This holiday insurance requirement is ludicrous and should be changed

Anyway re the OP - a requirement to declare medical conditions of someone not on the policy is absurd. How on Earth would that work with patient confidentiality? An elderly person may well not be able to give informed consent of disclosure, so I don’t understand how it could legally be a requirement.

Menopause is indeed not of itself a ‘medical condition’ but if you have symptoms sufficient that you need medication then it crosses the line. Some forms of HRT could have side effects/interactions. I dutifully note my vagifem prescription even though it’s incredibly unlikely to be any dory of problem whatever but it’s a form of HRT so I do, wouldn’t occur to me not to.

My travel insurance covers death of a close relative (parent or child) just before your travel date and costs of returning home early if they die whilst you’re away.

Can anyone recommend decent insurance then?

I thought that insurance with my bank account covered us all, but have recently realised I need to upload information about anything no matter how minor and it has now quoted a stupidly high price ( much more then we ever paid separately )so I’ve realised there is no point having the account (the AA only covers roadside assistance also, so now of the perks are very good now that I have looked into it more thoroughly, which I know I should have done before!)

Interesting point - I wouldn't class the menopause as a medical condition, any more than I would menstruation or puberty? Its simply a phase in life for all women?

(Also @justteanbiscuits and @faerietales ) I’ve had literally no questions, other than when I called regarding a health issue, and they were only related to that issue. When I’m saying I’ve had cover for years I mean around 20. I really don’t remember them ever asking anything, it was a perk of having the bank account. Maybe they did somewhere, but I really don’t remember. Saying that, 20 years ago there was bugger all wrong with me, so maybe it didn’t register. As I say I’ve let them know both times I’ve been diagnosed with a condition and the medications I’ve started for those), it just never occurred to me that menopause (and thus its “treatment”)would be classed in the same way.

But surely if you answer the (limited) questions truthfully, then you;ve done your bit?

It's a rip off.
Doing their best to avoid paying is not a good business either.

Well, yes, it's a business, they wouldn't do it otherwise!

All insurance is always in favor of the company

We’ve been lucky so far with insurances, dd had an accident on holiday last year. She has multiple different pre ex conditions but the set up of her travel insurance is that as long as you’ve not been told your unfit to travel- it’s covered, this is the world wide travel add on with vitality health insurance,

separately I handled the refund for a family member who had died quite suddenly, although it was a long process we did get the fund back for that holiday that they had booked before a cancer diagnosis and quickly passing away,

I did say AFTER death.
Yes every case is different. It is possible to lock a house/turn off utilities very quickly. A lot of funeral arrangements can by done by phone or online.
My friend’s sister went on holiday immediately after their father’s death. I think my friend did a few things in person, like collecting the death certificate, but her sister did just as much from abroad.

maybe there should be a star rating so that you know that if you get 5 star insurance, you pay more and it covers more. or an easier way to see exactly what is covered.

There is a star rating 😀 I always check here that any insurance I have is five stars:

https://www.defaqto.com/star-ratings/travel-insurance?search=

"An old persons death/illness need not always stop people going on holiday. I know people who have gone away after a family members death, to get back before the funeral."
Which is great, if you aren't the ones who have to attend hospital, because the person doesn't want to die alone, or you need to advocate for them, as their NOK. Then secure their house and arrange the funeral.

There's also a alcohol clause, that is used to not pay out. That includes if the accident/event hasn't been the fault of the insured.

I've realised that virtually all travel insurance I've ever had, wouldn't have paid out on medical bills if I needed it to. As I never realised the level of detail you needed to provide. It's only through reading all the various stories about them refusing to pay out, that I am now really careful.

Adult DS is abroad now. He's been to the GP once in the last ten years for piles! I told him, put it down on the form, because you need to tell them everything.

I think as I get older, travel insurance will be an issue for me. It is now, as I'm currently under investigation for something which could be nothing or could be really serious. Also have some other health issues. Gone are the days when I could just buy a £20 policy and think I was covered.

In the old days I worked for a holiday emergency service and did this regularly. At the time the question usually asked to a gp was - were they expected to die whilst Mrs x was on holiday. As long as the answer wasn’t yes it was all ok under insurance.

Tell that to all the people who've successfully claimed relatively huge amounts of money when things have gone wrong, i.e. house burned down, partner died on or immediately before an expensive holiday etc.

The whole point of insurance is that the cost of "bad" things happening is spread over a huge number of people. Insurance firms employ actuaries whose job it is to evaluate risks and work with statistics and probabilities to "price" insurance according to the known risk factors.

It relies on the policyholder being fully honest and actually reading the insurance documents.

And yes, it's a business, so it is, overall, going to make a profit for the provider - otherwise they wouldn't do it! But it's also a highly competitive market, and the insurance firms also "hedge their bets" by re-insuring with other insurers to spread the potential liabilities even more.

When DH was diagnosed with cancer, we'd already booked two very expensive holidays, and feared the worst re arguments/declined claims with the insurance firms. But both paid out, in full, no questions asked at all - all they wanted was a letter from the doctor confirming the date of the cancer diagnosis. Then we got two huge payment cheques within a couple of weeks. But we always religiously read the T&Cs of the insurance policies and make full disclosure of pre-existing conditions. For DH, we'd declared that he'd had a number of fruitless GP appointments for various symptoms which hadn't led to any diagnosis, which we later realised were clear early signs of his cancer, but because the GPs hadn't twigged what it was, hadn't diagnosed anything, the insurers paid out. I strongly suspect they wouldn't have paid had we not declared those appointments or had the GP treated them seriously enough for more tests/actions, etc. I suppose we were lucky in a way that the GPs missed the obvious signs and that would back up our belief that there was nothing seriously wrong with OH at the time we booked the holidays!

