to take my child abroad without insurance?

[iambouddica]

Is it madness to take a 3 year old to France without comprehensive insurance?

DC2 is currently having investigations into a mysterious illness that keep reoccuring. The symptoms during flare ups have (so far) been mild enough to manage at home - although he has received antibiotics on a few occasions just in case... the rest of the time he is fine.

Unfortunately as the condition is undiagnosed we can’t get insurance that will cover him. In theory our insurance would still pay out if the problem was unrelated to the current issue - so if he broke a leg it should be ok... but I worry that the insurance company will refuse to cover much else as even our own consultant isn’t sure what is going on. We will have our EHIC cards of course and can be flexible with travel plans if needed to work around any flare up.

Should we cancel our holiday plans now?

Cover for anything not related to the undiagnosed illness sounds all well and good until you make a claim.

Would the insurance company be able to deny a claim by saying that the undiagnosed illness contributed in some way?

So, I was being investigated for Crohn's disease. The insurance company wouldn't cover anything related to it but had I developed any other illness related in any way to the Crohn's or medication then I wouldn't have been covered for that either. So any infection as I was on immunosuppressants for example.

I child that I know had heart surgery as a baby. Insurance company wanted to exempt anything related to his heart but pointed out that if he broke his leg and required surgery it was likely to be more complex due to the heart condition and therefore they wouldn't cover it.

So basically, depending on what the possible condition is the insurance company will do their best to wriggle out of a claim.

I would never consider traveling without insurance either. It just isn't worth the risk in my book.

Very good point @decomposting. One of the current concerns is with a deficiency in his immune system. So I expect they would say any illness or infection was related to that. I expect they could also make the same argument sbout possible higher risks to surgery.

Looks like we need a plan B. Now all we need is a cheap, nice self catering house in the UK for the first 2 weeks in August...

I think this is a difficult one TBH .Firstly I think the worry of him being uninsured ,may cloud the enjoyment of your trip .Also if you had an emergency, and needed to come back in a hurry it would be difficult to arrange at short notice .Could they come here instead ?.You may be able to get a last minute holiday cottage for all of you ,or Air B / B in a different part of UK for example .I know its disappointing, but hopefully you can go when DC2 is a little older ,at 3 he has his whole childhood before him!.You would then be able to relax and have the correct insurance /meds in place !

I have travel insurance with my bank and EHIC. DD has been under various consultants for most of the last 9 years. She is not diagnosed with anything. I don't declare anything as there's nothing to declare. I can't list all the things she's ever been tested for it would be ridiculous.

My dad had two nights in hospital in Spain. With an EHIC it cost £2,500.

We couldn’t get insurance for DDs disability without it costing an arm and a leg. We finally got it through a premium bank account (RBS royalties) We just didn’t go until we got it.

For Europe though, as long as you have an EHIC, the basics should be covered.

Cover for anything not related to the undiagnosed illness sounds all well and good until you make a claim

That was my thought. It wouldn’t be too difficult for an insurance company to claim any accident was due to DDs disability, even if it weren’t.

You can go. Treatment in France is not that expensive even before you factor in the EHIC.

Get insurance, even allowing for the fact that some things won't be covered. You need family insurance anyway.
If you can afford to cover the bit that EHIC doesn't, you should be fine. It doesn't sound as though you'll be ending up with a huge medical emergency. And getting home from France if he's generally unwell isn't necessarily any harder than getting home from a holiday at the other end of the UK.

You can go. Treatment in France is not that expensive even before you factor in the EHIC.

And if you needed to be brought back home?

When I was waiting to see a specialist for something heart related I mentioned to my GP that I was hoping to fly abroad to see a family member.

He pointed out to me that I would need a letter from the specialist saying it was ok for me to travel before anyone would insure me - something that hadn't actually occurred to me - and if I didn't get insurance and then something happened on a flight and they had to bring me back I could possibly end up being sued to reimburse the airline. Could be thousands. One of the reasons my insurance is going to be quite high when I do travel, which I haven't actually got round to yet.

I'd never travel without full insurance.

I wouldn't be travelling under your circumstances.

I would probably risk it. Depends on how often and how serious the flares are. (And I speak as so who has spent thousands due to not having insurance!!)

I have special insurance as I have MS. It costs £28 for 10 days. But came in very handy when I accidentally damaged a wall with a mobility scooter. If you don't declare that she's having tests/ under investigation and she has an unrelated accident. They may not cover her. As it's bit declared. It's not worth the risk