Intrepid traveller of 82 curtailed by lack of travel insurance
 

My father-in-law has just checked the fine print of his travel insurance and realised that he's been 'illegal' for 18 months, since his 80th birthday.

An intrepid traveller for more years than you can imagine, he is devistated at being quoted £700 to go to Hong Kong for a fortnight to see my brother-in-law. He has had some heart issues in the past year, and knows that he will have to pay to be covered, but this seems excessive. Has anyone had experience of an insurer for the over 80's? Any advise welcome!

He is based in the UK.

When you say he is "based" in the UK, do you mean he is a UK resident and citizen? I don't know as much about insurance customs over there (I am a consultant in the health insurance industry in the US, so am more familiary with US policies) or what you are entitled to under your National Health Insurance system, or whether there are reasonable addon policies there for folks at those ages, to supplement domestic care.

He is, of course, a very high actuarial risk not only due to age, but his preexisting conditions and recent medical history. So an insurer cannot make money in such a group without charging very high premiums because they have higher probability of payouts in that segment. Those rates don't sound that unusual to me for that risk category, but you should be able to get it down some, as long as you only want limited coverage. YOu'll have to be careful to shop for a policy that does not have a preexisting condition exclusion (and some may have them more for that age bracket) as long as bought within some immediate time frame of expenditures.

Probalby some other UK residents have better suggestions, but there is one company I know of that although in the US, I think does insure citizens of other countries, so you can check out their website and perhaps get a quote for comparison (International Medical Group)
http://www.imglobal.com/


I don't know all your details, but a cursory check made it appear they might give a basic travel medical policy to an 82-year old with preexisting conditions waived in the right time frame, for only about US $600, which is a big improvement about 700 GBP.

Hi there - yes, sorry, I do mean he's a UK citizen.

Christina thanks for your reply, I shall definately look into this contact.

Hi S,

As a resident of the UK, is your father covered under the National health insurance for emergency out of the country?

If not, are there private insurers that will offer him medical insurance?

Perhaps he needs only "evacuation insurance" to get him back home.

Have you checked www.insuremytrip.com ?

((I))

I just used www.insuremytrip.com and it gives good comparisons between policies. I still wasn`t sure and called their 800 number, and they helped me pick out the best policy for me. I also changed the date of my trip. I called insure my trip, and they changed the date on the policy, no problems.

Hello - there are some countries ouside of the EU that have medical agreements with the UK, but unfortunately HK isn't one of them. Bizarrely Russia and the Falkland Islands are, but that's another story! Thanks for you link - I'll definately take a look.

Be careful of evacuation insurance.

Read the fine print as many evacuation policies will only evacuate you to the nearest competent medical facility--nearest to where you have your accident or become ill, not nearest to your home or even your home country.