!

The clause covering events linked to close relatives is fairly standard. No one has to claim under that clause. No one has to share private medical information to another person to facilitate their claim under that clause. The claim will likely be declined, but it’s not a reason to force someone else to release information. Again, most insurance cover is about unforeseen events & the financial consequences of dealing with those. In some situations, you can’t get cover at all, because the risks are known & foreseeable. No insurer will cover an event that is likely to happen, and cost more than they can get via premiums paid. Large scale events - like the pandemic - often change the policy T&Cs, once the ins co’s have had to pay out thousands of claims.

There’s a particular brand of car that’s very difficult to insure, even brand new, as they’re so easy to steal. Some ins co’s have determined the risks are too great, and are declining to cover those cars. Lots of people still buy them as it’s a prestige brand, but the level of cover will be either extremely limited - exclude theft for example, or simply not covered by some insurers.

You just ask the GP surgery for a print out of the “front page” of your notes. It’s a summary of everything you’ve been diagnosed with and all medications you are on. You are entitled to it, that’s what we use for getting travel insurance

I had to list each health issue, and then it gave me a list of what medications I was on. It seemed obvious to include menopause at the time as I was on HRT. I've never just bought it over the phone though.

Are you talking about the "one glass of wine" with dinner chap? The one who didn't go to hospital till the next day, and his blood wasn't tested till then, so at least 12 hours after this one glass of wine with dinner, yet he still had alcohol in his blood stream? The one where his family said they "suspect" it was due to alcohol, but the insurance company stated it was due to him not declaring medication he was on.?

My DPs are 86 and 91, listing their pre existing health conditions would take all afternoon. I wouldn’t expect insurance to pay out of they died as it’s hardly unexpected. It’s one of the reasons we use Avios companion BA flights- if I did need to cancel we wouldn’t lose any money.

There’s a form you can complete at your GP, giving you access to what needed. If the policy is asking about the past 2 years, you limit it to that period & they’ll
email you what you need. There will likely be a fee, but that’s how it’s managed. Not as easy on the NHS app, and I read the other day well not get that ‘til 2030 now 🙄

A lot of stuff now is based upon the set up for England & Wales - I’ve got an issue with power of attorney thats easy to check online in E&W, not so in Scotland. It does mean it’s more of a pain, but it’s still doable.

It's all very well saying 'declare everything' but I'm in Scotland so no NHS app. I honestly cannot remember every GP appointment I've ever had in my life. I don't know how you find out either? A FOI request? Can you imagine if every person in Scotland who went on holiday had to get their medical records from the GP? Can you imagine how our over-worke GP practices would cope with that?

Anything that requires medication is absolutely something that should be declared.

What most people don’t realise is that the GP appointment you had 5 years ago about something fairly minor might be the thing that develops into a more serious condition. You might not have any indication before you go on holiday that you are about to take ill. But if an earlier consultation was about X, which has the propensity to develop into Y, where Y causes you to become seriously ill, have a ‘turn’ that ends up with you sustaining serious injuries, failing to include the consultation that can be linked back could invalidate the claim. There will be a cut off point to when it’s relevant, but you need to have read & understood where that cut off point is to be confident it’s not relevant, and ok not to declare.

It is a very harsh system. There will undoubtedly be ins cos looking for reasons to escape paying claims. But I’d implore people not to make that easy by not questioning what’s being asked for if you don’t know the relevance - so that you can reasonably answer Qs to the best of your ability/knowledge, and instead of giving the info & being fully transparent, you’ve missed that out & it means you’re whole claim is declined.

I don’t work with travel claims any more - I had my fill & won’t ever do it again. It’s a steep learning curve & at least I know how to try and get the cover I might need. I still
wont go abroad now though. I’ve seen too many claims of shit things that have happened (even though I know it doesn’t happen for everyone) to want to take the chance & end up stranded somewhere facing a massive bill to get home.

Not all women take HRT though. So you’re not declaring menopause, you’re declaring medication.

My father died while on holiday in France the day before we were due to take our caravan abroad for a three week holiday.

My parents insurance company covered the cost of my mother flying home immediately ( they had travelled by coach) while they sorted out the problems of getting my fathers body returned - took three weeks but we did not have to do anything other than the usual funeral arrangements.

Our holiday insurance covered the full cost of our cancelled holiday, no questions asked.

I have just booked holiday insurance for a week long visit to see my son in the US. I have quite a list of medical conditions, all controlled by medication but obviously need to be declared. I tried booking online but was unhappy with the limited answers I could give to the questions so ended up phoning the insurance company to go through an advisor. Before I phoned I made extensive notes of all my medications, prescribed or OTC, dates of when I started taking them together with dates of all hospital visits as far back as I could. I was then able to explain in more detail some points to the advisor who made the decision on what to input. I even included antihistamines I buy for various allergies and hay fever together with psoriasis which I’ve had since I was a teenager and will never involve treatment while on holiday. I even told him about a d and c I had thirty odd years ago but he was only interested in current conditions or things within the last two years.

