Travel insurance with medical conditions

97% of customers who declare a medical condition get cover with us. There are two scenarios where offering a policy becomes a bit more complicated: 

• Not being fit to travel – if your doctors advise against the trip or can’t provide a fit-to-fly certificate, we can't usually provide cover.  
• Terminal diagnoses – this doesn’t have to automatically end the conversation, but we’ll need to get a good understanding of your health and circumstances. Please call us – even if we can’t offer cover, we’ll be able to direct you to one of our specialist partners or the BIBA directory.  

If any of the above sounds like you, give us a call instead of assuming the answer is no. The details of your condition can make a difference – and we’ll always do our very best to help.

A routine pregnancy with no complications isn’t a pre-existing condition, meaning you don’t need to declare it on its own. Where this guideline changes is if there’s a related medical issue that could affect your trip. If your pregnancy has been affected by any of the following, let us know and we should be able to arrange travel insurance for you (subject to screening): 

• Gestational hypertension 
• Hydatidiform mole (molar pregnancy) 
• Hyperemesis gravidarum 
• Lacental abruption 
• Placenta praevia 
• Pre-eclampsia 
• Retained placenta membrane 
• Toxaemia 

Remember, even if your pregnancy is progressing as normal, in order to be covered your due date must be more than 8 weeks after the trip ends, or more than 16 weeks if you’re expecting more than one baby. 

Airlines set their own rules as well, often tightening from around 28 weeks, so check with yours before you book your holiday. And if your health changes after you’ve bought your policy, let us know online using your MyStaysure account, or over the phone.  

Your medical travel insurance policy can step in to cover illness before travel. If you’re too unwell to go, a travelling companion falls ill, or a close relative’s illness derails your trip, our cancellation and curtailment section can help refund prepaid costs up to your policy limits.  

Remember, single-trip cancellation cover begins the moment you buy, while annual multi-trip cover start dates can be delayed for up to 90 days. Many experts, including MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis recommend buying your travel insurance early for this very reason.  

Being fit to fly means your health is stable enough for the journey itself, not just for the holiday at the other end. Flying asks more of the body than it feels like it does – lower cabin oxygen, hours of sitting still, and limited medical help at 38,000 feet. 

A few questions worth asking yourself: 

• has anything changed recently – new symptoms, new treatment, a recent operation or hospital stay? 
• has my GP or consultant said yes to this trip? 
• will I need oxygen, medical equipment or assistance at the airport? 

If any give you pause, speak to your GP, consultant or specialist team before you book anything else. Some airlines ask for a fit-to-fly certificate – a short letter or form confirming a doctor considers you well enough to travel – and many use a MEDIF form for it.  

If you're taking medication abroad, there's a few things to bear in mind to make your journey as smooth as possible. 

Before you go: check your medication is legal where you’re heading. Controlled drugs, injectables and liquids over 100ml are the usual sticking points, and the FCDO suggests checking with the country’s embassy if you’re unsure – some medicines that are routine here need paperwork elsewhere. 

When you pack: hand luggage, original labelled packaging, and a copy of your prescription or a doctor’s letter. Take more than the trip needs in case of delays, and if you’re travelling with someone, split it between bags so a lost case doesn’t take all of it. 

While you’re away: plan around time zones if your doses are timed and use a proper temperature-controlled pouch if your medicine needs to stay cool. If something does go missing, Travel Doctor can help you find a local pharmacy or arrange a prescription.** 

In an emergency, contact the local emergency services first, and then call our 24-hour emergency helpline. Our team will help arrange your care and find the most appropriate place for treatment and follow-up care.  

• Our helpline is open 24/7, 365 days a year:  

• Calling from outside the UK: +44 1403 288 414  

• Calling from USA or Canada: +1 844 780 0639  

• Calling from Mexico: +1 819 780 0639  

• Calling from the UK: 01403 288 414  

If you or someone on your policy is admitted to hospital or your outpatient treatment is likely to cost more than £350, contact us as soon as possible.  

Where you have a valid claim and your medical expenses exceed £350, we will look to settle the bill directly with the medical provider where possible.  

If you have a non-urgent medical concern, such as sickness, headaches, or mild pain, contact our helpline first for advice on where to go for assistance. 

A lot of travellers ask this because Europe can feel lower risk. If you’ve got an EHIC or GHIC, it sounds like you’re covered. The name says health insurance after all.

