Travel insurance if having palliative care

Hi Loony 

A holiday in France sounds lovely but, unfortunately, it can be more difficult to find travel insurance when you've had a cancer diagnosis. Have you had chance to look at the recommendations in the 'recommended travel insurance' thread yet? If not, clicking on the link I've created will take you straight there. 

It's often better to phone the insurance companies rather than try and do online quotes as often at the end of the online quote it will tell you to phone the company and you'll then have to go through all the information again. Also, sometimes the broker can refer to the underwriters to see if they would provide cover when an online quote might just give you a straight refusal. 

This information from Macmillan tells you what things an insurance provider might want to know when you ring up for a quote.

Do come back and let us know how you get on.

x

 Sorry to hear of your diagnosis,  I think it's absolutely shocking , cancer patients are being penalised and yes they deserve to have a life , I get so angry wish there was something done about it , my oh has stage 4 with mets , he want to go away when he's feeling better after chemo can't get insurance as his psa is still high 

Hi loony

I was told that, with medication, I could live a good life for an average 2yrs, like you. 

I've just spent a month or more exploring travel insurance.  One of the things I noticed is that, if you say your condition is terminal, they want to know you've been given more than 6 months to live.  So I asked my consultant whether, if the insurance company wanted a statement from her, she would say that my condition was terminal.  She said No, she would say that I was on maintenance levels of my drug [oral azacitidine] because that's what the situation is and - with cancer treatments improving by the month - who knows what solutions there will be in 2yrs time!

You might want to talk to your consultant too as I think it's very likely that being able to tick No to the question 'Have you been told your condition is terminal' improves the chance of getting insurance, and with your consultant to back you up they are less likely to be able to wriggle out of it if you need to claim.

Regarding travelling without insurance, there is a card you can get from the NHS (European Health Insurance Card - EHIC) that gives you access to the same level of free health treatment as a French person.  However, healthcare is not free in France so you would have to pay 20-30% of the costs, more for medications.  There's also a non-reimbursable charge of 20 Euros per night for a hospital stay. 

There is a health directory (annuaire santé) service provided by the French public health insurance system.  By entering various criteria (name, speciality, location, etc.), you can search for:

• a health professional (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, etc.)
• a healthcare centre (hospital, clinic, etc.)
• the cost of care and the procedure for claiming reimbursement
• places that offer dialysis, chemotherapy or oxygen therapy (which comes under the respiratory medicine service in France),

which would give you an idea of how much your might have to pay.

If you are happy to pay these costs the only other thing to consider is ' if the worse comes to the worse, would you mind dying in France rather than here? "  If you would mind, you definitely want travel insurance!  If not ............

Hope this helps.

Pakora