Travel insurance without medical cover?

[Whichwhatnow]

I am going abroad shortly and am trying to obtain travel insurance. However, as I have an underlying (managed, but ultimately life limiting) health condition I am really struggling to find anything that isn't obscenely expensive. The thing is, I want the insurance mainly to cover e.g. theft, lost baggage, cancellations that are not due to us, and possibly accidents - I have zero concerns that my underlying condition will cause any issues and would be happy for that element to be excluded.

Does anyone know if there are any insurance providers that might specifically exclude medical cover (bar accidents, although it's going to be a pretty chilled holiday so I'm not too bothered about that either tbh)? If not, would omitting the information regarding my health condition invalidate the entire policy? E.g. if my laptop was stolen from the hotel would they still refuse to pay that out as I hadn't declared the health stuff? Would they even check??

Thanks for any advice/experience!

Failure to disclose can void a policy.

They may well not notice if your claim is unrelated to health (they'd have no reason to ask) but if it is following an accident/emergency you could be in a pickle.

Have you tried companies like InsureWith, Staysure, and Avanti, all of which offer cover which can include lots of pre-existing conditions and the mark up might not be that large, depending on where you're going

You need one that gives you medical cover but excludes that which is related to your pre-existing condition, not one that gives you no medical cover. Macmillan has lists of those who are good for people with cancer so may be helpful for other conditions

I flew a woman back from the States this week who had unexpectedly had a stroke. She’d spent 6 weeks in intensive care, and then had to have a medical doctor travel with her in order to be allowed to fly home. The costs of her treatment ran into the hundreds of thousands of pounds, which her insurance company paid up for. If she had not had treatment, she would be dead, and in the unlikely event that she didn’t die, she would have been denied passage by airlines. I think it is a fool’s game to travel without medical insurance. Even gaining medical care in Europe is not as straight forward as you would like to think, and insurance details are often taken before treatment for anything will be given. I know you are not worried about your underlying condition, but working in the airline industry I have brought many sick people home over the years, and not one of them expected the thing that rendered them unwell or injured to happen to them while they were travelling.

I would just pay up. It’ll be a lot more than the cost of your laptop if you do need medical care.

You need to have proper insurance, for both things. It’s a terrible idea to travel without it. If you can’t afford to pay the extra for decent cover, then you can’t afford to pay a whopping great medical bill if something goes wrong.

You have to factor it in to the cost of travelling.

Easy to say just pay up but some insurers just won't cover.

I also don't understand why you can't decouple medical cover from the rest of the trip cover. If I have cancer I am no more likely to have a flight cancelled or lose my luggage than someone without cancer.

@reigatecastle but if you have cancer you are at higher risk for other things and its medical thats going to set you back
If your flights cancelled most get rescheduled
If you loose a bag for most its a couple of hundred
If you require hospital its thousands
I had to see a dr in spain with insurance it still cost me £70
It used to be you had to show your insurance, some policies will insure you but just not for condition but others you have to pay
My friend has cancer her policy was around £500 she just had to factor it into the cost unfortunately

I have a lot of conditions. Wouldn't dream of travelling without medical cover! Even if someone broke my walking aids or I lost my meds it could be thousands out of pocket without even getting hurt or sick! One thing I've found is that an annual multi trip isn't much more than a single trip stupid amount of money e.g.: multi £300 one trip £290. Sometimes the single is even more expensive than the multi! Last time I travelled I chose Avanti as I was able to split it into monthly DD (like car insurance). You can get the same effect with a low interest CC? More affordable?

Staysure cover pre existing conditions. Call and speak to them if you haven't already. No holiday is worth going without medical cover - most people have no comprehension of true costs of medical procedures because they are used to the NHS.

I think it depends on your condition.

I recently went with Cedar Tree (I have epilepsy) and was pleasantly surprised by their low cost. Honestly is the best policy or you won't be covered anyway.

I’ve just done M and S travel insurance and that gave me the option to exclude my health condition had I wanted to.

Thanks guys. I've managed to find a provider now that'll cover me for a reasonable amount so panic averted! Initially I was either being outright rejected or getting quotes of over £1,000 (more than the cost of the holiday itself!).