Terminal Illness Travel Insurance

If you or someone else has a terminal illness, you've probably found that it can be extremely difficult to obtain a travel insurance policy that will meet a claim related to the insured's illness.

This can be frustrating, especially if the person who's been given the terminal prognosis would very much like to travel while they still have the possibility. Many people have friends or relatives abroad, whom they would like to see again and who would like to see them.

Many people feel that it's beneficial for someone with a terminal illness to get away from their usual environment, where they are constantly reminded of their illness. By travelling and being in a totally different place, it enables many people's focus to shift (at least for periods of time) away from their health/medical situation and onto the people or place they're visiting.

So, hoping to plan a trip for someone with a terminal illness and then discovering that it's difficult to obtain travel insurance can be incredibly frustrating. After all, few people would wish to travel without insurance, especially when someone has a serious and life-threatening condition. Medical bills can easily mount up: consultations, medication, treatment, hospital stays. Understandably, people want to have some kind of assurance that if the worst came to the worst, an insurance company would be there to pick up the bill.

But how is a terminal illness defined? In our experience, there is no one, clear definition. Generally, someone is regarded as having a terminal prognosis if there is no further treatment available that will cure or control their medical condition and that it wouldn't be unexpected if they were to die within six months. Clearly, this definition may vary from one person to another and we would advise discussing the matter in detail with the medical professionals involved.

So why is it so difficult to get travel insurance for someone with a terminal illness?

Well, from an insurer's point of view, they price their travel insurance policy according to the level of risk they're covering and their experience of claims.

If the amount of money in the 'pot' from premiums collected isn't enough to meet all the claims, an insurer is likely to stop selling the insurance policy, which is bad news for everyone.

The more serious or complex a medical condition someone has, the more chance there is of a claim being made and that the claim will be high. Most insurers don't want to risk insuring someone with a terminal illness. There is always the risk that someone will need to go into hospital and the danger is that then they will be regarded as too ill to travel back to the UK. This means their stay in hospital could be extended. Not only would their medical expenses have to be met by the insurer but also accommodation and any extra travelling costs incurred by a travelling companion.

If the person is well enough to return to the UK, it may be necessary that they be accompanied by a qualified nurse or doctor on a schedule airline. Or it may be that an air ambulance is required. The cost of providing this service (especially the latter) would run into many thousands of pounds.

The insurer has a number of choices:

Raise all the premiums for everyone so that the amount of money in the 'pot' is always sufficiently large to meet potentially very large claims from customers with terminal illness; Keep the general level of premiums at a reasonably low level but then charge higher premiums on a scale commensurate with the seriousness of the medical condition(s) being insured, including offering cover for people with a terminal illness; As the point immediately above but not offer cover for terminal illnesses; A mixture of the the above

Insurers generally won't want to raise their premiums too much for everyone because they would then become uncompetitive and customers could feel that they were being charged too much.

The reality is that most insurers simply prefer not to offer insurance to people who have a terminal illness because they consider that to do so would be too risky.

However, it is possible to find specialist insurers who will provide a quotation for travel insurance that will cover claims related to the terminally ill person's medical condition(s). Because of the risks involved in providing this kind of insurance (as we have already explained) you must expect the premium to be much higher. It could take only a very few large claims for the insurance company to decide that the risk was too great and to stop quoting for such situations.

It is possible that even for a specialist insurer, someone's situation may be regarded as too great risk and cover not to be offered.

We hope this article has provided an explanation of how insurance companies come to their decision about which situations they can cover and the issues involved.

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