# Travel Insurance - what a farce



## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

I rang the insurance company today to book travel insurance (as a back up for EHIC card) I have a rare genetic condition which only affects between one in one hundred thousand and one in a million people. Not surprisingly it was not on the insurance company database, so they told me to me ring AXA their underwriters health line, which I duly did. They decided to speak to their Dr who had also never heard of the condition, they asked me to describe how it affected me, so I did, then they told me I should be insured for Fibromyalgia and Osteoporosis, I pointed out that I had never been diagnosed with these conditions, but they said they are nearest we have on our database.

I duly rang the insurance company back and told them what AXA had said.

The conversation went like this

Me "they told me tell you to rate the risk under Fibromyalgia and Osteoporosis"

Insurance Company "that will increase your premium by £45"

Me "I don't want the cover for those conditions"

Insurance company "Why not"

Me " Because I have never been diagnosed with those conditions and if I told you I had, I would be lying to you, which is fraud"

Insurance Company " Mmmm yes you are right you would be lying to us"

I decided not to take the cover (as it would be fraudulent) However I will take this issue further, the first thing you hear when you waiting to be put through to someone in an insurance company is "we share information so make sure you tell us everything and you tell us the truth" then they tell me to lie! Not to sound like Victor Meldrew but "unbelievable"


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Many rare illnesses have a support group who should be able to tell you which insurance company will cover you or have association with them.
Does your condition have such support.

cabby


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## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

cabby said:


> Many rare illnesses have a support group who should be able to tell you which insurance company will cover you or have association with them.
> Does your condition have such support.
> 
> cabby


I have tried to contact a support group but they haven't responded, I don't know if the contact details on the website are up to date, I may give it another go.

To put it into context when I was diagnosed at the age of 3, there were only 38 other known cases worldwide and no one could tell me how the condition would affect me as I grew up, so it was a learning curve for the Dr's, my Mum and Dad and me (and still is 54 years later):surprise:


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Your specialist should be aware of a support group, especially after so many years.Another way is to look up your meds online, they sometimes have a link as well.Have you googled it recently.

cabby


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## mgdavid (Nov 27, 2014)

Have you never taken out travel insurance in the last 51 years? 
If you have, what prevented you using the same insurance cover / company?


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## powerplus (Oct 6, 2014)

hi

i think they have a standard list 

i suffer from multi chemical sensativity that is only just starting to be recognised here in the uk my doctor calls it hyper sensativity sindrome

no fun as a lot of chemicals and strong smells make me ill for a couple of days at a time

travel insurance gave me so much grief i gave up and now stay in the eu

also extended travel insurance over 90 days seemed to be a no no 


barry


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## Pat-H (Oct 30, 2009)

We forget that insurance cover isn't a right. It's a business. A money making concern that offers a range of common solutions that are cost effective and still ensure a healthy profit return.


It's always possible to take out insurance and have specific conditions excluded. That ensures you have cover for the unexpected as long as it's not related to the specified condition.


Also if the insurance company advised you to take cover for a similar (according to them) condition that they said they would consider as covered then you aren't lying in taking that cover. You are following the insurers instructions. As long as you had an email or letter stating that they have agreed to cover the specific condition under another condition then you are covered.


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## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

cabby said:


> Your specialist should be aware of a support group, especially after so many years.Another way is to look up your meds online, they sometimes have a link as well.Have you googled it recently.
> 
> cabby


Cabby I don't have a specialist, there is no one who specialises in my condition. they wouldn't have much to do as it is so rare. I do see various consultants for the different parts of the syndrome, endocrinology, orthopeadic, cardiology, radiology and neurology, unfortunately they can only treat the separate entities of the condition in isolation, but I now go to a different hospital where they do have MDT's about me and at least they now have an overview of what is happening.


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## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

mgdavid said:


> Have you never taken out travel insurance in the last 51 years?
> If you have, what prevented you using the same insurance cover / company?


 I have taken out travel insurance in the last 51 years, I wouldn't dream of not doing it, however *this* year it seems to be a problem. In fact about 5 years ago my condition was on the database and didn't increase the premium of the policy, I can only assume its been removed from the database, unless the different companies use different databases.


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## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

Pat-H said:


> We forget that insurance cover isn't a right. It's a business. A money making concern that offers a range of common solutions that are cost effective and still ensure a healthy profit return.
> 
> It's always possible to take out insurance and have specific conditions excluded. That ensures you have cover for the unexpected as long as it's not related to the specified condition.
> 
> Also if the insurance company advised you to take cover for a similar (according to them) condition that they said they would consider as covered then you aren't lying in taking that cover. You are following the insurers instructions. As long as you had an email or letter stating that they have agreed to cover the specific condition under another condition then you are covered.


I have taken out cover and my condition is not listed as a medical condition on the policy. The underwriters were not saying they would cover my condition, they were saying that the insurers should "risk rate" my condition under Osteoporosis and Fybromilagia and my condition is nothing like either of those two, it might feel similar in terms of brittle bones and pain, but has a different cause, different prognosis and different treatment, so cannot really be classed as the same.

I spoke to a colleague at work about it (who worked as a manager for LV) for many years and she agreed with me that telling the broker to put my conditions down as Osteoporosis and Fybromialgia would be lying on the policy, I must say the broker agreed with me too on that point. I had a travel insurance policy with the same company last year and none of this came up which is why I went back to them this year, how wrong could I be, but in the end I took the cover on offer as I needed to get it sorted.


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## Pat-H (Oct 30, 2009)

I didn't say put your condition down as that. I said pass on the information from the actual insures to the broker that they were prepared to cover it under those listed conditions. No lie ther. You are doing exactly what the insurer asked of you.


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## JLO (Sep 27, 2006)

Pat-H said:


> I didn't say put your condition down as that. I said pass on the information from the actual insures to the broker that they were prepared to cover it under those listed conditions. No lie ther. You are doing exactly what the insurer asked of you.


Yes you are right, but it was going to cost me £45 for the privilege


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