Diagnosed with cancer during travel

[Willowlondoner]

Hello,

My FIL is visiting me in Switzerland from Canada and he has been diagnosed with aggressive throat cancer. He has travel insurance which seems to be useless as they have ignored all communication to date although we're sure his initial diagnosis will be covered. He has been advised by the swiss hospital to start treatment immediately to prevent spreading, and has been informed by the Canadian hospital that it may take some time to get his treatment started in Canada due to the lack of referral and having to possibly repeat diagnostic procedures and undergo translations from German to English.

Has anybody preciously experienced something like this being covered or not covered eventually by travel insurance?

To clarify it was not a pre existing condition and was picked up due to a pharmacy visit for a sore throat whilst here in Switzerland.

We can pay the immediate costs and wait for reimbursement but it will be 100,000 plus so it's a little stressful to have to pay and hope for an insurance payout.

Many thanks

Gosh what an awful situation, I'm so sorry.

No experience, bumping for you

Oh wow OP what a difficult situation for your FIL, however thats amazing that the Swiss healthcare system saw him, and diagnosed his cancer so quick!.
I would think you need to speak to the insurance company - Im honestly dont know if they would cover long term cancer tratment. What is FIL plans, to stay and have treatment in Switzerland or to try and return to Canada?

Thank you, it's been stressful but I'm amazed by how rapidly he was diagnosed. We're hoping he can stay here for his 7 weeks of chemo radiotherapy and then travel back to Canada for any further follow up. I'll keep on to the insurance company and persist. If it's taught me anything it is to always get Tavel insurance and pick a more reputable underwriter in future :)

The treatment wouldn't be covered by travel insurance and it wouldn't be appropriate. Travel insurance covers immediate costs for necessary acute treatment and repatriation costs if the person isn't well enough to fly home on their ordinary flight. If your FIL has surgery in Switzerland he may not be well enough to fly for months, it's much more sensible to get him home to canada asap and get fast-track treatment there. If I was travel insurance provider in this scenario I would be strongly suspicious that your FIL already had undeclared symptoms before flying to Switzerland and had chosen to visit specifically to access cheaper/quicker treatment and would be throwing everything I could at proving this and not paying out a single eurocent. But that's because if I was a travel insurance provider my entire raison d'etre would be focused on ensuring that policy holders get as little money as possible.
I hope your FIL gets better soon. 💐

Which insurer is it?

I am also doubtful they will pay for long term treatment - I think they will push for paying only for whatever is emergency and then repatriation to Canada.

I hope your FiL and you all are doing as well as you can in the situation

Sorry you're going through this. I don't think the insurer will pay for treatment in Switzerland but they should pay repatriation costs so he can return home ASAP and get into the system there

If he has declared all pre existing conditions to the insurance they would pay out for emergency treatment normally but a whole cancer treatment would not come under that would have thought. I would focus on getting what Canadian system needs to get started as even if they don't start there will be ongoing checks needed after. Cancer treatment is incredibly expensive and if paying yourselves is an option then make sure of costs and still alert Canadian system as there may well be more treatment after. So sorry about your Dad. I had cancer and they tell you about one treatment, you do it, then the next, then the next, then the next, it maybe different with throat but it was a years treatment for me with 10 year meds not the one day op they first said.

Be aware as well if he has not given all pre existing conditions etc they can refuse to pay for anything.

DH was abroad (Canada as it happens) with my late FIL when he had a heart attack - he was repatriated as an emergency case. I would expect that for your family too.

Thanks all, they are called canassistance.

He has been told that he isn't fit to travel at present but I'm not sure if he has that in writing and could really argue this to an insurance company. Also fit to travel and able to get back to Canada are two separate things I guess. I totally see your points. He's been here for about 6 weeks on an extended vacation around Europe with a few stopovers in Switzerland as a base.

Josie

Nothing pre existing, never smoked never drank.

I would doubt they’ll pay for treatment. They’d expect him to get on a plane back and start treatment in Canada.

Unlikely op.

Travel insurance generally only pays for emergency care, until sufficiently well enough to return home independently or repatriated, I very much doubt it would pay for a whole course of very expensive treatment that could be achieved in your home country. You could be months before he is fit enough to travel so it's not just healthcare costs but accommodation, travel etc.

