UK Insurance News

Travel insurance is often considered a “grudge buy”.  Searching for a good value travel insurance policy is not the exciting part of planning a trip abroad.  Travel insurance is often bought by parents for their children who fail to see the importance of being covered on holiday for any unforeseen medical emergency or bought at the last minute, just in case.  The type of holiday insurance on offer is very varied and time should be spent to source the most relevant policy.  For example, not all travel insurance companies will insure their customers if they have a medical condition prior to travel, even if that condition is already under control with medication.

Most people take tablets at one time or another for a medical condition.  Figures estimate that more than 2.8 million people in the UK have diabetes, half of all the people in the UK over 65 have high blood pressure ( hypertension) and two thirds of the UK population aged over 40 are said to have high cholesterol levels.  For most people, taking tablets for these conditions is a daily ritual and of no great importance, but even if the medical condition is under control and the symptoms are not problematic, the condition may still need to be declared when taking out travel insurance.  Taking out travel insurance with medical conditions covered should be considered essential if there is the slightest chance that the condition could cause a problem when travelling.

Travel insurance policies can be nothing more than an expensive piece of paper, that is, until a holiday maker experiences difficulties abroad bought on by a condition that has gone undeclared to their underwriter.  Not all medical conditions can be covered.  If the risk is deemed to high for an insurance underwriter, the traveller with the condition will need to assess the pros and cons of travelling without medical cover and the consequences of hospital treatment abroad, against the prospect of not being able to take a holiday.

Travel insurance companies will not all have the same rules regarding medical conditions.  Some will expect only a 12 month period in which there are no symptoms, treatments or consultations before they consider that person to be free of an existing condition whilst others will extend that period to 24 months and more.  Some of the cheap travel insurance on offer will also cover medical conditions; it is not necessarily true that the extra endorsement needs to be prohibitive, the cost of medical care if the condition has not been covered, can be enormous.