Looking to travel to Spain for 1 week break away. Dad diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and finished chemotherapy around 6 weeks again we can't however find an insurance less than £1,500. Anyone had similar problems?
This is a common issue, the cost of travel/holiday insurance soars once a cancer diagnosis has been received. It is worth shopping around though, I've found the difference between quotes is literally in thousands for almost identical cover.
Whatever you do, make sure you declare absolutely everything as there have been cases where some insurers have refused to pay out because conditions haven't been declared, even when they weren't relevant to the claim.
On the other hand, if the word "terminal" hasn't been used tick the NO box (usually a terminal prognosis is only formally given i death is expected within about six months, but people often confuse Stage 4 with terminal but they ARE different.
I have used Essential Travel, OK to Travel and people on here have recommended Insurance With ... whose prices look very competitive. It is always worth checking the difference between a one off and annual cover - last year I paid only 50% more for an annual policy compared with a ten day policy.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Watch out for cheap deals which sneakily exclude anything to do with the declared medical conditions disclosed.
I have lots of friends who have had serious illnesses and ended up being quoted ridiculous premiums even for travel within the EU. I'd suggest just taking out insurance that covers cancellation and repatriation, nothing else, if you're staying within the EU and have a European Health Insurance Card.
There is another post on travel insurance running at the moment. It is entitled ‘Insurance’ and is from [@redfeed]
Dave has given you some sound advice, so follow this whatever you do. It wouldn’t do to be stuck in Spain with no cover.
The sites that Helen mentioned in Redwood’s post are worth a look, although I couldn’t find anyone to accept me on these sites.
My husband and I both have a long list of medical problems. We found that Stay Sure was a huge improvement in comparison to other companies, which charged thousands. We had been with them for about 4 years, when they transferred us to All Clear which is still reasonable.
We take out an annual policy as we go abroad approx. 3 times a year. At present we pay £400 for an annual policy for both of us. This works out at £66.67 each per trip. This is not as cheap as Tosyn’s. £25.00, but we were happy with it. The annual cost is less than other companies were quoting for a single trip (under a third of the price). There was also very little difference between an annual and a single journey quote. The only problem is that this doesn’t cover us for America.
Please let us know who you eventually find to cover you. I hope that you get away to Spain and that you and your dad enjoy your holiday there.
We've just been quoted £92 for a week in the Canaries, which i thought was OK. Got it through Freedom Insure in the end, underwritten by AXA.
Other people tell me it gets better once you go a year without treatment or relapse!
Some of the quotes we got were more than the cost of the holiday. It's frustrating and depressing, especially at a time when you are most in need of a holiday. It's even more galling because after surgery, chemo and radiotherapy, I'm probably at less risk of needing to be flown back in an air ambulance than the average 50+ year old heading to Spain!
That sounds pretty good - worth checking the small print for exclusions though. Last year I was given a similar quote from a different company but it excluded repatriation due to any of my pre-existing conditions.
I found that each year that passes since I last had cancer treatment the lower the price of insurance.
