Hi all, just joined the group, my wife has had her 2nd brain tumour removed in Nov2013, it's now a grade 4 terminal, she is now having high dose chemo for the next 3 months, we would like to get away for a break in the sun after it's finished but having had a quote on travel insurance from Allclear for £960 for 11days just for the insurance, we came to the conclusion that we could not afford it! We went to see her consultant yesterday for her latest dose of chemo and we mentioned this to her and she said that as we were thinking of going to Spain to go and enjoy it and not worry about the health insurance side and just get a standard quote for travel cover, baggage, cancellation etc as since it's in the EU we would be entitled to reciprocal health care free of charge! She said there may be a small charge to start with but we could claim this back!
Has anyone had any experience of doing this in the eu?
Thanks
Mark
In my experience it is very hard/impossible to get medical cover insurance with brain cancer. There is a EU NHS card which you carry with you , it is blue I think, to allow you free treatment abroad at the EU country's national health system. However when you mention brain cancer to the insurer it is damn hard to get even normal insurance, for example cancelled flights or lost luggage or car breakdown and so on.
In the best case you will be able to get medical cover for anything else except the brain cancer, say for example you slip and break a leg, if a doctor verifies that the medical issue is unrelated to the cancer and that you had no way of knowing or suspecting that it would happen.
Thanks for the reply, are there any recommended insurers that people have used in he past?
I have just called All Clear Travel again and they won't remove the brain cancer from their list so it's still very high even though they have increased the excess and removed the cancellation cover, they claim that even though Spain is in the EU, in the event of any illness/accident the taxi/ambulance would take us to a private hospital 1st and not the health service ones! Anyone with experience of Spain and the hospital system?
Thanks
I know it's not cancer related but when my wife fell and broke her arm in Spain we were taken to a private hospital rather than one eu nhs agreement. Our standard travel insurance at that time did reimburse us for cover.
I am recovering larynx cancer and would appreciate advice on European travel insurance ,I will be one year post treatment next October
Hi Mark, I live in Spain and my husband has a brain tomour as well but that is not why I am answering you! Last summer in the hospital where my husband was admitted I passed through reception many times over a period of weeks and british holiday makers were going through emergencies for various ailments. Two families that had travel insurance who were taken ill and had to be admitted were asked to pay between 2 and 3000 euros basically until their insurance came forwards> frightening! Dont want to spoil achance of togetherness away, just be careful. It really upset me seeing this as they were not young people and became very distressed. The care however is fantastic I have to say. Good luck and by the way the sun is shining here and its not too hot yet xx
Just so I understand this, say you fall ill while on holidays in Spain, the ambulance takes you to a private hospital and there they will not treat you unless you pay them a few thousands of euros ?
Ouch to the 2/3000 euros upfront, this where we would be stuck, while I have brothers/sisters that could possibly help in that event, I would not want to ask, 2/300 we could cope with but that would still mean us having to pay £1000 for 2 weeks cover, I can't understand why the ambulance would not take us to a health service hospital instead of a private one!
I dont understand this either as they all had there NHS travel cards and they were brought to a private hospital. I have heard of this before. Maybe in depends on the area. This was in Benidorm
Maybe they were taken to the most *appropriate* + local hospital, rather than the one better suited to the insurance. Maybe some doctor took a decision that benefited the patient ?
I can highly recommend www.insurancewith.com I was getting quotes for a trip to Germany for one week with so called specialist insurers around £1,300!
I was on twitter to martin Lewis of Moneysavingexpert.com and a company contacted me insurancewith.com .... They were incredibly thorough and understanding of Julie's GBM4 condition and asked specific questions not assuming anything. The net result was a quote £448! I dealt ultimately with a lady called Miriam, I'm not sure if she is actually a Doctor but her questions were specific and she knew what she was talking about and she was kindness personified, I think my 'chat' lasted about 30 mins. I felt valued and whilst still a crazy amount roughly 60% belwo what other so called specialit companies were offering.
I seem to recall the company was started by a cancer patient who was fed up of being ripped off by the 'big boys'..
Hi I dont often comment but when I read you post I thought I could help as my husband has a terminal prognosis with his brain tumour and since he finished treatment back in October 2013 we have been away 3 times on holiday and have been fully insured on each. Our first trip was to the Algarve last November we got insured with MIA. It cost just under £100 you must take an EHIC card and use state hospitals. They will only insure for certain countries in europe but if you give them a call they will tell which ones that was why we chose the algarve as that was one of there preferrred countries. You must get the OK from your consultant in order to be covered. In January we went to Barbados but as MIA do not cover this country we rang Towergate on 0844 346 0898 you have to answer lots of questions but as long as the consultant is happy, your treatment is not on going and you are not waiting for any further treatment etc in the near future they are good. The cost to cover us both to Barbados was £100 with the cancer completley covered. They advise that we both took out the insurance with them so that if my husband needed repatriation then it would cover me as well. We then went to Malta last month again we rang Towergate this time it was Just £66. While my husband is well we are going as much as possible as we know there will come a time quite soon when he will not be well enough. Good luck hope they will be able to offer you cover.
