Do you declare EVERYTHING for travel insurance?

[Squeekey]

Just that really.

I would always declare my daughter's health condition as it's serious, will affect whether we get coverage etc, but do you really declare everything everyone in the family has seen a Dr for in the last 2 years?

Last time I phoned up about insurance (phone needed because of daughter), they spent about 20 minutes asking innane questions about my husband's 5 minute trip to a Dr 9 months ago for foot pain.

I'm perfectly happy to accept that I won't get coverage for anything we don't declare, but in reality what do people do? I keep, I think I had a phone appointment with the GP last year for antibiotics for a chest infection - according to the insurance rules I need to declare it.

I'm considering that I might benefit from antidepressants for the first time to get me through a very very stressful few months and I can feel my mid plummeting, but I can't face having it over analyzed for donkeys years by insurers.

What do people do?

So wait.

I went to the doctors last year for a sinus infection, and I'm on an ENT waiting list for a referral because they used to happen a lot (touch wood it's been a year since I last had one), do I need to declare this?

Yes you do, i declared a sinus infection, treated with ABs, within 7 days.... it added 25% to my premium.

Its also on going, so you have the policy but then go to the GPs, you have to inform them.

Its just a money making scam & because they don't advertise this very well, its a get out of jail free card for them should you claim... there is no reason a localised sinus infection in January should affect a holiday taken in july.

1000%

In fact because you are waiting investigation you may well find a lot of insurers decline you.

Also it seems if you are awaiting for a referral so don't know exactly what it is they sometimes refuse to insure you at all,

Call them to check but I would think you declare the sinus infection but not necessarily the referral. One of my DC has recurring tonsillitis and has been referred to the ENT. Insurers told me I only needed to declare tonsillitis.

@lavenderlou even though it was a year ago now? I don't travel till September but surely they can't expect you to declare every little thing?

They can’t deny a claim for reasons unrelated to why the incident happened.

People who travel a lot (like me) are now at the point of not wanting to go to the doctor's with any symptoms. Because with waiting lists as they are, even getting a diagnosis involves months or years of iwaiting, and if you don't yet have a diagnosis, no-one will cover you.

In an excess of caution, my GP referred me to the hospital for an ECG and consult a few years ago after a couple of dizzy spells. The waiting list was 18 months to 2 years. I phoned eight travel insurers and not one of them would cover me for anything medical at all. My family are abroad, so I had no option but to go private. And of course I got a clear bill of health, so I'd otherwise have missed seeing them for two years, for no reason.

I'm now in a similar position of needing a very minor op for a condition that is absolutely no risk. Two years waiting list again. And no-one will cover me. I'm 100% regretting going to my GP with it. It wouldn't matter if it was just about the op because there's no risk of me making a claim from it. But they 'bundle ' your known conditions, so me waiting for this stupid op means they also won't cover me for anything to do with the statins I'm on (they would otherwise) and I can't risk not being covered for a heart attack or stroke, even though I've no reason to think I'll have one. Pretty much everyone I know if my age is on bloody statins fair goodness sake.

There will be people who die because they don't want to go to the doctors and not be covered. Especially if they have family abroad.

If I removed myself from the waiting list would that make a difference?

I'm also on weight loss jabs, I'm assuming they'll refuse to cover them too?

There's absolutely no point buying travel insurance if you don't declare everything.

In the event that you makea claim you have to release your full medical records to them. If there's anything on there that you didn't declare, even if unrelated, they don't have to pay out, so you might as well save the money and travel uninsured.

Most declarations have no effect on your premiums. If there's a preexisting condition that would have an impact on your preumiums then it's possible to choose between an expensive policy that covers the potential for something relating to that condition needing cover, or a cheap policy that simply doesn't provide cover if something is related to that condition but covers everything else.

I had to do this once when I was in the midst of investigations for something serious when a long-ago-booked holiday came around. My consultant was happy for me to travel. I could either pay a £1000 premium to be fully covered or a £50 premium which would cover me if I got run over by a bus or caught cholera but wouldn't cover anything related to the known but unresolved issue (I chose the cheap option)

Yes, and this means you're 'under investigation'. They dont like that

Unless i ve mis understood, you re saying they wont pay out even if unrelated but then say you took out a policy because it would pay out if incident wasn't related???

@soupfiend well, fuck

Thankfully I'm not travelling abroad until September so if needs be I can get a policy closer to the time. But I'm guessing they'll refuse to cover me

Yes they do. Half the time it will make no odds to anything but anything undeclared could come back to bite you even if unrelated becaus they'll simply say you invalidated your insurance by not declaring everything.

Like life assurance there is no point in paying the premium unless you do a full declaration for travel insurance.

Naive, this does happen. Dont leave yourself open to it

@soupfiend Christ. I'll get on my app in August then and call up the travel company

The thing is it's not like I'm dying, it's just recurring sinus infections but I guess they'll use it as a reason to say no

Yes and some insurers will not cover people who are on hospital waiting lists, either for treatment or investigations.
This happened to me with insurance through my bank account, one of the first questions was "Are you awaiting any hospital investigations or treatment?" When I said yes they wouldn't provide cover for anything except if I had an accident. I had to go to a specialist insurer.

Im with staysure and Ive been waiting over a year for 3 referrals and they have covered me, however Ive booked a holiday (oh they like to know if you booked the holiday while 'under investigation') the other day for Feb, I still wont have the results of these referrals AND Im now waiting for an MRI scan result
Plus Ive had countless appointments for sinus, dizzyness to try to get to the bottom of it all
I dont really know how to use the NHS app or even if Im on it so Im dreading trying to sort all this out and find time to phone them, it took nearly 2 hours last time

Jesus this is a pain in the arse.

Obviously I've booked holidays while "under investigation" because it's nothing serious. What a nightmare.

I might just risk it, we have GHIC cards and I'm young

Yep same here, these are all for niggly small every day conditions (digestive issues, reflux and gallstones), plus my sinsuses and dizziness which I believe is related to my inner ear but which the doctor is now confusing matters by saying its low blood pressure, so all that is going to cause confusion when I ring them up because I dont actually have low blood pressure and Im waiating for the referral to do the 24/7 bp monitoring at home, that hasnt materialised either.

I think most people with travel insurance dont bother with all this, they're just lucky nothing happens to them

Yeah I have to admit that for both of my trips I took while I was on the waiting list I didn't bother phoning up because I had no idea. The issues don't affect my day to day life so I didn't even think about the fact I'd not be covered

Insurance is about fear... how many people travel vs how many have to be medically evacuated back to the UK?

The way the industry is operating, pretty much unregulated, means that travel insurance is becoming increasingly meaningless, as a pp said, few disclose everything and for Europe, a GHIC will cover most things, even if you have to pay a top up.

Its like a car insurance company not honoring a claim because the engine came on, you had it fixed but never told them....

I would probably still book one of those cheap insurances rather than nothing as you would hopefully still be covered for loss, like if your cases went missing or your flight delayed or cancelled, surely they won't go raking through your medical history for that though someone will probably prove me wrong