Virtually all insurance is a scam, the only exception I can think of is house insurance.

Buy it if it makes you feel better, but don't buy it with the belief that the policy will pay out if you claim. It won't.

For example, I'll bet that most people who go on a cruise holiday think their travel insurance covers them if they get sick or injured, when in reality unless you have taken specialist "Cruise Cover" your ordinary police won't cover you at all.

Car insurance will cost you even if a claim wasn't your fault.

Health insurance costs a fortune but covers virtually nothing.

Well it would be unreasonable of someone to book a holiday when they knew their elderly parent was pretty unwell, and they intended to just cancel if the parent died, and shift the cost of their gamble onto the insurance company (thereby increasing premiums for everyone else). So the insurance company is basically trying to avoid paying to these chancers. But people who didn't reasonably expect a parent to die get caught in the crossfire.

Anyway having said that, I actually wouldn't expect travel insurance to cover illness/death of extended family members who aren't travelling, and would just accept that was my bad luck. If I specifically wanted that cover I would hunt for a provider that offered it.

All insurance is basically a rip off. A friend of my DF said insurance was the biggest legalised criminal activity on the planet, but you have to be rich to go without it.

This is a really good, clear article actually. The crux of it is that insurers might pay out if you have to cancel your holiday due to an unexpected death (depending on the relationship of the person to you, which differs by insurer), but if they die from a previously known condition (even if you as the policy holder didn't know about it), then they almost certainly won't. I don't think at any point an insurer expects you to declare health conditions of close relatives - mostly because it doesn't matter, they won't pay out if they die from a previously known condition regardless of whether you declared it or not.

I don’t think you have to tell them about pre existing conditions in family. It’s worded more like if you knew they were ill and booked anyway then tough. We had a holiday to Portugal and fil went into hospice care. We checked and as his cancer diagnosis was before we booked we wouldn’t get paid out. He died 4 weeks before we were due to go and we went out just over 2 weeks after he died (which my husband really needed as he was shattered) and MIL also needed to start living her ‘new normal’ where we weren’t there every day. If he had died closer to when we went or even whilst we were away we’d have lost £2k.

I have had stints working in the travel claims dept, and it’s eye opening how it all works. Part of our training included reading the policies that cover travel claims, and as much as it’s a dry read, I do recommend looking at the policy T&Cs in detail. One of the very worst conversations I had was with a bereaved son, to tell him that we wouldn’t cover the cancellation costs after his mum passed away due to a recurring cancer that progressed very quickly. His mum had been in remission but the policy limit - if anything had happened or been investigated within 12 mths of the booking date - was one of the policy T&Cs. Within a month of booking the holiday, she’d been to see her consultant about minor symptoms, and that appointment was the reason the policy didn’t cover the lost cost of the booked holiday. That was within the period that cancellation of the holiday would have given a full refund with the holiday firm.

The reason I mention this is because the T&Cs of the booking itself provide options much earlier & it’s then a choice to stick with the booking (knowing a later cancellation won’t be covered), hoping if anything happens, it’s not going to be when your due to leave or are on holiday. It’s harsh, and blunt, but having a full understanding of what choices you have, depending on when something may happen, or you become aware of information on a close relative, can at least help you make an informed choice in taking the risk when you have that knowledge, as opposed to this all happening at the very worst time.

I spent a lot of time working on cancelled holidays & people trying to get home when the pandemic started & it put me off travelling anywhere.

My advice is to look around for cover, ask as many questions about the cover as you can, ask about specific scenarios that may apply to you or your wider family’s circumstances & make sure that what you need to be covered is covered.

Insurance is a business, it’s a profit making business, and it’s necessary for them to anticipate risks factors when calculating premiums. Anything in the T&Cs that’s asked for, that you don’t declare, risks a claim being rejected. Innocuous things you think aren’t relevant don’t automatically make the premium charged higher, so there’s no reason not to declare HRT, or a previous medical issue from your history.

An underlying principle in an insurance contract is utmost good faith - insurers ask questions that they trust you to answer truthfully (to the best of your knowledge) and if there are any questions not answered, it breaks that principle & is the basis to justify declining a claim. Not understanding why something you don’t think is relevant is asked about, doesn’t change the fact a Q was asked and either not answered, or answered incorrectly & justifies the declined claim.

I don’t mean to sound uncaring in how I’ve answered this. It’s genuinely not a pleasant part of the job & I have a lot of sympathy when people are genuinely unaware of the small print & are left out of pocket. And most people don’t really pay too close attention to the small print on the basis the chances of things going wrong are slim. But they do happen, and when it does happen, you really need to give yourself the best chance of getting the cost of dealing with it covered, so please ask the insurance co questions about what they’re asking if you don’t understand or can’t understand why they need what you think is irrelevant information. It’s far better to get the clarification & give the information (even if you can’t see the point, or think it’s way too intrusive), to then at least know there’s nothing you’ve done that can invalidate your claim.

I think that's the crux really.

If a close relative already has a life threatening/shortening condition, then it almost by default becomes a notifiable event as cancellation due to their death/hospitalisation is a lot more likely. Whereas if, say, your parent is hit and killed by a drunk driver, it really wasn't foreseeable.

So, it's both about foreseeables AND the wording of the policy.