Recommended travel insurance 2023-24

I have tried this but because there is a change to existing medical conditions, they can no longer cover it. They will cover if he is unable to fly due to the new cancer diagnosis (all that's needed is a doctor's note) but other than that they are not cancer specialist insurers so would not cover him to travel with cancer.

Thank you, I've tried most of the ones on the list with no luck or ridiculously expensive so I think I've just reached the conclusion it won't happen  xx 

Can I ask who it was that offered the insurance? Fortunately, within reason, we as a family will pay up to a certain amount in insurance. the issue for us is that we cannot even get any quotes offered. So sorry about your holiday x

The cheapest we got was from Good to Go Insurance (£1060 to travel to Cyprus!). Worldwide insurance also quoted a similar price. We found 3 or 4 other companies that quoted over £3000 which was ridiculous. I hope you are able to find something that is within your means x

I have just triedwww.medicaltravelcompared.co.uk. I have lung cancer and Rheumatoid arthritis. I'm aged 77 so perhaps that makes a difference. I wanted to go to Greece for a week. I was given 2 quotes£1,679.41 and£2,074.40

I read this thread a couple of days ago as I was having trouble getting insurance at a sensible price. 

I have a number of medical conditions which I do not think affected the premium very much as I had had them the last time I got insurance before Covid.  What has put it up is that I have a small cancer on the kidney, discovered more or less by accident in 2020. It was too small for the consultant to suggest any action at that stage. It was scanned again in 2021 and was more or less the same so the next scan was going to be in 2 years time.  That happens to be tomorrow as I write this.

The quotes that I got ranged from we won't quote, we won't quote until you have the results of the scan and very high premiums ranging from £1500 to £8000 for a single trip.  None would quote for annual.

From earlier posts I saw that a few companies use a different algorithm to most.  I looked at insure cancer but they only cover people on chemo.  I looked at worldwide travel insurance but they only cover up to 75 years old.

I tried insurancewith and have got a single trip quote of about £55 for the basic cover plus £75 for the medical conditions with a £300 excess on medical claims.  No mention of having to get the results of the scan.  The algorithm was definitely different. Their quote for annual was about 3 times the single trip, which is perhaps understandable  as the condition could develop in that time.  I also see that they insure to any age with some restrictions on the maximum length of each holiday.

So thanks for having this thread set up and to those earlier on who have recommended this company.

I hope that this is useful to others having trouble finding reasonable cover.

Thank you for your reply. In the end I did get a quote of £150 from Insurewith so they seem the best company to go with  

I have Breast Cancer which is spread to my spine, and is incurable but treatable for "years and years".  I was knocked back from InsureCancer completely, and was quoted £720 from Insure & Go, so was feeling pretty despondent as I just cant afford that.   

BUT... have got a quote from InsureWith, for £80, or £138 for annual cover with winter sports.  I'm delighted!

One of the questions is "Have you reached a point where the doctor says you cannot be cured, so treatment is intended to extend and/or improve the quality of your life?"  I answered Yes, and thought it would make me either ineligible or give another sky high quite but no 

My experience is similar to ‘gettingon’ and I hope that the following details may be of help to other cancer sufferers who are seeking travel insurance.

Following a diagnosis of endometrial cancer late last year, my wife had a complete hysterectomy in January. She recovered well from the keyhole surgery but unfortunately the subsequent CT scan identified that the cancer had metastasised to her lungs. She has just completed four months of intravenous chemotherapy and is now awaiting a further CT scan to determine the outcome. In addition to my wife’s condition, for some years now I have been taking medication to control my blood pressure and also a statin to control high cholesterol. We are both 78 but are otherwise quite active and in good health. We previously had travel insurance with a slightly enhanced premium to cover my own medical conditions.

Having cancelled a number of holidays in 2023 following my wife’s diagnosis and the need for her chemo treatment, and with fingers crossed regarding the outcome of the forthcoming CT scan, we planned on a short cruise to northern Europe in late November but with some trepidation regarding the availability and/or cost of the required travel insurance.

I started with the Moneyhelper and BIBA travel insurance directories that recommended insurers that would cover medical and age-related conditions. I made a short list of potential insurers to contact (well, not so short, there were 15 in total, and I could have included more). The list included both brokers and the insurance companies themselves.

Taking advice from previous posters on this forum I started contacting by telephone but found that invariably the questions being asked were from the same prescribed list with little or no flexibility. I then tried the online approach and found myself facing exactly the same questions I had been asked on the telephone.

I have subsequently learned that nearly all the insurers I contacted use the same medical screening system, known as Verisk, including all the “big” names such as All Clear, Staysure, Avanti, etc. It also became clear that although they appear to operate and advertise separately some insurers are part of the same organisation (e.g. Staysure/Avanti, Total Travel Protection/Goodtogo Insurance). All the quotes I received from my enquiries were in multiple four figures (£2K - £4K) and/or didn’t include cancellation cover, which for a short one week cruise costing £2500 for the two of us seemed somewhat excessive.

Fortunately I had included on my list Insurewith, which does not use the Verisk medical screening system. Insurewith uses a system called Protectif. I requested an online quote from Insurewith and, after answering a detailed questionnaire with completely honest answers (including the as yet unknown result of the CT scan), was pleasantly surprised to receive quotes ranging from low to mid-three figures, depending on the level of cover required. I eventually accepted a base quote of £126, an additional fee of £175 for my wife’s medical condition and a further £76 for cruise cover - a total of £377 for the single trip. Still not very cheap but much better than the four figures, particularly since my own declared medical conditions attracted no increased fee at all!

From my own experience it is not worth trying too many insurers that all use the Verisk medical screening system - they all come up with a quote that is much of a muchness. Try to use firms that use different medical screening companies or do their own in-house medical screening. This will give you a wider choice of price and/or cover offered. NB The medical screening system used by the different insurers can be found on the Moneyhelper website.

Hi, I have just used a company called TravelInsurance4medical that was recommended by a friend whose husband has cancer. I did it all online and they gave me the best quote of £77 for myself and hubby for a single insurance to Portugal.