On 2 ww pathway and Tesco have cancelled my travel insurance

[PinotGrigios]

We booked travel insurance (£60) to cover us for a week's camping in France as a family. In the meantime my GP found a couple of lumps last week, so I am booked in for a mammogram when I return. I phoned Tescos (as per the Terms and Conditions) and they have now said I am uninsurable by any company for insurance.

Ironically they said if I was diagnosed with cancer then they could cover me, but not while I'm under investigations. I don't get it!

Has anybody been in this situation? Should I just insure my husband and daughter and go uninsured? I have a GHIC.

@PinotGrigios look at Insure and Go. We've were covered as a couple in July with numerous health conditions. DH is also undergoing tests for something else. There is a question along the lines of "Is anyone on the policy undergoing tests for anything". You tick yes and it doesn't ask you which one of you and what the condition is. The terms are that you aren't insured for any situation to do with the undiagnosed conditon.

I would think that would be unlikely to help with any up front payments though. Assuming the same kind of thing applies abroad as to personal injury claims for accidents in this country my experience is that treatments generally have to have been approved in advance by the insurer. There are some things you can claim in retrospect but it takes a long time. I had a large claim following an accident some years ago and it took nearly 5 years before I saw any money, and the other side quibbled over every penny. And that was a UK accident where the other driver was convicted of a criminal offence so you would have thought it should have been straightforward. I wouldn't want to rely on my car insurance in the OP's circumstances unless I knew I had enough money to pay for immediate treatment and possibly repatriation up front and could afford to potentially wait years for a refund.

I didn’t think what you had been told sounded right. You are covered by travel insurance from the day you take it out, they can’t just cancel it (unless you did something like fail to disclose when you applied). Definitely go back to them and if they won’t budge, complain.

Update: After a 40 minute call, Staysure have quoted me £258 for comprehensive cover, excluding anything related to my condition awaiting diagnosis. I was impressed at how thorough (and significantly more tactful!) they were on the phone.
I'm going to ask Tesco if they'll pay for it, rather than having to pay for us to cancel our trip. You never know!

We have never taken our daughter abroad before, we have saved and planned for this trip for so long, we're meeting family out there and she is beside herself with excitement - we HAVE to go! Also I feel fine in myself, went for a run this morning, so the whole thing feels a bit surreal.

I'm so grateful to everyone for replying. And my enormous sympathies to those who have gone through cancer diagnoses or other illnesses and had to deal with all this life sh*t as well. I so appreciate you taking the time to help. x

@RigIt That's exactly what RAC did with us. We had annual travel insurance, booked a trip for late April, at the beginning of April my husband was diagnosed with cancer. He rang RAC to tell them and they immediately cancelled his policy and refunded his premium - leaving us high and dry. We put in a complaint and they still said they were within their rights to cancel! We probably should have gone to the ombudsman but were dealing with a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis so had enough to do!

Have a wonderful time!

That's good, have a lovely holiday

A lot of Brits don't realise NHS delays prevent them from travelling with insurance (sometimes for many years). It's absolutely awful. You have the choice to self insure but I'd probably just cancel.

I’m with StaySure as I was awaiting some tests when I had to renew. It was £££ but at least I am insured!

Glad you got it sorted, for future reference if you have your European Health Card (which is free and quick to get) it covers you for EU state healthcare, not for repatriation home. And French care I think is very good, it includes emergencies and pre existing conditions.

Also if you’d managed to get an earlier breast clinic appointment, that would potentially have meant still being in the world of investigations , if they were to take biopsies.

I was diagnosed with very early stage breast cancer In June (non spreading), lumpectomy last week, results day (over a month later) is day before I am scheduled to go to Greece! Existing travel insurance immediately cancelled my policy, and I will have to ring a specialist breast cancer such as Insure With, it all gets very complicated as I will have had surgery within 2 months of travel and in theory won’t have the outcome of the treatment till day before, and might possibly mean radiotherapy in October or nothing.
This is all for a condition which is not classed as critical in terms of critical illness cover payout, with many people able to physically go about normal stuff like work. But that’s travel insurance!

PS. Good luck with your breast clinic appointment xxx

This is why I'm holidaying in Yorkshire this year, my husband is waiting for tests. It's very annoying, he couldn't find cover at all.

When i had cervical biopsies the hospital told me not to go abroad as I’d struggle to get any insurance.

Good news!

My very best wishes for the coming weeks and months.

I was covered with InsuranceWith during my chemo treatment. It was really reasonable - about £60 for me for three nights in Paris. I had medical clearance to travel.

Glad you’ve found cover. I hope you have a lovely trip. Much needed in the current circumstances. Wishing you all the best onwards.

How are you getting to France? The tunnel offers an insurance package with your tickets which doesn’t ask any medical questions, or at least it did last year, I think it was about £80 for 3 of us for a week for all the usual cover, medical expenses to £1 million and return home if needed. Fortunately didn’t need to make any claim so not sure how good they’d be at paying out though. I needed to use it as was awaiting surgery and couldn’t get normal insurance either.

Staysure covered us when DS was undergoing investigations for a possible heart condition a couple of years ago.