Travel insurance past 32 weeks, anyone!?

[HelloPippa0]

Hi all, I’m due to be travelling to the US in a couple of weeks and I will be 33 weeks the day I fly back - meaning I’m not covered by most policies which cap at 32 weeks.

I’ve found Insureandgo who will cover you past 32 weeks but looking at the details, it seems they consider ‘premature birth’ to be only 8 weeks before the due date and I will be 7 weeks when we fly out. Meaning a birth at 32 weeks is actually considered just a routine birth(!) and not covered.

Has anyone used anyone else to travel past 32 weeks? I’ve seen Ravenhall posted about before but they no longer offer the mama2b insurance despite it still being on the website 🙃

Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thank you

Remember you don’t just need insurance for you. You need insurance for your unborn child because if they’re born they’re a person in their own right and you do not want to be paying those US hospital bills.

Exactly! Of the Companies I’ve spoken to so far, they all consider the baby to be an extension of the mother, so all their costs are covered under the mother’s policy & that includes any long term NICU. However - that only applies for most if the baby is premature (born 8+ weeks before the due date), which I won’t be!

I've looked into this at length and found nothing covering beyond 32 weeks for labour/birth, they'd cover other complications though.. just not related to labour. If you were traveling within Europe you'd get nhs standard care with a GHIC (new EHIC) card... but doesn't work in the US sadly.

Thanks @nee22 I might have found one - Nationwide provide travel insurance with their FlexPlus account (which I don’t have but would be willing to take up if the cover works!) I spoke to them on the phone as there was nothing in the policy doc about pregnancy and they said they have no restrictions - they’ll pay up to £10m and that includes ‘routine’ birth at any time (no definition for what’s premature vs routine unlike everyone else I’ve spoken to). Keen to get confirmation of this in writing from them though, sounds too good to be true - will be investigating more this weekend!

Can I ask how this worked out for you @HelloPippa0 ? In a similar position now and struggling to find insurance cover that gives me confidence!

@NutsAndMay I can’t explain how many hours I spent looking at this! But yes, I did find one in the end - it was with Nationwide and was just the standard travel insurance they include (or at least did at the time) with their Flex Plus account. I wasn’t 100% confident about it but I spent so long on the phone with various members of their staff (it was an insurance company, not Nationwide themselves - can’t recall the name now but it wasn’t a company you could take insurance out with directly, you had to do it though Nationwide). Anyway, they were so great and repeatedly assured me that yes, even though their policy detail didn’t specify anything about pregnancy, every eventuality was covered.

In the end, I had some bleeding (at the airport!) so had to go to hospital and missed my flight. All turned out to be fine and after much begging, BA actually let me change my flight to the following day for free but the insurance company said they were 100% happy to pay the cost of the flight if I couldn’t go. So definitely look into it, they were fantastic.

Good luck!

Thanks so much @HelloPippa0 this is really helpful. I can’t believe all pregnant women just stay home and wait to give birth but it does seem unexpectedly difficult to find travel good insurance! My goodness, bleeding at the airport must have been awful 🤦🏻‍♀️ but so glad all was well, and you got to take your trip, and I hope all is good with little one now!

You have to make sure the airline will let you fly too

I’m with Nationwide and their travel insurance provider is changing in the next couple of weeks. It was underwritten by UK insurance and is now going to be Aviva. No idea if this changes any of the coverage but I unfortunately wouldn’t rely on the OPs great experience.

Thanks @AutumnLeaves5 - turns out it changed on 1 May so we’re looking into the new Aviva version.

Yes @PickledPurplePickle my particular airline is fine up to 36 weeks but you need a medical letter from 28 weeks which neither GP not midwife offer so you have to get from a private online place. All a bit of a palaver!

Would be happy to hear from anyone else with recent experience…! Luckily we’re travelling in Europe so will have GHIC which makes things a bit easier.

Did you have any luck in finding out about the Aviva changes? Is is the same policy on pregnancy? I think I’ve been moved over without realising. I carefully told the last underwriter about my pregnancy loss history and they told me it didn’t need to be declared as medical history so I’ve got two trips booked relying on them!

@greenbridge We decided not to go abroad - couldn’t find any insurers that considered birth at 32 weeks to be premature…! Had an email from the new Nationwide insurers but it wasn’t enough to reassure me about what they’d actually cover, and once I started thinking about neonatal care and medical repatriation it didn’t seem worth it! Hope you fare better.

Just for future reference for anyone looking. I rang the Aviva Nationwide number this morning and asked if I needed to disclose my miscarriages and investigations. They said no need to disclose pregnancy related things (she had a list including bleeding in pregnancy, history of ectopics, miscarriages etc). She said as long as any medical issues abroad were not anticipated already before travelling they would be covered. I didn’t particularly like their wording of “Any claim for issues before 36 weeks will be considered in line with the T&C and medical exclusions”. But I asked and I didn’t seem to have any medical exclusions and she said I would be covered. So it’s given me enough confidence to travel using them with my history (I’m only going at 28 weeks so well within their limit). Would still recommend anyone ringing if you are travelling close to the limit to get confirmation it’s ok noted down on file!

Hi @greenbridge did they give you a list of the medical exclusions or anything like that?

i’m going away to Spain at 32 weeks pregnant and will have GHIC with me but looking at Aviva as it looked like they would cover premature birth up to 36 weeks as long as it wasn’t planned but I was looking to see what they’d cover in terms of cancellation also.

Hi @Bubbles45 did you get anywhere with Aviva on this? I'm travelling to Italy shortly at 32 weeks and it's proving impossible to find insurance! I just called Aviva and they said they would count the birth as normal rather than premature from 32 weeks and therefore it wouldn't be covered, but that was with single trip cover rather than through Nationwide - I'd definitely open a Nationwide account to get the insurance if I knew it would provide cover!

@MiH you can cancel a bank account as long as it’s within two weeks of opening it (I think it’s two weeks, double check the exact time frame!). So you could open it and just cancel if you find it doesn’t give you the cover :)