You should be focusing on getting gin home to have his treatment in his home country, expediting diagnostic checks and/or translating the Swiss records.

I assume you've already paid a small fortune for diagnostic checks and appointments already, I doubt any of these will be repaid. I can't imagine any pharmacist I've ever dealt with would recommend seeking immediate private medical care (even for something as serious as cancer) after a quick consultation on holiday. Pretty much all I know would insist on getting checked out on my return.

What is currently making him unfit to travel op?

I can't understand how he's gone from well enough to take an extended European tour to now unable to travel directly home? Unless he's already started treatment then really his condition hasn't changed?

Sorry, just seen you say he’s been told he’s not fit to fly.

even so, that’s for your insurance company to decide what they want to do, treatment or medivac.

dd as a small child thought she’d broken an arm skiing in a ski lesson. So she was evacuated off the ski slope, ambulance to the hospital and examined by a doctor who said it wasn’t broken. She was done and dusted by the time I got there.

The bill was about £500 and the insurance company argued it and said they only paid for stuff they authorised and they hadn’t authorised any of this. I did successfully argue that at 8yo she can’t ring the insurance company up herself, she could hardly be left on the mountain and I wasn’t with her! Even if I had been I’d have been dealing with an accident not ringing the insurance company whose paperwork was in the hotel.

I’m just saying that as to how strict they can be. Is there not an emergency hotline?

From an insurance POV I can’t imagine this being covered as “emergency” or acute treatment.

And I think technically it could be argued that it was a pre-existing condition, albeit an undiscovered pre-existing condition.

It’s a very difficult situation OP but I think it would be unwise to pay for treatment in Switzerland and expect that insurance will pay out. As long as your FIL is able to travel home for treatment, that’s what he should do. What is currently preventing him from getting on a plane? Any breathing difficulties?

If you have the policy read the small print but policies are incredibly strict and in the UK it's any contact with go or hospital in previous 2 years plus pre existing. I think you can request his medical records from GP and see what visits and tests have been recorded but one missing they can decline all help even unrelated. The trouble is cancer comes on over a longer period as well.

Go is gp

I suspect that if he has been declared medically unfit for travel, then the Swiss hospital might help you chase up answers from the insurance company.

They'll do what they need to in order for him to fly, then they'll want him back in Canada for treatment.
Travel insurance is more for immediate issues faced unexpectedly rather than longer-term treatment - so I'd bank on them wanting to get him in a state to travel, then flying him home ASAP to go through the normal procedure back in Canada.

Having seen someone go through this for a similar cancer (technically it will be something more precise than "throat" cancer) I would say that the effects of radiotherapy are awful & not to be underestimated. There's no way DH could have travelled to Canada for 2 or 3 months afterwards (see my user name!).
He wil probably needs a feeding tube inserted & all sort of specialist foods, drugs etc. I really would work on getting him back to Canada asap, which is, after all, what travel insurance is for.

It might be worth asking hospital if they can provide reports in English for Canada. No idea if that's possible but use several languages there so might have translators.

I would expect travel insurance to pay for initial costs of pharmacy visit, and then presumably first doctor's appointment (on pharmacist's advice) because at that stage FIL would not have known what was up, and getting initial diagnosis by an ordinary appointment is normally approved.

He should have contacted his insurer as soon as further investigations were mentioned, to get approval for them to be done on the spot, or to activate a curtailment of stay on medical grounds and then he could rearrange flights and go home for onwards treatment.

But as that clearly did not happen, then he's a bit stuck now. The chances of insurance paying for anything other than initial visit/s are very low.

The insurers will be seeking to assess if there was a period when he was fit to fly between the initial visits and now. If there was, it is unlikely they will pay for a (more complicated/expensive) medevac flight now.

So yes, if you can't get him back, you will need to work out how to self-fund his treatment.

It's a tough time, and I hope he can be stabilised enough to fly before too long

French is an official language in both Switzerland and Canada, so the apparent language barrier might be no such thing

Realistically, I imagine any doctor treating in Canada will want their own imaging etc, so tests will need to be redone.

Agree that travel insurance isn't likely to cover cancer treatment while away, so I would look at getting him back to Canada asap (unless he can afford private treatment in Switzerland but that would be £££££).