travel insurance frustration

Hi

I posted a few weeks ago to ask about travel insurance with a partial diagnosis, and got some good advice to get covered for demyelination. I found out that my insurers cover this, so far so good.

However, they wont cover the fact I have a meningioma (discovered incidentally during my first MRI), and as a result they wont cover ANY other pre-existing conditon! Very frustrating.

Now the problem is we go away on friday, and I really dont want to be completely uncovered for demyelination just in case something goes pear shaped whilst we are abroad. So I was thinking about getting a short term cover with another insurer if I can, but just wondered if anyone had any recommendations? I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, mainly because life is so busy etc trying to juggle work, children, packing etc.

All advice gratefully received!!

many thanks ali x

How annoying! I can’t see why meningioma would present any more of an insurance risk than demyelination. I know very little about it, but from what I’ve been able to Google very quickly, the vast majority are benign, may be symptomless, and not require any treatment throughout the person’s life. So why they think that would be worse than the possibility you might have another demyelinating episode, I’ve no idea.

My first thought was perhaps to try a meningioma website, as they would presumably have hit this problem.

They list several potentially useful insurance Cos. who would presumably be sympathetic to a meningioma diagnosis, but bear in mind I cannot vouch for these companies, OR the Meningioma website itself - I’m not a member there, just found it by Googling.

Anyway, here’s the link, in case you want to try their suggestions:

http://meningiomauk.org/ti_contacts.html

I’m not suggesting those companies ONLY cover meningioma, but presumably if they’re OK with that, they might be good for demyelination too.

I wouldn’t limit yourself only to your usual insurers anyway. Ideally, with more than one condition coing on, you need a specialist in pre-existing conditions. I’ve previously gone with All Clear (just Google).

You can insure for just the single trip, rather than taking out annual. Also, from memory, you can insure mixed groups of people with and without medical conditions, so if a couple of the party have got different conditions, but the rest are fine, you can still do group insurance.

I’m not saying they’re necessarily the cheapest or best - they’re just the ones I happen to have used. When I compared their prices, both with and without cover for “demyelination” I found they didn’t actually charge any extra for it, so I’d have been nuts not to take it. I guess that tells you they thought the risk of anything happening was pretty small.

Tina

x

Hi Tina

Thank you so much. I tried All clear who gave me a good rate for “just” (!) MS but over £100 extra to cover my meningioma!! Same story with most of them, finally got a slightly less extortionate one from Medici from the meningioma support page. Thank you - I was at the cant see the wood for the trees stage last night.

It has slightly scared me that they have all got quite a high premium for meningioma, even though as you say its expected to be benign (my consultant reckons its been there years).

thanks again x