Travel Insurance

[WaggaSteve]

I would like to travel to Europe each year for 3-6 months and need appropriate travel insurance. 18 months ago whilst in France I had stents put in so obviously have a pre-existing condition, though my doctor here says that there is little or no damage evident on an ECG.
Who's the best to insure with given these circumstances

 

[sinophile888]

I would like to travel to Europe each year for 3-6 months and need appropriate travel insurance. 18 months ago whilst in France I had stents put in so obviously have a pre-existing condition, though my doctor here says that there is little or no damage evident on an ECG.
Who's the best to insure with given these circumstances

I also have stents and had multiple attacks of atrial fibrillation last year. I tried 14 companies before finding insureandgo. Good luck.

 

[WaggaSteve]

Thank you very much

 

[Franky]

I would like to travel to Europe each year for 3-6 months and need appropriate travel insurance. 18 months ago whilst in France I had stents put in so obviously have a pre-existing condition, though my doctor here says that there is little or no damage evident on an ECG.
Who's the best to insure with given these circumstances

Steve - only yesterday I stumbled on an article on travel insurance and the poster gave a list of possibilities. I have just turned 70, and my insurance expires in a week. Some were able to insure me, but the cost was around $4K, with my current policy covering two of us for annual world wide travel for just $550. I did some quick quotes on the insurers listed yesterday, and insureandgo were very competitive, with choices of $780, $830 and $1014 for varying lengths of journey. The rest just didn't want to know. I have 2 x knee jobs, so am very happy with their offer. Best of luck to you with your application.

 

[straitman]

I also have stents and had multiple attacks of atrial fibrillation last year. I tried 14 companies before finding insureandgo. Good luck.

Thanks sinophile888,

I'll store this one away for next year.

 

[SFSC]

I found Insureandgo was just about the only one that would cover me and I had a multi-trip policy with them for 2014-2015. The cover excluded the Americas and Antarctica because of my pre-existings so we just didn't go to those places. Unfortunately, I had a back operation in February this year and although I was in Australia when the symptoms became apparent and I would have been able to travel back to Australia after onset so there were no claims on the policy, I'm now unable to get cover for back problems and also my other previously declared morbidities. I was gratified to obtain cover from Insureandgo last year even though there was a loading and geographical restrictions. (I had a clark 4 nodular malignant melanoma excised in 2012 and had thought that I would possibly have had to wait until 2017 before I could be covered for cancer at least.)

Although it means a significant personal financial risk, I intend to do one trip to the UK in 2016 to see family (including grandchildren). Although I always pay my bills, I'm pretty sure I don't want to take the additional risk of a misunderstanding over hospital fees in the Middle East (the jails look uninviting) and so I have booked our flights via HKG and SIN with as short a connect time as possible. Of course, there is always the risk of a diversion, including the possibility of one caused by me. If a diversion were to a place not covered by reciprocal coverage with Medicare and I have a health problem there or in HKG or SIN then we might end up substantially poorer. I guess the old age pension would always be available when we get home.

So the days of overseas lounge crawls and luncheon trips are over for me now.

 

[sinophile888]

Thank you, SFSC, for detailing your situation.

After reading your post, I am now so pleased that I changed my policy with insureandgo from a single 2 week trip this month ($1080) to an annual policy ($2700). Since I took out the single trip policy, we decided to go on a month plus cruise in February and found that the cost of covering that trip was $2100. Hence the decision to go for the annual policy. Insureandgo were very good and changed the start date of the new policy to the date when I changed the policy to annual. And, hopefully, we can have another trip before the annual policy expires.

It looks like I will have to behave, health wise, while overseas if I want to keep travelling.

 

[get me outta here]

I saw mention of a insureandgo discount code on OzBargain which may still work online, GROUPON20. For a 20% discount.

 

[benhadi]

From memory Medicare has a reciprocal agreement with several countries, including UK. So in medical emergencies you're covered anyway. If I'm not mistaken it makes no real difference because it's NHS so everything is "public" anyway. As opposed to "private" medical care and hospitals.

 

[WaggaSteve]

From memory Medicare has a reciprocal agreement with several countries, including UK. So in medical emergencies you're covered anyway. If I'm not mistaken it makes no real difference because it's NHS so everything is "public" anyway. As opposed to "private" medical care and hospitals.

Unfortunately not reciprocal with France where the house is

 

[Cynicor]

From memory Medicare has a reciprocal agreement with several countries, including UK. So in medical emergencies you're covered anyway. If I'm not mistaken it makes no real difference because it's NHS so everything is "public" anyway. As opposed to "private" medical care and hospitals.

You may be covered for medical costs, but not retireval or evac or hospital spend etc. Relying on reciprocal agreements is a bad idea.

 

[WaggaSteve]

You may be covered for medical costs, but not retireval or evac or hospital spend etc. Relying on reciprocal agreements is a bad idea.

Trust me, there are no reciprocal arrangements in France certainly - not sure on rest of continental Europe and I think (but not sure), everyone is covered in UK for medical in UK but not medivac etc

 

[Cynicor]

Trust me, there are no reciprocal arrangements in France certainly - not sure on rest of continental Europe and I think (but not sure), everyone is covered in UK for medical in UK but not medivac etc

I know this, just replying to the post quoted, in case someone sees the thread and thinks they will be ok with reciprocal cover.

 

[wandering_fred]

As long as the insurance companies have a hard time implying any cardiac / joint replacement conditions affect the results of a "cracy" plowing into the rental car in which I am sitting, I am happy to wear the existing condition issues. Especially considering that reciprocal cover might well be a lot closer than home.
As well the over-65 group who worked more than 10 year in the USA may also have hospital cover in the USA, even if the physician and medicines may not be.

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[SFSC]

You may be covered for medical costs, but not retireval or evac or hospital spend etc. Relying on reciprocal agreements is a bad idea.

Sometimes one has to manage with what is available. I still take out travel insurance to cover hospitalisation caused by accidents etc. but just about any other pathology could conceivably be linked to one of my pre-existing conditions which I now don't have cover for. I try to manage the risk by spending as little time as possible in countries that do not have a reciprocal arrangement with Medicare and also stand ready to outlay a substantial amount for medivac to Australia or, if in a reciprocal country, would attempt to remain until I am well enough to travel home on a commercial flight.

 

[Franky]

Trust me, there are no reciprocal arrangements in France certainly - not sure on rest of continental Europe and I think (but not sure), everyone is covered in UK for medical in UK but not medivac etc

Mrs Franky received free treatment for a broken wrist in Spain a few years ago, but agree there would be no likelihood for a medivac from anywhere without insurance cover.

 

[sinophile888]

I saw mention of a insureandgo discount code on OzBargain which may still work online, GROUPON20. For a 20% discount.

I also found a discount code for 20%. My original quote was $1200. The discount softened the blow a little.