Insurance

[Amanda55]

We booked a cruise with friends last year departing early May this year.  At the time they had annual travel insurance. It’s due for renewal on 21 February 2024.  However, when ringing to renew they declared that my friend was awaiting diagnoses for hip pain and has a hospital appointment in April. The insurance company  have now refused to renew the insurance until diagnoses.  The cruise has been paid for in full.   They are now to be left with no cover. Can anyone advise please?

[Harters]

Based on our own experience, your friends are going to struggle getting insurance, even from the "pre-existing medical conditions" specialists. We were unable to find anyone who would insure us while  we had an "awaiting diagnosis" hospital referral.

 

No overseas holidays for 12 months for us, till there was a diagnosis. That was going to involve fairly minor "day case" surgery but it bumped up the premium anyway. 

 

Other than trying several insurers just to see, the only way I see round it is for the friends to pay for a private consultation. And, of course, it's not worth the risk of either not declaring the condition or travelling without insurance. Either way it will be costly if medical treatment, etc was needed. 

Edited February 21 by Harters

[Amanda55]

Thank you.  

[Thejuggler]

Cancel and claim on the current policy.

 

They will need a doctors certificate advising they are unfit to travel due to investigation into a new medical condition which has arisen since the holiday was booked.

[babs135]

With the ever increasing NHS waiting list plus the inability to get a face-to-face consultation with your own GP (what are they doing all day?) I'm surprised that many of us 'old-uns' are still able to cruise!!  DH and myself (wrong side of 75 and with multiple health issues) are extremely lucky to have found a company that will cover us no questions asked until we reach 80 and then we will have to answer the usual medical questionnaire.

OP, before your friends take the drastic action of cancelling, tell them to find an insurance broker who will do the legwork for them in finding someone who will cover them.  We are with a Lloyds syndicate firm which is not a firm whose name often crops up when insurance is mentioned.  And in case you are concerned about whether they are 'as good as a High Street firm', they are.  We had to cancel a cruise 6 weeks before sailing when hubby became too ill to travel and within 4 weeks from the initial phonecall to the firm all money was back in our account.

[Amanda55]

2 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

Cancel and claim on the current policy.

 

They will need a doctors certificate advising they are unfit to travel due to investigation into a new medical condition which has arisen since the holiday was booked.

They’re not unfit to travel, so they won’t get a doctor’s certificate.  She just has hip pain. Also, due to the Doctors dragging their feet she would not have got the doctor’s paper in good time to make the claim before the expiry date.  If she doesn’t get a diagnoses before then, we are hoping P&O will allow us to move the booking.  

Edited February 22 by Amanda55

[John Bull]

I'm no expert, but two thoughts.....

 

The cruise was booked well before "last year's"  insurance expired, so there's a possibility that it covers a cancellation after that insurance expired.

Suggest that they check the policy, talk to the insurer, take qualified advice if there's a possibility that they are covered on that expired policy.

 

Depending on the circumstances, they could consider insurance with that pre-existing hip problem excluded.

A few years ago when considering a particular cruise my partner was faced with a similar problem for her annual policy due to early signs of a cancer (thankfully she's now clear) - the insurers would cover it but the premium was huge. Like many cancers, in itself it was not going to be a problem before or during the cruise - the only risk was any difficulty in re-vamping any appointment which might clash with the dates of the 14-day cruise. So cover for that cancer was excluded, the premium was un-changed, and we booked the cruise.  No worries, and when a couple of years later she was given the all-clear the exclusion was removed.

Whether that fits your friend's problem will depend on a number of factors, including whether the condition is likely to worse, whether an un-changeable date for an operation might clash and whether your friend will be unfit to travel for a period after any operation.

 

First port-of-call for cover for the cruise should be the same insurer. If they're made aware that your friend will consider claiming on the expired policy, that might tip them into covering the cruise with that exclusion (even on a single trip policy)  rather than have her cancel the cruise and lodge a claim on the now-expired policy.

 

I'm a "barrack-room lawyer" so none of this post is gospel, but perhaps worth checking out .

 

Good luck

 

JB 🙂

[sleepingcat]

 

The same thing happened to my brother and sis in law last year and it was 2 days before they left for holiday.  Sis in law had a cut stitched at minor injuries and they thought they should tell their insurer, who promptly cancelled on them.  I am pretty sure they were able to arrange something quickly and easily with Staysure. so give them a try. 

 

 also found this link

 

https://www.comparethemarket.com/travel-insurance/medical-conditions/

[Simon-t]

On 2/22/2024 at 12:26 PM, John Bull said:

I'm no expert, but two thoughts.....

 

The cruise was booked well before "last year's"  insurance expired, so there's a possibility that it covers a cancellation after that insurance expired.

Suggest that they check the policy, talk to the insurer, take qualified advice if there's a possibility that they are covered on that expired policy.

 

Good luck

 

JB 🙂

This is really good advice. Have a look at the policy and speak to the insurer. I get travel insurance through NatWest and their annual policy provides cover based on medical condition when the trip was booked. In other words, a new condition diagnosed after the trip was booked would still be covered.