Anyone work in travel insurance? Or have direct experience of paying for pre existing conditions?

[tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz]

Afternoon all

I've posted on this recently but am hoping for more advice ...

We've booked our summer holiday and flying to Sicily in July. Cannot. Wait

Only paid deposit for three of us so far and balance not due until May. Not yet booked travel insurance ...

When I enquired with a company we'd used before due to my pre-existing condition (hypothyroidism, I'm on levo thyroxine) I happened to mention that DD was on a waiting list for a brace. Was advised categorically this particular insurer wouldn't even consider insuring her until it's fitted. She gave me a couple of alternative companies to try.

Meantime I posted here for advice (mainly because I was so at not even being insured, this must be the case for so many youngsters) and was given a few other numbers to try. Lots of very lovely MNers also as perplexed as me!

So - last week we FINALLY reached top of the list and had her first orthodontist appointment and scans show indeed she has an impacted canine which will be extracted and a brace fitted to upper teeth. This was all scheduled in and will be done by end of March therefore no rush on getting insurance for time being.

Thanks for reading so far - didn't want to drip feed.

I think I have to declare this and I'm wondering how much extra ££ this will load our policy? For context our annual multi trip policy last year where I declared hypothyroidism (which surely is a bigger risk?) and my HRT ( know, I'm a paranoid over sharer ) was only £75 for three is is with fairly low excess and high levels of cover. That's not much more than we'd paid in the past.

If anyone can share experience or works in the industry it would be good to get those perspectives.

We got our insurance through staysure. They were happy for me to list my symptoms and the gps general thoughts on diagnosis whilst awaiting consultation. Cost £20/30 I think to update them with the actual diagnosis.

Thank you! Ok, that feels ok if it's same ball park. Do you mind me asking what the conditions were? Understand 100% if you don't want to divulge.

Bumping

I've used avanti and all clear (and maybe others). None were extortionate. We had, between us, issues such as epilepsy, severe food allergies, high bp, high cholesterol, hrt ... All conditions were stable though and had not required recent tests or hospital visits.

I think an option for one was to choose to pay less and not be covered for an issue.

I didn't mention braces though. It didn't cross my mind to!

Blimey, it never occurred to me to mention DD's braces as a condition. I'd be interested to learn if we should have done. I remember getting elder DD's ears pierced early, the year we went to the US so that they had time to heal mind.

The travel insurance I used to work for went along the lines of (and I believe it was pretty standard across the board) as your daughter is waiting for something to happen this could be a surgery/consultation/tests/test results anything directly or indirectly related to that condition would not be covered. So for example if she gets a toothache on holiday they could decline treatment for this as it could indirectly be linked to the issues with her canine teeth. As this is something that she is waiting for the insurance company don't technically know what they are covering so the insurance will be higher to cover than your hypothyroidism.

As your condition is established (providing you are not under further tests or looking to change your medication) this will be a cheaper condition to cover as the investigations are complete and the the insurance company know what they are covering.

I would strongly advise you to take travel insurance now as this will cover the cost of cancellation of your trip from the moment you pay the premium. If your holiday is cancelled by you or the operating company right now you will lose all of the money you have paid and maybe even what you are due to pay (depending on their terms and conditions).

Hope all of this helps!

Another vote for staysure. Give them a call

Never had an issue and have a very long list of pre-existing conditions for all of us. I do wonder if you said exactly what you posted “I happened to mention that DD was on a waiting list for a brace.” Because “a brace” usually means an orthopaedic brace not braces for straightening teeth? I think if you’d said she is seeing an orthodontist for braces, it wouldn’t have been an issue.

Ok some really helpful stuff here everyone - I really appreciate posts.

Useful to know it could be an option not to cover this specific issue.

This is really interesting and actually makes sense in terms of the risk. She's not had any pain or issues with the impacted tooth or the milk one that's still in situ but I guess once the baby one is out and there's room for things to move into place it's more or an unknown. Orthodontist didn't see any reason why it could be but I guess they aren't underwriting the risk!

I'll check Ts and Cs of cancellation with Jet2 as so far we've only paid a deposit and if we only lose that if for some unknown reason we have to cancel that's only £180 and I can live with that loss. If we had to pay any more of balance day on a sliding scale that's different so I'm going to message them today I think.

Then I know when to act in terms of getting cover sorted.

NB Normally I'm a "get cover immediately after booking" kinda gal so the very fact I'm waiting to cover us in itself for s making me nervous

Yes! I did clarify with the young lady as I think she asked that exact question. But good point.

@xLMCx sorry can I ask - in this case if I was to call after the baby tooth is out (obv adult one still there) and too brace is in place would this make any difference to risk factor?

Also (sorry, your going to wish you'd not posted soon!) do you know roughly how much covering as opposed to choosing not to cover, might cost?

It's also just occurred to me that our EHIC may give some level of protection too so I will look at that too.

