Another day, another person with inadequate travel insurance

[JulietteHasAGun]

So very sadly a British man has died in Cape Verde while on an all inclusive Tui holiday with his wife.

She believes his travel insurance wouldn’t cover repatriation of his body so has buried him in an unmarked grave over there and had to come home without him. Which must be very distressing for her. I do sympathise but also think why on earth don’t people get adequate travel insurance. I know it’s expensive as you get older and have pre existing conditions, etc.

friend of mine it cost 5k in travel insurance for her mum to go to Florida for 2 weeks when terminally ill but they paid it. I pay £hundreds for Dd due to her medical issues.

If i couldn’t afford it I wouldn’t go. They could have gone to Spain and had a cheaper holiday, then afforded holiday insurance as well plus being covered by ghic…..though obviously that wouldn’t cover repatriation.

Have to say I’m surprised Tui didn’t help out as they have their own planes especially because there’s lots of rumblings about Brits dying in their hotels over there due to Norovirus, stomach bugs being rampant in their hotels and this guy died after a severe episode of d&v.

I'm amazed at how many people don't know this. We are assiduous about updating our insurer about all new visits to the GP via the insurer's online portal, declaring everything as soon as it occurs (as you are meant to - DS's acne, DH's sprained ankle, my UTI etc). All fine, none have ever resulted in a change in the premium (we have an annual family policy).

Then a month ago, my GP referred me to dermatology for a suspect mole, I went online to update the insurer (Admiral) but it said if you had a referral for a test you needed to call them in person. I called them, and they cancelled the policy there and then, giving a refund for unused months, as I was 'waiting for a test' and mainstream travel insurance policies do not cover anyone waiting for a test/procedure/diagnosis. As we were shortly going away, we had to get another policy, from a specialist medical insurer which does covers those waiting for a test. (It was £280 for the year rather than £140 for the cancelled policy, so not too bad. The suspect mole was subsequently found to be fine!).

But when I've mentioned this story to friends they've all said it wouldn't have ever occurred to them to mention this dermatology referral, or any other GP visit, to their travel insurer. They seemingly aren't aware that when you sign up to travel insurance, you must declare all pre-existing conditions, warrant that you will update them as new conditions occur, and tick a box stating that you are not waiting for a test/diagnosis/procedure. But if it is found that you have not declared your full health status, the insurer will not pay out for anything, even lost luggage. So my friends are effectively paying for insurance that won't pay out when they claim (which is horrifying given it's the worse-case scenario, not the lost luggage, that you need travel insurance for).

You do have to declare absolutely everything in your medical records, no matter how small. The insurance company cover this by saying that if you don't, your policy is invalid.
This is why you have to check your GP records really carefully. I found so many mistakes in mine (on the NHS app), that I had to do an e-consult, then a face to face appointment to get them corrected.
They have this format that divides historical and active problems, then put things in the wrong category. They record the same condition twice, using different names.
A friend of mine was going on a round the world trip and we were chatting about it. I asked her if she had remembered to declare her recent cataract surgery. It hadn't even occurred to her. It was lucky we spoke because her policy would have been useless if anything had happened.
Insurers should put this in big letters on the front page of the medical questionnaire.
I am lucky to have annual insurance through my bank and I have to do a phone questionnaire every year. The person doing the phone call always makes the above information clear.
I did end up in hospital abroad one year and the first thing the insurers did was access my GP record.

Well that's all very well but I often can't buy the packaged insurance as it excludes so many pre existing medical conditions. I never go away without medical insurance but I can't get insurance with just any company.

It's also why I declare everything- the insurance companies probably roll their eyes at all the minor medical complaints I put on the form but I am not having them invalidate my insurance because I haven't declared something.

Basic holiday insurance does not include the return of a dead body.
We have an amazing respected Charity in Ireland. The Kevin Bell trust, young Kevin died in America, his family set up the charity. In 2025 they brought home 135 people. The families usually raise money afterwards it’s isn’t expected.
You would need top insurance to cover a casket return.

Medical costs not a concern?

Thats not what i said.

The widow is quoted as saying "I believed I didn’t have adequate travel insurance", which is ambiguous. It's possible that in her distress and confusion, and being in a country with extremely poor infrastructure, a local burial seemed the best solution at the time. I'm not the first to point out that the article is really about the high rate of serious illness that occurs with visitors to Cape Verde. We were thinking of going there a couple of years ago but decided against after finding that most reviews of the resorts there mentioned abysmal hygiene standards and a prevalence of severe stomach bugs.

Doesn't it normally take six months to settle before you can mark it properly?

I'm not the first to point out that the article is really about the high rate of serious illness that occurs with visitors to Cape Verde. We were thinking of going there a couple of years ago but decided against after finding that most reviews of the resorts there mentioned abysmal hygiene standards and a prevalence of severe stomach bugs.

We were speaking to a couple on holiday their Daughter in law was so.sick in cape verde by day 5, really put us off going.

Perhaps she thought the insurance was adequate and only found out too late that the company would not pay out.

Insurance companies do find any reason not to pay.

I'm a lawyer and still got caught out with the "pre-existing condition" rule on pet insurance recently. As I thought it meant something you can claimed for before, but it meant anything your pet had more than a year ago if it comes back, even if you paid for the treatment and did not claim anything the first time round. They can be absolute fuckers.

It stuns me that people don’t get adequate travel insurance!!

It wouldn't be for you though would it? Most of us would prefer not to leave our spouses, parents, siblings or god forbid, children, in an unmarked grave, thousands of miles from home.

This is why I dont travel unless its with work and their insurance covering me.

I have a condition that makes the actual flying dangerous - so I do avoid it as well...like being live!

If you have no PEC its not expensive! My kid has 2 conditions. Just got a quote of £60 for YEAR for her...Execess are like 12million,. Has repatriation etc.

Also...cremate and bring ashes home if you cannot bring a passed person back surely?

wrong thread

I don't think I've ever had a travel insurance policy that didn't cover repatriation of remains.

Not arguing with you, just thinking aloud as I thought it was standard, and wondering now if I'm mistaken.

side note on pet insurance...this is why I stopped with horse insurance b at 3rd party, as he had 3 feet looked at - NO CONDITIONS FOUND - but all got excluded from any quotes as now deemed Pre existing. And treated for a reaction to butter cups - so respiratory excluded, then a sharer gave him dry feed, he got choke, and then digestive issues got excluded.

Tbh maybe CV could do with crematorium if they have a lot of severe noro cases.

i was going to say i wouldnt pay extra for repatriation after death. But i guess in some places it could be really expensive for a plot ?

oh, ok.

I know this is not exactly the thread topic but is it not possible to have the body cremated over in whatever country you are in and then just bring the ashes back in your own luggage?

ETA: OK I see this was asked already, ignore!

Well ordinarily you could but as we keep saying no cremations in Cape Verde.

Fair,

@tedglenn may I ask which company you went with? Did they cover you for the thing you were waiting for a test or just exclude it and cover everything else?

Some people think nothing that bad will happen to them

People are talking as if all travel insurers require the same exhaustive medical information, and saying that insurance cover is all or nothing. They don't and it isn't. I applied for insurance recently and was only required to declare conditions I'd seen a doctor about or had medication for in the previous 6 months. Because I was waiting for a gp appointment to discuss some symptoms I'd been having, they said they wouldn't insure for medical issues until I'd had that appointment. However, I could go ahead with the insurance to cover everything else (cancelled flights, lost luggage etc). So I did that, called them again when I'd had the appointment, and at that stage they added medical cover for a reasonable additional charge.