These cards are helpful – they give you access to state healthcare at the same rates as local residents. But their many gaps are often hard to spot until you’re in one. They won’t refund a trip if you have to cancel due to your condition flaring up. They can’t help with things like lost baggage or passports. Most importantly, they won’t get you home if you can’t fly commercially as planned or need an air ambulance – our underwriter’s data shows that air ambulance costs from a country as close to home as Spain can cost more than £45,000. Very few of us could cover that figure out of pocket.

Travel insurance for pre-existing medical conditions closes those gaps. It can cover the emergency treatment a GHIC can’t stretch to, fund a flight home, whether air ambulance or medical escort, and cover pre-paid costs for the cancellation you never planned for (up to policy limits).

In short, travel insurance and GHICs can work together to protect your whole trip. Plus, if you use your GHIC to reduce the cost of any emergency medical treatment you need abroad, we’ll waive your excess.

A good benchmark is at least £5 million of emergency medical cover. That recommendation comes from Which?, and it reflects how expensive treatment abroad can become if a trip takes an unexpected turn. 

The consumer champions at Which? recommend at least £5 million of emergency medical cover. That sounds enormous until you price a serious episode abroad – intensive care in the USA, or an air ambulance home, can run into six figures. In fact, our data from our underwriter shows that the cost of a US air ambulance can top £192,000.

With us, £5m is the starting point: Basic includes £5 million, and Comprehensive and Signature are unlimited.

The headline number isn’t the whole job, though. Check your cancellation limit against what the trip actually cost, look at the excess you’d pay per claim, and make sure your declared conditions are accepted on the policy. An unlimited medical limit is no help at all if the thing that goes wrong was never declared.

Often, yes, but it helps to split the question into two parts.

The first is: can you still buy travel insurance for the trip overall? In many cases, the answer is yes.

The second is: will the policy cover the condition that’s still being investigated or diagnosed? This is where cover can vary.

If you have undiagnosed symptoms, you should usually still be able to take out a policy. But we won’t be able to cover claims linked to those symptoms while they’re still awaiting diagnosis. You may still be covered for other parts of the trip, such as cancellation unrelated to those symptoms, lost baggage, and other declared pre-existing medical conditions. 

If you’re awaiting tests or test results for a condition that has already been diagnosed, we should still be able to offer travel insurance for the trip. But we can’t include cover for pre-existing medical conditions in that situation. You may still be able to claim for things like lost baggage, cancellation, and emergency treatment for any new medical conditions that are unrelated to anything you’ve declared or are awaiting results for.

If you’re unsure where you stand, it’s always best to explain exactly what you’re waiting for when you get your quote.

What a decline usually means is that a particular provider – or a comparison site’s panel – couldn’t assess your medical history in enough detail, not that you’re uninsurable. It happens often with cover bundled into bank accounts and credit cards, where medical screening tends to be brief and some conditions fall outside what the policy will take on. 

Going direct to a specialist changes the odds. We’ve focused on travel insurance for people with medical conditions since 2004, we can consider more than 1,300 pre-existing conditions for all ages,* and our screening is built to handle complex medical histories. Have your diagnosis, medication and any recent treatment or health changes to hand – the more accurately we can see your situation, the better the cover we can offer.

And if we genuinely can’t help, we won’t leave you at a dead end. The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) runs a medical directory of specialist insurers – a directory the FCA endorses – and we’re proud to be listed on it. On the odd occasion we can’t offer the cover you need, we’ll point you straight there. 

Some holiday insurance providers slam the door at milestone birthdays like 60 or 70. Yet 90% of people aged 85 and above report at least one long-term health condition – exactly the group who benefit most from specialist cover. Locking people out just as they finally have the time to travel has never made sense to us.

At Staysure, we believe that, as your age gets bigger, so should your dreams. So instead of fixating on a date of birth, we look at what actually matters: where you’re going, your medical history, your health today and the kind of trip you’re planning. We offer single-trip and annual multi-trip policies for all ages – and 97% of customers can get cover for their pre-existing medical conditions with us.

Your medical travel insurance policy isn’t a substitute for packing properly, but it’s there when things go wrong. If your medication is lost or stolen while you’re away, Comprehensive and Signature policies can cover replacement prescription costs up to £250, and we can help you find a pharmacy that stocks what you need. Travel Doctor can arrange a local prescription too.**

What it won’t do is fund the medication you’d have bought anyway, or treatment you travelled specifically to receive.

Take enough for the whole trip plus a few spare days, keep it in your hand luggage in its original packaging, and carry a copy of your prescription. If your medication changes after you buy the policy, tell us using your MyStaysure account or over the phone to keep your cover accurate.

See our policy documents for full details of what’s included.