Travel Insurance - Computer says no arrrggghhhhh

[familiesarrggghhhhh]

My DD4 is on the waiting list for a tonsillectomy in January. We fly to Florida in March for 2 weeks. Currently on the phone to staysure to get a quote. I'm talking to an actual person but they cannot deviate from "computer says no"

My DD is having her tonsils out because she has very enlarged tonsils that is causing her breathing issues and borderline sleep apnea. DD4 also has recurrent croup so they're also going to put a camera down her throat to see if she has a narrow larynx.

Insurance Company says sorry enlarged tonsils isn't down on our criteria. Ok so I tell her to put down tonsillitis - she says does it say tonsillitis on her medical records. No it doesn't, it says enlarged tonsils....... Operator - yes but that's not a condition we recognise. Please go back to your GP (don't make me bloody laugh, I had to bypass the GP to get my DD looked at).

What the eff do we do now??

Options are wait until after she's had the op in January and then declare the op has taken place therefore she doesn't have to have a diagnosis. This is a bit risky as if anything happened to the rest of us, or we had a need to cancel on medical grounds it would leave us uninsured.

Can anyone recommend a insurance company for this kind of thing?

Try All Clear, they specialise in insuring people with pre existing conditions. I think there’s another provider who do this too but I can’t remember their name. It won’t necessarily be cheap, but medical costs in the US are wild. https://www.allcleartravel.co.uk/

Can you not insure the rest of you and add her afterwards? Risk of cancellation only based on one person then. The loops you have to go through now for travel insurance are a nightmare. Might have made sense when time from referral to treatment was relatively short but that could be 12+ months now.

Have you tried Avanti? We always use them and we have a nice selection of conditions between us

Just travel were totally lovely when I needed to get travel insurance and very understanding about the exact issues that meant my son was on a waiting list but at the same time absolutely no health risk for travelling

Surely her condition is sleep apnea not enlarged tonsils? Because she is suffering from SA, she is having her large tonsils removed.

I’m afraid it’s not totally straight forward……

so DD was under ENT for enlarged tonsils. She was given a sleep study which showed borderline Apnea. In between appointments she had her 4th serious bout a croup in 18 months. It’s not just a cough, she cannot breathe. She needs steroids, nebuliser and this last time adrenaline, which put her in the High Dependancy room overnight.

The operation is to explore her airways to see if her larynx is unusually narrow, but at the same time they said they will remove her enlarged tonsils.

so part of the surgery is exploratory rather than for an established condition….

this severe croup comes on with zero warning, we are very lucky to live very close to a A&E, but I do need a comprehensive insurance just in case it happens whilst we are in Florida.

Thank you to those who have suggested alternative insurance companies I will contact them. I know it’s not going to be cheap, that’s not the issue, it’s actually getting her covered

It’s So Easy travel insurance.

Sorry to be a doom-monger but January is absolute peak winter pressure on the health service and lots of operations get cancelled around this time. If that happens then just make sure that you get cover for the condition itself rather than general cover with an exclusion for her pre-existing condition iyswim.