Have been told its a “strong possibility” I have MS, so thought I had better ring my annual travel insurance insurers to see about adding it on - on the basis that my daughter is fully covered I was not expecting a problem.
If I had been diagnosed with MS they will cover me for it (for about £12 extra which of course I would be happy to pay even if it turns out by some miracle not to be MS).
As I am undiagnosed they will not cover me for what I am being investigated for!
So if I have a second attack and a diagnosis before I travel I can be covered. If I don’t but have a second attack when travelling, not covered! aaaagh! Anyone else experienced this?
And then oddly they won’t cover my meningioma at all.
As I already have annual insurance for this year I am not over keen about going through the trauma of finding a new insurer, not least because my daughter is quite complicated to insure.
I think it’s fairly standard for inured not to cover conditions when they can’t be 100% sure what the condition is. One thing I will say is that if you took out your existing policy before your investigations started, then everything should be covered as you didn’t have any pre-existing problems when the cover was taken out. This happened to me last year and the insurer said my possible MS and then definite MS was fully covered. This year was different though and I ended up taking out a new cover with the MS Society!! X
I don’t know what the insurance rules are, but possible MS is a proper diagnosis so it should be coverable. As far as I know, it indicates that other conditions have been ruled out, but that a further attack (in your case) is required to confirm clinically definite MS. On that basis, I would have thought that it would be covered just like MS. It would be worth asking to speak to someone in management about it. Perhaps the first line people aren’t aware that “possible” is an official term when it comes to MS? It sounds like your meningioma is congenital and therefore nothing to worry about so, personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. Karen x
You could try taking out a separate policy just for yourself if your daughters condition is complicated. You can keep your original policy running for her, and yourself, for everything BUT your poss/ms, and just take out s hort term one when needed, assuming you can get someone to cover you! I’ve just done a similar thing for my hubby’s heart condition, as our annual policy won’t add him on (he’s still smoking, naughty man), and we’re off for a week’s r&r soon. I used one of the comparison sites, and their section for medical conditions, and got a week’s cover for £15.00. I know its not ideal, but its cheap enough to do a couple of times a year.
Have you had any MRI scans and if so has a consultant mentioned to you that you have demyelination? If that has been mentioned or if you have anything written to say that there is demyelination then that is what the travel insurance company would look up as opposed to possible ms. The travel insurance companies can look up demyelination as its on their systems - I worked for an insurance company for 7 years and that’s how we would have put it down as. If you have any contact with your neurologist or their secretary or even the gp - contact them and see if that has been mentioned
To echo what Karina says, I’ve used an insurance company called All Clear a couple of times (I don’t have any commercial interest in them, and other insurers of pre-existing conditions are available). Even though I WAS diagnosed at the time, I never had to spell out in so many words that it was MS. There was no descriptor for that. It was “demyelination”. Although MS is the most common cause, it would also cover demyelination caused by anything rarer. The only problem I can foresee is if [mystery illness] was NOT, in fact, a demyelinating disease (I don’t know how certain your neuro already is about that), and you had another attack whilst away. If it turned out it hadn’t been caused by demyelination, then obviously ticking that wouldn’t have covered you. Tina