Thanks again everyone. Bloody love MN for stuff like this.

No worries @tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz 😂

Once the tooth is out and the braces are in its all dependent on the question asked. The usual question is "have you had any surgeries/hospital admissions in the last 2 years?" ... As long as everything goes smoothly with your daughter (which I'm sure it will) then it wouldn't fall under that category of question.

Basically, once she is no longer waiting appointments/treatment then the risk is known and the cover can be provided.

Regarding cost, that's a how long is a piece of string situation I'm afraid. Insurance companies usually use at least 3 underwriters that will all provide prices based on the answers supplied to the questions. The operator usually fires out the cheapest price unless you have a specific request i.e. I don't want to pay anymore than £200 excess.

The underwriters based their risk using data from the last couple of years that they have had to pay out on. This will vary between all different underwriters as that will be based on what conditions/places of travel/times of the year/countries/ages are claimed against. Unless you need something specific covering like wedding cover/cruise cover I would deffo use a comparison website.

You can also do a couple of quotes with the cheapest insurance provider to cover the specific condition and then not cover the condition to see the price difference.

Also, just check the expiry date of your EHIC cards. I didn't realise they had one and have just applied for GHIC (replaces the old EHIC) for the whole family. All approved and posted within a week.

You star thank you.
That makes sense thanks, and as it's just a bog standard (crossing fingers ) extraction at the dentist then yes, it doesn't fall under that category.

Do you know if an impacted canine is a medical condition? Just asking because when I've been Googling some of the companies recommended for pre existing conditions it looks like the only question that could be trick is - have you suffered any medical conditions,
I've attached a screen shot of what I found,

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz with the extraction it completely depends on how they want to extract it and if there will be any ongoing treatment e.g. it gets infected and she needs antibiotics.

Usually with a tooth removal you can get it done in a day at your local dentist so this wouldn't fall under a procedure as in outpatient or an inpatient at the hospital for example.

The insurance company I used to work for (think Waitrose/John Lewis/M&S) the only conditions we would need to note down would be if she stayed over night in a hospital so as long as everything goes to plan with the removal and there are no bumps in the road of recovery it wouldn't me mentioned at all and as long as there are no follow up appointments it would be covered under the insurance.

I have completed travel insurance recently for my family and the standard questions still look the same from when I worked in insurance so I'd be pretty confident that it's the same sort of answers they are looking for.

As a side note, so you know that you are completely covered it's always best to ring the insurance company explain the situation, they can then contact the underwriters directly and explain the situation and then come back to you to let you know if it is or is not covered and what the premium would be. This is what we always did if we were unsure about any medical conditions as it's not something you want to take a chance on in another country.

I use stay sure.. annual.. I have loads of existing medical conditions.. mine is about £120 for the year.. which is great price considering we go abroad about 6 times..

You are fabulous. Thanks so much for all of this.

No worries at all! I hope the braces and extraction goes to plan for your daughter and you all have an amazing holiday :)

So we’ve now got insurance sorted!! Wanted to update as has so much useful info.
We went through

Hi folks wanted to update as I had lots of helpful advice …

I booked our insurance today 😊 DD tooth extraction and brace fitting all went well so booked with Staysure and once I’d declared my condition then a couple for DH as I was feeling paranoid that I needed to divulge everything, and DDs tooth extraction the quote was only a few £ more than we paid last year so I’m happy with that.

And in the end having a. brace fitted isn’t classed as a condition (tooth extraction is) it was the being on the waiting list that was the problem previously. Also having a dental implant isn’t either!

So glad I held on until fitted and just before balance payment.

Was very surprised however to see that many elements of travel disruption and things like end supplier failure don’t come as standard now, it was going to add £70 to include that on my policy 😳

Anyway thanks again lovely people of MN!

I never did either. I wouldn't have thought of being on the waiting list for that as waiting for "medical" treatment. It sounds completely bizarre.

Also, it's worth noting that if a close relative is on the waiting list for a procedure, you won't be covered if you have to cancel your trip to look after them (eg elderly parent waiting for operation). Given how many people are on waiting lists and how long they are on waiting lists, that seems pretty mean to me - it could mean no holidays for years if you didn't want to risk it.

We got around it by booking incredibly last minute, so we could be fairly sure that my mum wouldn't be called for the op while we were away. And there was another trip which we booked in advance, but with hotels we could cancel, and flights we could change. All more costly upfront, but less stressful.

Useful to know it could be an option not to cover this specific issue

I also didn't know that was an option. I've often wondered why people with pre-existing conditions can't exclude medical cover and just go for cancellation/lost bags/accident cover instead.

Yes I noticed this too.

Actually pretty much the only thing it's worth having insurance for is having to be airlifted home 😳

Didn't know you had to mention HRT either. A good reason to avoid using it for as long as possible I guess!