At no point was I asked about the health of close relatives or of my sister who I am travelling with. I did make sure though that I was covered for cancellation in the event of the serious illness or death of one of my adult children - I am! I also read the small print during the 14 day cool down period as after my previous experience with my father, I am paranoid about insurance!

I suspect that with some of the stories you read in the press there is some back ground info missing.

That's what I've just found.

I took out insurance in Jan for our summer holiday. I declared my muscle injurys, my husbands hearing impairment and my daughter's treatment for glue ear - all of which were in the last 2 years.

All the form said was "declare any medical treatment in the last 2 years". So I phoned to declare that I sought treatment for flu in Feb and was prescribed an inhaler, in case that counted as respiritary problems (which apparantly it does).

But they said that when my kid had an accident 4 years ago and suffered internal bleeding, that had to be declared - despite being signed off 100%, all fixed, no medication or treatment, or expected issues. The guy said because the question had asked about "poor circulation, high blood pressure or hypertension" we had to declare yes - even though it was none of those things!

He's now gone away to talk to his medical team about it. I dread to think what that could do to the premium!

This comes down to - Adult child has to cancel/return early & incurs a lot of costs to do so, because elderly parent either gets seriously ill or dies. Ins co sends a mandate for their policyholder to give their parent/their parent’s GP to complete to assist the claim. They can decline to do that, for reasons you state, but the claim is automatically declined.

You can keep any/all medical information private & not share it with an ins co, to assist the claim your adult child is making. It’s not something the ins co can enforce (unless the claim is litigated & can be reasonably requested in disclosure). But it makes declining the claim straight forward.

I think specific details of each case is likely to determine how these are handled. And it comes down to how reasonably foreseeable events are. That’s ultimately how insurance companies work through information, to determine what was known, when, by whom & whether there was any prior information or knowledge that makes a difference. Insurance covers unforeseen/unpredicable events. Anything that can reasonably be predicted (even if timings can’t be) isn’t covered.

One clause in the insurance policy T&Cs that gives insurers the right to ask for information & evidence, is the one that compels the insured person to provide the insurance co with any information they ask for. Failure to comply is an automatic breach of the policy T&Cs, and can be the basis for declining coverage/claim payout.

Just one example - someone’s relative either becomes seriously ill in the weeks before a holiday date, or while you’re away on holiday. The level of knowledge family have - close family, it doesn’t apply to wider family so has to be a parent, spouse, child etc. - of the circumstances leading up to that even are material facts relevant to the decision on whether cover applies or not. The ins co sends out a form for the family member’s own GP to complete, that gives them information on the illness, when it would have been 1st diagnosed, dates of consultations & asks Qs about foreseeable deterioration etc. That how ins cos are able to determine whether the illness was known about at the time of booking, or before.

There will be circumstances where family won’t be told. If someone is in that situation, they will still need to prove that, and that’s a hard thing to prove. It’s possible, but it’s going to be difficult. Ins co’s can make the decision to decline cover based on a lack of evidence & the probability of the information on a close family member being known. And it’s about that date of knowledge, or the date the family person knew themselves. If they’re lucky, there could be some comment recorded in the family member’s medical records specifically stating they won’t tell family, or don’t want family being told until necessary.

The investigation is intrusive. It’s upsetting & it’s something that is difficult for people on top of an already difficult situation. But, looking at the policy T&Cs, the booking T&Cs, and the details of the event that’s induced the need to either cancel after the refund period has passed, or incur costs to get home either before someone dies, or in time for the funeral, all this information is what’s needed to allow the ins co to work out if cover applies or not.

Claims being declined are almost always down to people not looking too closely at the T&Cs of the booking, and the travel ins cover, and being unaware of policy limits, exceptions, or information they’ve not realised is important even if they can see/understand the relevance.

Honestly, I haven’t been abroad in years & it dates back to when I 1st was drafted into dealing with travel claims (it’s not my main area of work). The hassle, the stress, the bouncing back & forth between travel companies & ins companies, it’s a nightmare. And even with my very good level of knowledge/understanding of how ins cover works & booking T&Cs work, I’ve not booked a holiday abroad since. Make of that what you will!

One claim that sticks in my mind was an elderly couple who had saved for years for a ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday who were only on the 1st leg of their round the world tour, and had to cancel everything due to the pandemic. Lots were being offered ‘vouchers’ to use to rebook (saving the travel co’s from going bust by having to refund everything that people booked) but this couple were in their late 70s, had waited & weren’t in great health. They’d never get the chance to do it again. They lost nearly £30k because when the travel firm offers a voucher that’s viable, and valid for 12/24 months, that alone was enough to decline the claim.

The ombudsman is being a lot stricter with the insurance companies now, if they refuse to pay out for things not related to the claim. There’s some guidance from them online somewhere which gives examples of how they would respond to certain cases.