Travel Insurance and Cancer

[pugmom]

I know everyone says "don't wait too late to do the travel you always said you were going to do", and we started last April with our Rhine River cruise. We also just got back from 3 days in Quebec City, which was marvelous. We would highly recommend both.
We want to do the Danube River next May, but DH had a recurrence of his melanoma in May, and surgery in early July. He is fine now, and has no other symptoms, just a few big scars on his head and neck. There is really no reason to think he would have a problem by next spring.

Here is the question. I am sure that most travel insurance policies have some clauses to protect them if you have certain pre-existing conditions. I get that. But for something like cancer, which may lay dormant for years before recurring... how would that be handled? The insurance can be quite expensive, but not compared to all of the other total costs.

Does anyone have experience with this? How much does a chronic condition like cancer factor into these policies?

Thanks,
Pugmom

 

[OldShooter]

... How much does a chronic condition like cancer factor into these policies? ...

Ask an insurance agent that specializes in travel policies. Go here: https://www.intltravelnews.com and search for "wirtanen" Wayne Wirtanen wrote a multi-year series of columns for ITN, mostly on the subject of travel insurance. He mentions a number of specialist agents, any of which should be able to answer your question.

 

[athena53]

Many policies cover pre-existing conditions as long as you buy coverage within a few days of paying for your travel arrangements. It's usually pretty easy to find on comparison sites such as insuremytrip.com.

 

[Ian S]

Many policies cover pre-existing conditions as long as you buy coverage within a few days of paying for your travel arrangements. It's usually pretty easy to find on comparison sites such as insuremytrip.com.

Yes, it's typical for pre-existing conditions to be covered if you buy the insurance within a certain number of days of the first payment made for your travel. Otherwise, there will be a look-back period of some number of months.

I agree that insuremytrip is a good spot for comparison shopping. Just be sure to check the detailed coverage and especially exclusions before you opt for a particular policy. While there are reviews for the various policies, most are ones without claims so are pretty meaningless. I think insuremytrip has an option to display only reviews where claims were made which gives you a better sense of how things were handled for actual travelers' claims.

 

[Rianne]

I just signed up for travel health insurance through Blue Cross-Geo blue. Says it includes pre-existing conditions. Lists all the healthcare facilities in or near Catania Italy, phone numbers, Drs, etc.

 

[pugmom]

Thanks for the suggestions.. I will look into this after DH's next scan...

 

[Luvdogs]

There are very few companies that will write travel insurance for pre-existing conditions. We recently used Geo-Blue Voyager Choice. There's several similar sounding names. The big thing is that you have to buy your insurance within a short period of time after booking your first flight/hotel/cruise, etc. So look up which one you want to buy and do it asap after the initial booking.

Their policies are a bunch of insurance lingo of (probably) how they can get out of paying. So although I've used this brand several times, whether they would come through, who knows?

I was looking at one that said something like they won't pay if it was a pre-existing condition that you should have known about-- even if it was not diagnosed. Really, I'm supposed to have a crystal ball for this??

Bottom line, they all seem to have some sleaze to them, just have to try to get the least amount of it.

But if you don't buy it soon after booking, there may not be any choices out there.

 

[OldShooter]

... Bottom line, they all seem to have some sleaze to them, just have to try to get the least amount of it. ...

Well, their side of the story is that they don't want to be insuring a risk they don't know about. Which is not unreasonable.

Regardless, this is where a specialist travel insurance agent may be of help. A good agent will not place business with companies who don't pay legitimate claims. And the agent will be fighting for the client where there is a dispute. A lone client who bought on the internet doesn't have the leverage like an agent that has placed multiple clients with a company.

I recall that Wayne Wirtenan, whom I mentioned above, had at least one column discussing other ITN readers' actual claims experience.

 

[mystang52]

I have a pre-existing condition and buy trip insurance for every trip, starting back at least 15 years ago. Generally, there are only 2 requirements: buy the insurance within a certain amount of days from first payment (I've seen ranges from 10 days to 3 weeks), and you were healthy to travel on the day you first booked the trip.
All of the policies allow for a period to review it and cancel if you don't like the terms of the policy. But, you MUST read those terms to make sure it covers your situation.