travel insurance and new health concern

[BastardCancer]

We have booked a cruise for early April, took a lot of saving for and really looking forward to it.

I have non hodgkin lymphoma, fully delared this and other health issues when we took out travel insurance with staysure in November. Have been having recent treatment for an ulcer in my nasal passage causing nosebleeds (antibiotic cream, nothing fancy) but it still hasn't cleared up so my GP has referred me to ENT.

I have called Staysure and explained this, they have added it to my health declaration and charged me an additional premium to cover it, they also told me I need to let them know what the ENT consultant says as soon as I see him so that they can confirm they are still happy to insure me.

No problem with this, I understand full disclosure - BUT, what if they decide they won't cover me after all? This will surely mean I won't get insurance elsewhere and will lose the cost of the cruise?

This has made me wonder what would happen in the event of someone taking out insurance, then being diagnosed with a serious illness after all monies had been paid to the holiday company and close to the start of the holiday - does this mean a travel insurance company can just withdraw your cover or do they have to pay up if you can't go on the holiday ? If they can just pull out surely that makes a nonsense of having insurance in the first place?

I doubt they would cancel your cover but will probably charge you more. I have to say that when I dealt with Staysure on behalf of my elderly dm who had had to cancel a cruise at short notice due to a cancer op they were a nightmare. We negotiated a payout eventually but it took several months, calls and letters at a difficult time. Would never recommend them. She now uses Saga.

It does indeed which is what the ombudsman is for. If staysure decide you cannot travel, they should refund the cruise cost not just withdraw cover.

Don't borrow trouble, you have done all the right things and should be covered. If you do get messed about, get complaining.

I hope it all works out.

Hope your Mum is OK now LIZS. thant must have been a nightmare.

specialsubject, thank you - I know I've done things properly and not borrowing trouble is good advice, I'm a natural worrier though and fed up that this has come up when we should be just looking forward to our holiday. We saved hadr for this as a treat for a big Birthday of mine this year and a reward for getting through cancer twice (My Lymphoma and my DH's prostate cancer)

If you do ever find yourself stuck for insurance Fish disability specialist insurance are awesome. They have covered DS when his medical history has left lesser insurances rocking in the corner.

It's definitely one to know about if you have any medical issues

Thank you Toffeelatteplease - a lot of my health issues won't go away and we love to travel so will definately have need of insurance again i the future, so that is very helpful

They may decline to cover anything new you declare but still keep the cover in place for already declared things iyswim - then it's up to you to make the decision if you want to risk travelling without full cover.

If you need to cancel due to things already declared or something new being found then surely cancellation would be covered in that?

Is this really how travel insurance works? I would have thought you declare everything when you book the holiday/buy the insurance. Anything that crops up after that either means you cancel the holiday (so you get your maoney back, which is what travel insurance is for), makes you ill on holiday(so your treatment is paid for, which is what travel insurance is for) or nothing happens, in which case the travel insurance company are none the wiser, but you declare said condition when you next purchase travel insurance. I don't think you ever needed to update them with your new condition/diagnosis.

No you need to update them about anything new otherwise you aren't covered if you need to cancel due to that illness, only the ones they know about.

oh, okay, but they can't then withdraw cover that you've already taken out due to updated, new information, surely. Otherwise what are you actually insuring against?!?

They wouldn't withdraw but could choose not to insure the new conditions so they'd be excluded from cover, or charge an extra premium to take into account the new information.