This is a collaborative post.
Travel insurance is a must when travelling abroad, whether for a holiday or for business. Not only could it help to cover the cost of any emergency or essential medical care while you’re in another country, but it can also cover you in the unfortunate event that your trip gets cancelled by your holiday provider or airline, your chosen airline goes bust, you happen to lose your luggage or, heaven forbid, you experience any other kind of loss or theft while travelling.
Most of us would never dream of going away without having a valid travel insurance policy in place. As most policies are relatively affordable, there really is little excuse for not having travel insurance in place in the event that you need to use it.
Even with a travel insurance policy in place, however, there are still occasions when a policy may not be valid in the event of a claim. Usually, this is due to information being inputted incorrectly or omitted altogether. Often, the issue arises in cases of travel insurance for people with medical conditions, whereby the policyholder has failed to disclose a particular issue/s. Some times, this may be due to an intentional error (whereby the information has been withheld in the hope of minimising policy costs) but, in many cases, it’s simply owing to the fact that the policy holder simply wasn’t aware that their specific health condition needed to be disclosed. For example, many of us don’t realise that we need to disclose all pre-existing health conditions – no matter how minor or major – even if we no longer struggle with the condition in question anymore.
While it might be obvious that we need to disclose serious conditions – like heart-related ailments and neurological conditions, for example – many people don’t realise that minor conditions still need to be disclosed. So, what kinds of pre-existing health conditions could void your insurance policy, without you even realising it?
5 pre-existing medical conditions which often go undisclosed
Anxiety and/or depression
Mental health conditions are among the most likely health conditions to go undisclosed on a travel insurance policy.
Often, this is because we don’t realise that both mental and physical medical conditions need to be disclosed. At other times, it might be because we are no longer seeking treatment for the issue.
However, all physical and mental health conditions need to be disclosed upfront when purchasing travel insurance. In the event that you need to make a claim, if you haven’t disclosed such conditions, you could have a nasty shock when you discover that your policy has been voided, and won’t pay out if you need to make a claim.
High blood pressure
If you’ve been living with high blood pressure for a while, you might not realise that it needs to be disclosed as a pre-existing medical condition when purchasing travel insurance.
However, as hypertension (as the medical condition is officially known) can lead to issues like strokes, heart attacks and aneurysms, it’s very important that you disclose it when obtaining a quote.
High cholesterol
Like high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels (officially known as lipid disorder, hyperlipidemia, or hypercholesterolmia) also need to be declared when obtaining a travel insurance quote. Having high cholesterol levels can result in dangerous health conditions like heart disease, stroke and other serious ailments, so it’s essential for your travel insurer to be aware.
Arthritis
As most forms of arthritis tend to be life-lasting, many arthritis sufferers have become so familiar with living with the condition, that they don’t realise that their insurers need to know about it.
However, telling your insurer about your arthritis will mean that they can take it into consideration when providing your travel insurance quote, while also ensuring you’ll qualify for any necessary associated treatment while abroad.
Skin conditions
Many of us aren’t aware that skin conditions like eczema, psoriaris and urticaria need to be made clear to your travel insurer. If you’ve been living with a skin condition which is well-controlled by medication, you may not see a need to cover yourself when travelling abroad.
However, as travelling to different climates and consuming food and drink produce abroad can affect our bodies in different ways, there’s no way of knowing whether your skin condition could flare up while you’re away from home. Similarly, if you accidentally leave your medication at home, your insurance might help to cover the cost of buying a replacement supply abroad.
For this reason, it always pays to disclose any skin conditions when travelling abroad.
These are just a few of the pre-existing health conditions most likely to go undisclosed to travel insurers, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. To be on the safe side, always disclose all mental and physical health conditions on your quotation form when taking out a new travel insurance policy – including any potential conditions which are yet to be diagnosed. If unsure about your condition, find a therapist for consultation using this link: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/how-do-i-find-a-therapist-near-me/
Can you think of any other pre-existing health conditions which might be likely to go undisclosed on travel insurance policies? Share your comments below.
This is a collaborative post.