Travel insurance when you have elderly parents?

[Salteena]

Not sure whether this is the best place to post this but hey ho.

We're looking to go away later this year (not in the UK) and yet again the thorny problem of finding the right insurance policy is hovering ominously.

Bit of background: some years ago we were on the second day of a holiday abroad when poor dh had a phone-call to tell him that his father had died very suddenly. The travel company was absolutely brilliant and we were flown back the next day; as far as I remember the travel insurance paid out and we didn't lose anything financially.

Fast forward to now - my parents are elderly, in OK health but with the inevitable chronic conditions that come with old age. If anything happened and we had to cancel the booking even before the holiday but having paid in full, or come home while away, we really need to be covered. Now, I haven't gone into this in any massive depth yet, BUT it seems, from a fairly cursory search, that this eventuality is not covered by most standard insurance policies. What I need is some sort of waiver for previously-disclosed conditions, eg my father's COPD, which is ongoing but not life-threatening. But this might be prohibitively expensive.

Thing is, just about every elderly person is likely to be seeing their GP for something or other, and have some sort of condition that would need to be disclosed. There's just no telling whether, however mild or minor, that condition might suddenly blow up into something serious.

Does anyone have experience of this and could advise/recommend? Or do we have to cross our fingers and hope for the best?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Am I wrong but I thought it was the insured people e.g you and dh that had to disclose pre existing conditions not of your immediate family? SO if you had to cancel because a close relation had died you were covered or have I got it wrong ?

This has nothing to do with your parents health, they are not travelling.
You just need to find a policy that will get your family home in an emergency of other family members

Thanks for the responses but I have specifically asked an insurance broker about this and been told that if for any reason we had to cancel/come home because of a close family member's illness, we still might not be covered because of their pre-existing conditions. As everyone knows, insurance companies are very keen to wriggle out of claims So unfortunately it is to do with their health as much as ours!

Maybe no-one else has encountered this problem but if anyone has, and found a good solution, I'd be very interested to know. Thanks again

you either accept that if you get called home as a result of a pre-existing illness they have you won't be covered; or i guess you could pay extra to cover these. either way you surely just talk to an insurance agent and i would ensure everything is put in writing, obviously. i guess you could talk to trading standards or the insurance onbudsman, but since you don't have a problem yet would seem a bit premature?

No, I don't have a problem yet, and obviously hope I won't have one, but I might do, in which case I'd like to be covered...that's the point of insurance, isn't it?!

Will hit the phones tomorrow.....

my parents are insured with saga. they arent just for older people but may be more sympathetic to you and help you tailor a policy. from my understanding your only real option is to go for a bespoke policy to cover you for the issues you have. this however will be expensive whoever you go with because they are being asked in effect to cover a third party - your parents - who arent actually travelling with you.

Salteena, give Direct Line travel insurance a bell. Dh and I have a policy with them which is renewed annually, and I'm pretty sure they will help you.