Diabetes Travel Insurance

Even if you don’t need to manage your Type 2 diabetes with medication, you still need to declare and cover it on your travel insurance as a pre-existing medical condition.

For holidays and trips to Europe (excluding Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland), it’s a condition of our insurance that you take a GHIC or a valid EHIC with you.

Having a GHIC or valid EHIC entitles you to free or subsidised emergency healthcare in most European countries when using their state healthcare provider - like our NHS.

But a GHIC or EHIC doesn’t cover other things that can go wrong, like having to cancel your holiday or having to pay for medical transportation home. While a GHIC or EHIC helps to reduce your potential medical costs where subsidised healthcare is available, it doesn’t serve as a substitute for proper travel insurance.

If you can use your GHIC or EHIC and you’ve still had to pay a subsidised fee for healthcare, we’ll remove the excess fee for medical emergency claims.

Of course, every individual's medical circumstances vary, but the types of questions you can expect about diabetes include:

• Is the person who has diabetes over 16?
• Do you take medication for your diabetes?
• How many unplanned hospital admissions you’ve had in the last two years?
• Do you have high blood pressure or cholesterol and are you taking medication? (You will also be asked whether it has been prescribed/dosage has been increased in the last six months.)
• Do you have any of the following conditions relating to your diabetes?
  - Impairment of kidney function
  - Angina and/or heart attack and/or narrowed arteries of the heart
  - Peripheral vascular disease (causes poor blood supply to legs)
  - Leg or foot ulcers
  - Retinal (eye) damage
  - Nerve damage
  - Amputation of leg, foot or toe
  - Stroke
  - TIA (mini-stroke).

If something changes before you go on holiday, you’ll need to let us know.

Whether that change is updating us with your medical conditions, a change of medication, or adding optional extras. Where we can help, we will.

What we aren’t able to do is reduce coverage in return for a partial refund so please do check that you’re happy with the level of cover when you book.