My husband has bladder and prostate cancer. He no longer has travel insurance and I cannot find a company which will insure him. In October we are hoping to go to Spain . He is 80 and apart from cancer he has diabetes. Do you know of a company which will insure him.
thank you
Hello Beezle
Thanks for getting in touch. I am sorry to hear about your husband’s diagnosis and I appreciate this can make finding insurance more difficult. Here is some information I hope will help.
Just to make you aware we can’t recommend any financial products or services but hopefully you may find the following information helpful.
Firstly it may be worth looking on our online community. We have a helpful travel insurance group here. On this page people affected by cancer discuss their experiences trying to get travel insurance and post recommendations of companies they’ve personally used. By using the information provided by others who have been in a similar position, hopefully you can make a shortlist of companies to try.
Another option for finding travel insurance is the Travel Insurance Directory which has been created by MoneyHelper (a separate organisation to Macmillan). The directory can be used to search for FCA approved travel insurers who may offer cover to people with pre-existing medical conditions. Please visit their directory here.
Does your husband have any travel insurance cover in place through his bank account or a credit card? They won’t usually automatically cover for pre-existing health conditions, but if there is cover already through a product it’s worth checking on. They may be able to offer full cover if a top-up fee is paid.
Most companies will ask very similar or even the same questions. The medical screening systems they use are often the same, which leads to repetition of the questions. Please don’t let this put you and your husband off, despite being asked similar questions each company will have their own quote at the end if they can offer cover – so it is worth persisting and shopping around. If you’re struggling to properly explain your husband’s situation with the questions asked, you can ask if it’s possible for the company to manually underwrite the policy. This is where a person would look at your husband’s health situation and decide whether to offer cover and at what price, rather than a computer making the decision. Some companies may do this as their standard procedure.
You may find that some companies offer a policy with a cancer-related exclusion. This means your husband wouldn’t be covered for any claims relating to his cancer. This could affect the premium considerably, but it’s very important to consider the risk of not being covered for anything relating to cancer.
One last thing I’d like to mention is about your own insurance. Some policies may cover cancellation if something happens to a ‘close family relative’. The exact cover would be explained in your policy documents, it’s a good idea to check exactly what may be covered. Some companies may only cover cancellation due to a close relative’s illness if it was disclosed and they were told about the person’s health conditions beforehand.
If your husband has a current European Health Insurance Card, or he can get a Global Health Insurance card (more information here) and your husband opts to take an exclusion, he would still be able to get treatment in public hospitals when abroad. However, this treatment may still be chargeable at the time although it may be possible to reclaim some or all of the cost back once you are back in the UK.
I hope this information helps and that you’re able to get cover in place for your husband. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Kind regards,
Chris H
Financial Guide
