Difficult

[Kev56]

Looking forward to travelling to Brittany soon. Thing is my wife has cancer and we’re worried about travel insurance. Any help would be appreciated as I’ve just started looking into this and the questions asked are very difficult. Anyone recommend a decent insurer so we don’t have to go through the difficult questions all the time, many thanks.

 

[Perfectos]

I have experience of this
the person in question decided that if they needed medical support the EHIc system would deal with immediate issue , longer term, eu / U.K. would cover ongoing treatment.

repatriating Family to the U.K. if required

IMO Life is for living, not waiting for the inevitable Check out.
Even if immediately inevitable
, unfortunately the person unnamed decided they would not travel, consequently they didn’t See the most of the last six months they could have feasibly travelled, six months they would have been able to travel and enjoy life !
Each person needs to take the responsibility and have discussions with fam to understand the risks & reward
, but in general first world countries don’t let people pass without treatment and particularly dignity!
no one person can have a perfect solution

Edit: I wish you the best, I didn’t mean to sound matter of fact , which on re reading my post does.

 

[Californication69]

Looking forward to travelling to Brittany soon. Thing is my wife has cancer and we’re worried about travel insurance. Any help would be appreciated as I’ve just started looking into this and the questions asked are very difficult. Anyone recommend a decent insurer so we don’t have to go through the difficult questions all the time, many thanks.

Just wanted to send my thoughts and prayers to you and the wife.

 

[KevH]

MacMillan may offer some advice on which insurers to try. When I had colon cancer a couple of years back I found that LV were surprisingly competitive. Just be honest with them, especially when describing the current therapy and prognosis.
Good luck.
Having been there, I can honestly say that living with cancer is doable but the emphasis must be on living life to the full whilst you (hopefully) recover, and not waiting for whatever might happen someday. That may mean holidays in the uk for a while.
Again, best wishes and good luck.

 

[NessL]

Looking forward to travelling to Brittany soon. Thing is my wife has cancer and we’re worried about travel insurance. Any help would be appreciated as I’ve just started looking into this and the questions asked are very difficult. Anyone recommend a decent insurer so we don’t have to go through the difficult questions all the time, many thanks.

Try Saga. Whilst not cancer, they covered me for a recent serious health condition last year when travelling to Greece.
Was expecting it to be expensive and it wasn’t.

 

[Kev56]

Just wanted to send my thoughts and prayers to you and the wife.

Thank you.

You can't avoid the difficult questions, they are just doing their due diligence and cover will most likely be expensive - my parents had the same issue.

The other option is to not have insurance and just take the risk. Brittany is not that far so easy to get back to UK quickly if you need to.

 

[Kev56]

You can't avoid the difficult questions, they are just doing their due diligence and cover will most likely be expensive - my parents had the same issue.

The other option is to not have insurance and just take the risk. Brittany is not that far so easy to get back to UK quickly if you need to.

I know we have to answer the difficult questions but I was hoping to only have to do this once with a recommended provider.
Re. Travelling without it, is it not a requirement for entry to other countries?

 

[Kev56]

Try Saga. Whilst not cancer, they covered me for a recent serious health condition last year when travelling to Greece.
Was expecting it to be expensive and it wasn’t.

Will try, thank you.

 

[babble]

I know we have to answer the difficult questions but I was hoping to only have to do this once with a recommended provider.
Re. Travelling without it, is it not a requirement for entry to other countries?

It is not a requirement to have travel insurance to enter the EU from the UK (because it is visa free) but you should apply for a UK GHIC https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/he...-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/.

Do I need travel insurance for Europe?

One of the questions we get asked most often by travellers is whether they need to purchase insurance for their trip when travelling on an ETIAS, Schengen or as

etias.com

 

[B J G]

Looking forward to travelling to Brittany soon. Thing is my wife has cancer and we’re worried about travel insurance. Any help would be appreciated as I’ve just started looking into this and the questions asked are very difficult. Anyone recommend a decent insurer so we don’t have to go through the difficult questions all the time, many thanks.

My Wife had a Bone Cancer operation and later tripped and dislocated her shoulder, both declared with Staysure Travel Insurance with no problems.

Just declare anything and everything, medications included.

 

[PurpleLizC789]

I am in the same situation, although haven't yet looked at travel insurance (I won't need it until next year, just having weekend breaks in the UK this year during treatment). As someone else said, Macmillan have information about this and so do Cancer Research UK, although they don't recommend specific providers. I think the best place to find details about providers people have used is via the forums - there is one on the Macmillan site: https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_experiences/travel-insurance-forum

If there is a charity supporting the specific cancer that your wife has then they will probably also have information or there will be a similar forum (I have joined a closed Facebook support group for the relevant charity for my type of cancer and there is a forum on there for travel insurance).

If Staysure are one of the options then I can recommend them - I had to cancel a trip after my cancer diagnosis and they paid up within 3 days of my submitting my claim.

I wish you luck and I hope it's not too expensive.

 

[CaliforniaCylus]

First thing is you can get reciprocal healthcare in much of the EU with the GHIC card. That means you'll be treated in France if necessary paying only what a French citizen would pay. We have done this in Spain - ie no health insurance. The biggest risk / cost would be if you needed repatriation because a plane and doctors could in theory cost tens of thousands.

It's probably a small risk. I think the GHIC card is free from the NHS. It's a no brainer.

If you are travelling by a vehicle, check out Red Pennant insurance from the caravan and motorhome club. They do not ask you to list pre existing medical conditions. They ask questions like...

- has there been a change in medication over the last 14 days

- are you awaiting any new tests (as opposed to ongoing monitoring)

If you look on the website you can see the questions.

The pdf is here https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/globa...ance-motoring-and-personal-policy-booklet.pdf

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/globa...ance-motoring-and-personal-policy-booklet.pdf



I've also attached a picture of the pertinent page. I hadn't read the cancer but previously though...

 

[Velma's Dad]

I second the advice about having a GHIC card. I very recently spent 48 hours in hospital in France after an accident, with various scans, tests etc, and the bill with GHIC cover was only about 400 euros. I didn't even bother with our travel insurance.

If you haven't already got a GHIC, the old EHIC cards are still valid if still in date (mine was).

 

[Hawthorn37]

We had the same fear about the premium for an annual policy, renewed earlier this year. I’ve got prostate cancer, and I’m going through treatment. We normally insure with LV so I called them, and to my surprise it was very easy. The consultant told me exactly what to say, and after a little back and forth over terminology between their sales person and underwriter, it was sorted. The premium was a little higher, maybe 10%, not the 500% I was fearful of!! Also, they said not to worry if my condition or treatment changes, they didn’t want any updates until the next renewal in 12 months. Very decent.

 

[DavidofHook]

I have had prostate cancer since 2018 and we have been to France with the van twice a year, Spain with Saga and Australia to see our family. We were with Santander, but their cover stops at 80 and we then moved to Nationwide. In all cases we answered all the questions and there was a premium top up but we got away without too much trouble.
i hope your wife’s cancer gets dealt with and would recommend going away if you can. Don’t let it beat you. Oh, I also have epilepsy which is controlled and this also has never stopped us travelling.