Medical Travel Insurance

Why do I need travel insurance to cover pre-existing conditions?

It’s important to make sure that your pre-existing medical conditions are covered by proper medical travel insurance. Emergency medical treatment abroad can be costly, so when it comes to travel insurance it’s worth doing right.

Without the right level of cover, if you have a medical emergency while on holiday, you may not be fully covered. Even when there is a reciprocal health agreement, the degree of free healthcare can be limited. For example, an air ambulance from Spain back to the UK can cost more than £10,000 in some instances.

With the right medical travel insurance, you can go away with peace of mind in the knowledge that you’re covered by the nation’s Most Trusted Travel Insurance Provider by Moneywise 2018.

Find out more by talking to us today on 0800 033 4902 or get a quote online in minutes.

What is a pre-existing medical condition?

A pre-existing medical condition is a condition that you have had symptoms, surgery, investigations or medical appointments for in the past two years. It’s important you declare any pre-existing medical conditions you have when taking out a policy with us.

You can declare your medical conditions through our medical screening process, which is a set of questions for us to understand how your medical conditions affect you. You can complete the medical screening either online or over the phone.

It’s important that all pre-existing conditions are declared on your policy. This may avoid large medical bills if you need treatment in another country. Failure to disclose any pre-existing medical conditions may affect the validity of your policy should you need to claim.

What pre-existing medical conditions are commonly covered?

Declaring your pre-existing medical conditions starts with telling us the name of your condition during our medical screening. You can choose cover for pre-existing medical conditions across all our policies. We’ll just ask you a few questions about your conditions either online or over the phone to start tailoring your policy. For information on getting medical travel insurance while awaiting surgery please see our awaiting surgery page for a full list of surgical procedures that can be covered.

Here are a few of the most common conditions we cover:

• • Arthritis
  • Asthma
  • Breast cancer

• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart conditions
• Hernia
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Gallstones

You can choose cover for pre-existing medical conditions across all our policies. We’ll just ask you a few questions about your conditions either online or over the phone to start tailoring your policy.

To see if we can help you, talk to us today on 0800 033 4902.

What happens if I develop a medical condition after I have bought my policy?

It’s important that you tell us about any changes to your health or medical conditions, even after you have purchased your policy.

These changes may mean an additional premium or a change to the type of cover you’ve bought.

In some exceptional circumstances it may lead to your cover being withdrawn. Please call our Customer Services team on 0800 033 4902 to notify us of any changes.

What happens if I need treatment abroad?

If you are taken to hospital as an emergency by ambulance or any other emergency service, you will need to make sure that you or a travelling companion call us as soon as possible.

By calling our 24-hour medical emergency helpline, we may be able to help you locate the safest and most appropriate place to have treatment. We can also help by acting as a translator if your medical team don’t speak English.

Do I need an EHIC?

The NHS recommends that people have both a travel insurance policy and a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). The EHIC entitles you to free or reduced cost medical care when travelling to European countries. We strongly recommend that you apply for an EHIC if you don’t already have one. In fact, it’s a condition of our travel insurance that if you’re travelling to a European country, you have an EHIC with you.

The EHIC should not be considered a replacement for travel insurance, as it does not provide any cover for:

• Medical treatment outside the EEA and Switzerland (please note: Turkey is not a current member of the EEA)
• Extra travel and accommodation costs due to illness
• Costs associated with rescue and repatriation
• Losses from trip cancellation, cutting short your trip and interruption

What’s covered by our travel insurance?

What is medical screening for travel insurance?

A medical screening is a set of simple questions about your health that will help your insurer determine the severity of any condition when you’re buying travel insurance to ensure you get the right level of cover. With Staysure, this can be completed over the phone or online in a matter of minutes.

What will I be asked when I apply for travel insurance with a pre-existing medical condition?

When applying for travel insurance, we’ll ask you to declare any conditions through our medical screening process.

Declaring all of your pre-existing conditions is vital. Failing to do so may affect the validity of your policy, should you need to claim further down the line.

You should have to hand:
• The names of any medical conditions you have
• Medical history documents to help with questions relating to dates

Complete our simple medical screening online today, or Contact us.