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One of the drawbacks of
entering into the twilight years of life is the fact that, unless
you are made of money, as you get older things tend to get more expensive and less accommodating. ‘Ahh yes’ you say and come out with
a host of examples that have affected you, or someone close to you.
But, within the confines of this article, I am going to talk about
insurance and before I hear any more ‘ahh yeses’, can I be more
specific and talk about travel insurance and travel health
insurance.
OK, remember that travel Insurance companies are not good Samaritans
who go out of their way to make your holiday enjoyable and risk free
without certain provisos. Coming into the real world, they are
simply there to make more money from the insurance premiums you pay
than they do from the amount paid out to the claims made and,
accordingly, will go out of their way to enter as much small print
into the policy as they can.
But, to be fair to the insurance companies, if you stick to the
finer points of the insurance policy they really can be a friend in
need when you most need them - more on this later. Basically, when
you are taking out the policy, you must be honest. Whatever you do,
don’t try to hide any previous illnesses or ailments in the hope
that a clean sheet will keep the insurance premium down. For
example, how many minor chest or water infections have you had in
the past year or two, and of course it’s easy to forget the mild
diabetes your doctor mentioned and which you easily control by diet
alone. And what about the blood pressure which you don’t take any
medication for but just have an annual check, and the suspected
stomach ulcer 10 years ago which hasn’t caused any problems since.
Just remember that your doctor keeps meticulous records of these
ailments and illnesses in your medical notes and, in one of the tiny
bits of small print in the insurance policy that you sign up to, you
agree that the insurer can approach your doctor for information
about your medical history the minute you make a claim.
Going back to the first sentence of this short article - one of the
drawbacks of entering into the twilight years of life is the fact
that , as you get older, things tend to get more expensive - indeed
they do because, as you get older, you are more susceptible to
ailments and illnesses and are more likely to call for medical
help. Accordingly, insurance companies start hiking up your holiday
insurance premium the older you get simply because you are a bigger
risk.
Let me give you a couple of examples I have encountered. An 85 year
old man went on a West Indies cruise but was struck down by a
debilitating chest infection. The cruise doctor ordered him off the
ship to be dealt with at a local hospital where it took a little
longer than usual to settle his illness down. In come the insurers
who were asked to repatriate him by air a mbulance to the UK. Ah
sir, but you did not declare on the insurance questionnaire the
bronchitis you suffered over the last two winters. Cutting a long
story short, the claim was rejected and the £46,000 bill to get him
home came out of his estate because he died just 2 weeks after
getting back to the UK.
And what about the 70 year old who travelled to Nevada and Las Vegas
and was having the time of his life when he suffered a heart attack
- not really surprising when a normally inactive man went into
holiday exercise overdrive!. What he had forgotten to tell the
insurers was the mild chest pain he had told his doctor about and
was given a GTN spray as a trial. Once again, claim rejected and a
bill for £32,000 to be faced - health care in the USA and Canada is
extortionately expensive by any standard.
Then there was the arthritic lady who regarded her arthritis as a
normal part of growing older and didn’t bother telling the insurers
that she had monthly prescriptions for Brufen from her doctor. A
fall, a broken hip, an expensive hip replacement and a nurse
assisted repatriation left her with a rejected claim and a bill
eight times that of the cost of the original holiday!
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