Travel writers really do need good travel insurance as they scramble around strange corners of the globe. It covers medical treatment and lost baggage, delayed and cancelled flights, etc. and can make all the difference between being able to complete an assignment - or even staying alive.
In Britain, however, it can be very hard to get insurance if you have a pre existing medical condition, however mild. If you do, after much shopping around, it can cost a bomb.
I had always assumed this was a tough fact of life, but Nicky Gardner, co-editor of the Berlin based travel magazine "Hidden Europe" has been researching travel insurance options in different EU markets, and she said:
"The European notion of insurance as a shared social and economic risk – an act of communal solidarity on all sides – seems to have disappeared in the UK as insurance companies pursue profit"
She goes on to say that, in Germany, public health insurance programmes aren't ALLOWED to ask applicants anything about their health when they apply for membership!
Of course the helpline is probably in German. And just by sheer coincidence I've started up my German classes again today.....
Hey, good luck with those German classes, Jenny! I think with the cross-border selling of insurance now very much opened up in the EU, UK-based insurance companies will start to feel the winds of change as they face competition of companies across Europe. And no bad thing, it sounds.
ReplyDeleteI've always found it's easier to simply go for cover where pre-existing conditions are excluded from the cover. Fortunately my pre-existing is unlikely to try to kill me while I'm abroad... I know not everyone is so lucky.
ReplyDeleteMy partner has pre-existing medical conditions and I know what you mean when you say it costs a bomb, not many insurance companies delve into this side of there policies too much, and we would never go abroad without any cover just incase something happens while we are way that affects his health. This summer we did manage to find a decent company called insurefor travel insurance who were pretty reasonable with the prices they charged us.
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