We take holidays for granted. A cheap flight and cheap travel insurance.
But would be prepared to pay £6000 for travel insurance?
This is the outrageous premium quoted to a cancer sufferer, on a trip to America. Most insurers will not even quote.
Cancer specialists argue that after a diagnosis of cancer, often the best thing to do is get away from it all with a holiday abroad, but finding the insurance for the trip is not easy. It is difficult for most cancer sufferers to get any kind of cover, though not impossible.
There are reasons; chemotherapy can compromise the immune system, making patients more susceptible to infections, particularly on planes. But infections are fairly straightforward to treat and if you've got cancer you need a doctor's letter anyway to say you're fit to travel. Many sufferers feel that if their doctor says they're fit to travel then why do insurance companies insist they're not?
Even some companies that say they provide cover for people with cancer will not provide it for those having chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Cancer is increasing as people live longer, a number of new insurance companies have sprung up to offer specialist travel cover for people with serious pre-existing conditions. With cancer, it is more likely you may be insured if you have been in remission for some time, and it also depends on the type of cancer involved. And at the very least you have to have finished cancer treatment for a certain period before most companies will consider you. All demand that people have the express agreement from their doctor that they are fit enough to travel.
There are thousands of travel insurers and intermediaries. When trade bodies are challenged about the blatant discrimination against cancer sufferers, they complacently claim that insurers are not discriminating against cancer suffers, but most policies are very cheap, and if they had to cover cancer or other problems, all of us would have to pay more. Their usual excuse is that if you look hard enough you may find someone prepared to cover you. But people do not know where to go.
Nobody is arguing that some medical conditions make travellers more of a risk. What we argue is that there is discrimination based on historic prejudice that has not altered to take account of modern medical treatments.
Cancer is a strange illness in that worry about it can make it worse. So even the well-meaning insurers can put people through a lot of harrowing personal and medical questions. Can you imagine the effect of some bored call centre operator casually asking, "Is your diagnosis terminal? How long do you expect to live?". If people aren't prepared for these questions it can take them into all that emotional stuff that they're trying to keep a lid on, and which can make cancer worse. The person asking the questions is probably reading from a computer screen. It may sound like someone is asking you what your shoe size is when they're actually asking you how long you've got to live.
Cancer sufferers, after being constantly rejected by insurance companies, prefer to take the risk and travel without full medical cover, even to America. They would rather take the risk of paying £2000 for some emergency treatment than paying £6000 up front for something they may not need.
Insurance companies need to change their attitude towards cancer. Cancer is no longer an early death sentence; people can live a long time with it, or even recover fully.
We have managed to find a few insurers specialising in offer cover to cancer sufferers. And it is worth checking out those who specialise in people with pre-existing problems.
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insureblue for men with prostate and testicular cancers.
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insurepink for women who have breast cancer.
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InsureCancer
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All Clear Travel
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It's So Easy Travel Insurance
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MediCover
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Orbis
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PULSE
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Staysure
Travel insurance: Hot Topic: June 2008
