I am not in your position, but if I were I would be inclined to take out cover excluding existing conditions. The quote would come down to something very reasonable then.
Prostate cancer is unlikely to catch you off guard. If things start going wrong you can drive back to UK quick, or get a flight (partner drive back), depending on how bad things are and how urgent treatment is.
You mainly need cover for car accidents etc. the only problem may be heart attack, insurers would probably try and blame this on side effects of treatment to avoid paying out.
Medical bills in Europe are not as bad as in USA, so on balance I would be prepared to take on some risk in your situation, but you may have a different attitude to risk than me.
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Agree with Dave if you're undetectable now nothing is going to happen in 2 months. Just take a standard policy that excludes PCA and don't go quad biking or parachuting.
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Terminal cancer is defined as the stage when active treatment has been stopped and the person is expected to die within the next 6 months. Have you been using the word 'terminal' in error when applying for the insurance or speaking to the companies? Your cancer is incurable but stable, and definitely not terminal - I think the quotes will drop if you explain that clearly!
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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If travelling to Europe would you not get treatment under the EHIC / GHIC scheme….as I understand it, it covers existing medical conditions. The only problem would be if you required medical repatriation to the UK. I priced this coming back from the Canaries at about £25k as I’m considering what Dave and Jasper do. Insurance is SUCH a rip-off for Prostate Cancer!😡
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Insurers have to protect themselves against predicted claims otherwise they would all go out of business. The main thing they are protecting themselves against is cancellation - a progression, change of treatment plan or treatment date, cancelled / rearranged appointment, infection due to lowered immunity … any of these can lead to a man having to cancel or postpone his trip. Claiming for some catastrophic progression of cancer while on holiday is the least of their worries.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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In terms of cost when it goes wrong - my brother died in Greece as a result of an accident at the age of 27 and turned out to be uninsured. It cost in excess of £10k to get his body flown home. That was 20 years ago; goodness knows how much it would cost now. I would never go anywhere without some form of insurance even if just basic level.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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Originally Posted by: Online Community MemberInsurers have to protect themselves against predicted claims otherwise they would all go out of business. The main thing they are protecting themselves against is cancellation - a progression, change of treatment plan or treatment date, cancelled / rearranged appointment, infection due to lowered immunity … any of these can lead to a man having to cancel or postpone his trip. Claiming for some catastrophic progression of cancer while on holiday is the least of their worries.
I wonder if any insurers offer insurance excluding cancellation. For me that would be a winner as I only travel to our place in Fuerteventura, and if I cancel I only lose a few quid for the Ryanair flight. I only want it to cover me if I have an accident or serious illness (not PCa related) to get me home.
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Thanks everyone for your contributions – as I suspected, there is no magic answer to this but plenty of ideas about how I might go ahead.
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Contact insurancewith.com , set up by a woman who had cancer and couldn’t get insurance. At one point I was tearing my hair out just trying to get a one week cruise. Virtually all companies ask the exact same questions and they don’t understand or allow you to explain advanced but stable. They seem to have really looked into this now and I paid £100 for a week which was fine. Others wanted £2k 😬😬
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I would agree with Dave…we have insured excluding existing medical conditions before.
The longer trip time….even before my husband was diagnosed I think the maximum our insurer would do was 45 days, I think it was due to age as they would insure me to stay longer 🤷🏻♀️😂 (I thought about it 🤣) we probably did a week uninsured on our way home.
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Is it not the case that insurers won't pay out if you haven't declared a medical condition?
(Regardless of what the claim is for - if you claim for a stolen bag and you didn't say you had asthma, it would be knocked back).
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Yes, that's correct. Failure to declare a pre-existing medical condition will invalidate your policy.
Chris
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How would I go about geting "cover excluding existing conditions"? I had never heard of such a thing, and haven't seen any options for it in online application forms.
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I got my insurance online. By about the third page of questions it has a drop down for pre-existing conditions, with about a thousand different possibilities, prostate cancer being one of them. After adding that condition, I think there was a tick box saying "do you want to exclude this from cover" .
You are right you must declare everything, otherwise you have no insurance, but you can then exclude some risks.
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thanks Dave, I'll have another look.
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That very much depends on the insurance you are buying and does not apply to all. Some companies do not even ask you to declare pre-existing conditions.
For example, when you purchase the insurance they offer you with a flight it often exludes pre-existing conditions, but they don't usually get you to fill in an extra form. Same with companies like battleface.com
If you only want cover against accidents and emergencies etc. these can be a good option. But obviously they will wriggle like hell if you try to make a claim and they can link the cause to your pre-existing condition.
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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I told LV about my prostate cancer, all OK, no increase in premium and ok for max 2 , per year trips of 90 days.