This holiday insurance requirement is ludicrous and should be changed

[Sunshineandoranges]

I have just been watching Rip Off Britain. It seems that almost every holiday insurance has a clause which says that in the event of a sudden bereavement meaning you need to cancel your holiday ( the man’s father had died suddenly), you are only covered if you had declared any pre existing conditions the deceased person had. So according to that logic many couples would have to declare not only their own health conditions, but four possibly elderly parents. My adult children don’t even know some of my pre existing health conditions. The presenter said anybody taking out holiday insurance should declare all pre existing conditions of anybody whose death might mean cancellation of holiday,even minor health issues to cover themselves. So, lovely family spend thousands on holiday, granny dies so they have to cancel,no insurance cover unless the company agree to make a goodwill payment. Admiral Insurance refused to pay and wouldn’t change that decision. So, AIBU to think something needs to be changed about this?

It's all very well saying 'declare everything' but I'm in Scotland so no NHS app. I honestly cannot remember every GP appointment I've ever had in my life. I don't know how you find out either? A FOI request? Can you imagine if every person in Scotland who went on holiday had to get their medical records from the GP? Can you imagine how our over-worke GP practices would cope with that?

There’s a form you can complete at your GP, giving you access to what needed. If the policy is asking about the past 2 years, you limit it to that period & they’ll
email you what you need. There will likely be a fee, but that’s how it’s managed. Not as easy on the NHS app, and I read the other day well not get that ‘til 2030 now 🙄

A lot of stuff now is based upon the set up for England & Wales - I’ve got an issue with power of attorney thats easy to check online in E&W, not so in Scotland. It does mean it’s more of a pain, but it’s still doable.

My DPs are 86 and 91, listing their pre existing health conditions would take all afternoon. I wouldn’t expect insurance to pay out of they died as it’s hardly unexpected. It’s one of the reasons we use Avios companion BA flights- if I did need to cancel we wouldn’t lose any money.

Are you talking about the "one glass of wine" with dinner chap? The one who didn't go to hospital till the next day, and his blood wasn't tested till then, so at least 12 hours after this one glass of wine with dinner, yet he still had alcohol in his blood stream? The one where his family said they "suspect" it was due to alcohol, but the insurance company stated it was due to him not declaring medication he was on.?

I had to list each health issue, and then it gave me a list of what medications I was on. It seemed obvious to include menopause at the time as I was on HRT. I've never just bought it over the phone though.

You just ask the GP surgery for a print out of the “front page” of your notes. It’s a summary of everything you’ve been diagnosed with and all medications you are on. You are entitled to it, that’s what we use for getting travel insurance

The clause covering events linked to close relatives is fairly standard. No one has to claim under that clause. No one has to share private medical information to another person to facilitate their claim under that clause. The claim will likely be declined, but it’s not a reason to force someone else to release information. Again, most insurance cover is about unforeseen events & the financial consequences of dealing with those. In some situations, you can’t get cover at all, because the risks are known & foreseeable. No insurer will cover an event that is likely to happen, and cost more than they can get via premiums paid. Large scale events - like the pandemic - often change the policy T&Cs, once the ins co’s have had to pay out thousands of claims.

There’s a particular brand of car that’s very difficult to insure, even brand new, as they’re so easy to steal. Some ins co’s have determined the risks are too great, and are declining to cover those cars. Lots of people still buy them as it’s a prestige brand, but the level of cover will be either extremely limited - exclude theft for example, or simply not covered by some insurers.

Sorry, realised it was with your bank account.

I had mine through my Lloyds bank account previously as a perk. But if you read the policy, it does say you need to update them with any illness and medications etc. I would always recommend reading the policy to ensure coverage. I've actually cancelled my bank account perk insurance as additional charges for health (nothing serious though) were making it pointless. I currently have a yearly policy that I make sure covers everything!

Agree, I’ve actually had three quite significant house insurance claims - of course my premiums are now higher as a result but at the time I really needed the claims to pay out.

any other kind of insurance has been a necessity in case of things going totally tits up but broadly a waste of money IMO

In all honesty I’ve not thought about it since pre covid, as due to that and serious health issues with several elderly relatives, my elderly neighbour and a flare up of one of my own conditions we’ve had no great wish or energy to plan a holiday abroad. We’ve just had a few uk breaks.

