A further 10 per cent were offered cover but did not buy it, presumably because of the cost, which the report acknowledged can be “very high”. In some cases, it is not far off paying for the holiday all over again.
A Which? survey published this summer came up with similar figures: 36 per cent of respondents with, or with a history of, a medical condition, had had difficulty with travel insurance – either refusal, high prices or problems claiming.
Which? also noted that travel insurance has a relatively poor record on paying out (75 per cent versus 99 per cent for car insurance) and the second most common reason for rejecting a claim (after general policy exclusions) was pre-existing medical conditions.
What exactly is the definition of a PEMC? The FCA does not have one. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) does and it’s something of a catch-all: “Any health condition you have now or had in the past.” Really? Should we all be declaring the fluey bug we had one winter and a broken toe in our teens?
Insurers are, of course, entitled to assess risk and charge accordingly, but the risk assessment of PEMCs does not always reflect an individual’s actual risk.
Clearing up the confusion – almost
The FCA seems to be aware of this too, reminding insurers in 2021 that they are expected to “assess the risk from medical conditions and calculate medical condition premiums using reliable information that is relevant to assessing this risk [to] help make sure that consumers are quoted a fair premium which properly covers their circumstances”.
If I had had a stroke or a heart attack, I would understand an insurer seeing me as a higher-risk traveller. Any repetition of those would be an immediate emergency – with all the attendant costs abroad.
Successfully treated cancer is very different, with any risk a relatively slow-burn one. Even urgent cancer referrals take a fortnight. If I found another lump in my breast while on a one- or two-week holiday (which is unlikely anyway given that I am screened twice a year), would I be heading to A&E on a Caribbean island? Or knocking on an Italian doctor’s door? Of course not. I’d be contacting my medical team in the UK to make an urgent appointment for when I got home.
I even have my consultants’ word – in writing – for my fitness to travel. And the one who has been treating me most recently helpfully added: “Her recent treatment does not make her more likely than any other person to have health problems when she is abroad.”
But in the tick-box world of online forms (and the forms call handlers fill out if you phone the company), there does not seem to be a place for such assurances or assessment of individual risk.
