The Travel Insurance Scam

What is about follow is a rant post I wrote for our previous blog and never posted. After a few months and another round of phoning several companies I am going to post what I thought then after I've written what I think now (not much has changed)


Ok so we all need travel insruance CF or not and after finding a company to cover my last trip, that should've been 6 months but was cut short (not through any health issues) I needed to find some more to cover this jaunt. So seeing as my policy hadn't ended with the company that took me on last time I called them up. I went through the questions and nothing much had changed apart from I was just out of hospital after getting an infected port so if anything even less could possibly go "wrong" if I went away again. Anyway I was told they could not cover me when I asked why I was given a non-commited answer (no answer at all really) and when I pointed out that if I hadn't returned to the UK then I'd still be covered under the policy I paid for. This seemed to baffle the person on the other end of the line so I gave up trying to get answers as I am now setting up shop in the "they make it the fuck up each and every time" camp.

"This post has been inspired by recent events on many CF forums that I contribute to every so often. I am quite sure that this issue litters many a forum that deal with medical conditions.

Now I am aware that most people can just “get insured” but for people who have pre-existing medical conditions it’s a little harder to get covered. Which is vital for peace of mind when you want to get away from it all and just relax or in my case travel around for a while not having that little worry niggling at the back of my brain, the “what if’s” that would eventually drive anyone absolutely bonkers.

I didn’t expect my search for pre-existing medical condition travel insurance to be easy, but it was (thanks to my laid back attitude) a long drawn out process of online form filling to be told at the end of which I’d have to call the company anyway. Then after calling several companies all of which asked the same barrage of questions (don’t get me wrong I know that they have to ask these questions in order to assess if I’m insurable or not) time and again to hear almost each and every time “yes we can insure you……… just not your CF” there was always a pause giving me a little glimpse of hope before the second part of the sentence which made me loathe insurance companies all the more that’s if it wasn’t a flat out refusal. So not none of them could or would cover my CF. What struck me is the way it was phrased “just not your CF” like it was an optional extra I had decided to take along with me. This didn’t really ‘click’ with me at the time but after thinking about it it’s quite insulting as my condition isn’t an optional extra it is part of me so saying that they can insure me but not my CF means that they cannot insure me as it is an integral part of who I am.

I tried many companies suggested by the CF Trust in the UK and on the forums. Which seemed to welcome people with pre-existing medical conditions as the forums suggested almost anyone could get cover from a week by the beach to a few months working in the US. When I asked the person on the end of the phone “why?” all I got was stonewalled and a similar spiel every time. So when I finally found cover the cost was irrelevant as they were the first company to accept me in from the cold of the uninsurable no-man’s land in which I found myself and others. As mentioned somewhere near the start of this post there is no price for piece of mind and sure the cover I finally got doesn’t insure me for some of the activities that I’d like to do but there will be other opportunities to paraglide or as I recently found parahawking. Maybe less chance to try the latter outside of Nepal but I may return just for one more chance"

So that's that. One massive scamola! and a pretty insulting one at that.