I’m just grateful I read the news item, as the luck we’ve all been having recently, I can imagine jetting off somewhere, having a massive medical emergency and the insurance declining me for my HRT patches of all things. At least now I know to inform them. I wonder if I will find they want to add extra charges for it too? The joys of aging!

I think you are being a bit unreasonable. If people were free to book holidays and take out holiday insurance, knowing that there was a signficant chance that they would need to cancel and claim on the insurance, but without revealing that fact to the insurance company (so that the premium could be appropriately adjusted), then the cost of insurance for everyone would go up. The insurance company should pay out if the death was completely unrelated to any knowable conditions, but not otherwise.

Gawd, do I need to tell my holiday insurance company about my dds being on prescribed melatonin?

And my elder dds mefanamic acid for periods that she never actually taken? 🤔

Yes if she's going with you. Anything prescribed, any health conditions just list it.

Yes if it's currently on her prescription list. If she doesn't need it ask the practice to cross it off.

Policies will usually cover you to curtail or cancel so long as it’s unexpected. If you book a trip knowing that a close relative has cancer etc & then you need to take the risk yourself. I think a lot of what is reported in the press is inaccurate as insurance is tightly regulated nowadays.

Do people declare autism as a condition? 2 of my dc have a diagnosis of autism but it does not impact on their physical health other than the sleep difficulties/melatonin

Anything you aren’t clear about, or don’t understand the relevance to the cover, you’re better putting your Qs to your insurer. Whether it’s part of a bank a/c, or a stand alone policy - they can answer the Qs. None of us here have access to the specific policy T&Cs that you are referring to or thinking about so nothing we say counts here. Different policies have different levels of cover, cover different things, some extend to other people, some are narrowly focused only on the person insured.

Definitely. Anything that has been diagnosed or treated needs to be listed/declared.

On the flip side, if cancellation insurance had to cover cancellation in the event of death or serious illness of a long list of relatives for any reason, even for pre-existing conditions, then everyone’s premium would be much much higher. And that doesn’t seem fair on those that don’t want that level of cover.

Perhaps they should offer two levels, cancellation because of illness / death of one of the party travelling. That will be a little cheaper than the current cover. And cover for illness / death of anyone else, at a much much higher premium?

It will say in the policy wording (which you can read before you buy) whether death of a close relative, or illness of a companion traveller who is not on policy is included. Some (many?) policies will cover it. They won’t as far as I am aware ask about pre existing conditions for those people before you buy. However, if you claimed because said I can’t travel due to illness of close family member, they may seek proof that you didn’t know this when you booked. Eg family member with terminal illness which was known to you before you booked holiday would unlikely to be covered. But something that came up week before travelled out of blue would be.

some policies won’t include it as covering the extra risk costs money. They exclude that cover as not everyone wants it and makes policy cheaper.

My dad had a serious illness abroad and needed to be hospitalised then medically repatriated back home. They wouldn’t pay because he hadn’t declared his eczema which was really really minor, last flared up years ago and was in no way related to the medical issue he had.

Bastards

I’m still a bit unsure about “declare everything” when I’ve found that the form only asks you to declare things in the last 2 years, so providing I answer honestly and completely, about anything in the last 2 years, the surely you can’t be penalised for failing to disclose something that happened years ago, when you’re not asked to go that far back?

Although I can envisage being hit by a Spanish taxi driver and having the claim refused because of a question they didn’t ask!

I had a run-in with Aviva when renewing my annual policy earlier this year as the staff member I spoke to said I was uninsurable (not even just excluding the one sticking point) because I was taking Mounjaro (weight-loss injections). I was incredulous and asked for a second opinion but the manager agreed that I could not be covered at all.
I lodged the query further up the chain and they got back to me and apologised, saying it was an error, explained how I could declare it on the (inadequate) application form and "passed" me for cover.
However, I went somewhere else, with a company that had no issue with the medication.

This information is included in all insurance policies but it’s worth looking at this for outcomes on challenges/complaints made over decisions made by ins companies. It covers all the areas that the financial ombudsman adjudicates on, so there’s lots of different scenarios listed. But there will be some things in there that cover travel claims. And the FOS can give advice on complaining as well.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/case-studies