Travel Insurance

I am 4 years post transplant, 5 years diagnosis. I managed to get 1 year European cover with Direct Line for just over £100 . However it does not cover  Leukaemia but I am willing to take the chance if I relapsed it would not happen quickly like on a holiday.

Mark

Hi Mark

I totally understand you position, it's one I've ofter thought about. As you say relapse for Leukaemia is very likely to be a slow process before diagnosis and most likely not to be over a couple or so weeks. I'm just very anal about insurance companies as if they can find a way out of not paying up for any situation they will.

At least if you are sure they have all the relevant info of your condition and your complete medical history you hope that any issues would be covered. The caviat for my wife's cover is a £400 excess, which IMO is peanuts if God forbid anything did arise. The annoying thing is, it's only the cover for any Leukaemia related illness she need, as all other stuations are covered on our existing policy.

There is lots of gray areas when it comes to insurance. From my very long experience supporting folks on here and on other support platforms I have lots count of the number of stories of insurance companies being ‘open’ to exclude a blood cancer from a policy…,, but once ‘something’ happens there is a long protracted fight to receive the payment as insurance companies will often demand significant amount of information (from the destination medics and your own medics) before they actually pay out and I have talked with a good number who never received any payout specifically for anything out with Europe and ocean cruises 

Hi Mike, I hope you are well.

For sure cruises are a definate no no for most insurance companies as the repatriation costs are ridiculously expensive. 

However land based European holidays in general are available at very different prices. One thing to look out for in your research is to check out the "medical screening" agents these insurance companies contract.

Most use the same one, but "insurewith" use an independent scree ing company. I have checked on the Gov. Website for medical travel insurane and the info is there.

Staysure, Allclear and the other top brand names use the same screening agent, therfore you will always get the same outcome.

We all know how difficult claims can be and the amount of documentation that these companies will need, but if they have ALL Your medical history with clear and accurate details and even better, a letter from your Team confirming you fit to travel/fly and do offer you insurance, THAT THEN BECOMES A LEGAL CONTRACT.

I agree totally with the time it could take to resolve the settlement, but a genuine claim is a genuine claim.

Take care, Nick

I am great Nick.

Just a month ago I actually got a great quote from one of the companies you named (I am not allowed to name companies) for a 2 week ocean cruse and a year multiply trip cover in Europe for the 2 of us for £300ish….. I called them direct and submitted all my wife’s and my multiple conditions…… the bizarre thing is that as I have had no treatment for my incurable type of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma I was classed as cured (I wish) and it was not seen as a risk.

That's a great result Mike, well done.

It is definately a minefield out there to get the cover and price we require, it may be a bind, but it's worth taking time and doing all the research to get the best results..

I truly believe may companies realy don't have very much of an idea of Blood Cancers and leukaemia in general. Even our GP constantly asked me questions throughout my wife's journey in the early stages of her treatment and he actually told me that I had taught him more about AML than he had ever heard or read off beforehand. I think that these screening companies could learn a lot more and potentially be a little more considerate to would be clients if they understood the post process and the actual medical situation following SCT and in particular following a successful and reasonably sustained period of recovery.