Travel Insurance

My DH an I used Staysure, I think it was recommended by Martin Lewis. We declared all previous conditions and were not charges for diabetes 2, RLS, Fibromyalgia, Temporal Arteritis. However once we mentioned we were on statins it went up by £70 each.

Well it will give you peace of mind 'jaymbee*.
Enjoy your family time

I've finally settled on a policy from Travelsure for - after lots of haggling - £1098.72, the cheapest I could find to cover all my ailments including cancer.

Thank you all for the suggestions. My insurance needs renewed in October, so I'm looking about. However, various comnpanies including, some very well known ones wouldn't cover me, so it's becoming increasingly more difficult.
The irony is that until recently, I was working in a very demanding job and rarely off sick. I've never had to make a claim in 20 odd years, yet I am considered a high risk.

We have been going to see our son for years in USA and watched the insurance get more costly as the years have gone by.
If you go without insurance you could face horrendous medical bills, people have lost their houses to cover medical bills in USA. Plus it's not fair on your family over there as they would feel partly responsible.
I am surprised your bank covered you for pre-existing conditions, and up to 80, all the bank policies that people I know have, are only for basic insurance and up to 75 . Conditions have to be admitted and extra paid for these.
Saga are giving us a good price.

Never ever travel without insurance especially USA and Canada and such like. We us Staysure as they cover pre-existing conditions.

No you never travel anywhere without travel insurance. We read weekly about those that did and friends and family at home are forced to fund raise to help repatriate them back to the UK. I have no sympathy with them at all. In your case travel abroad has always meant higher insurance premiums for the elderly. My husband will be in the same position in a few years time. We have the same insurance with Lloyds and have had free travel insurance for years with them. As we travel extensively annually this has been the best perk ever and they will owe us nothing at the end of it.
First I would use a proper Insurance broker to assist you track down the most suitable cover for your health issues past or present. I would think the cheapest you will find won't be below £700. Try Go Compare, Direct Line, All Clear Options as well You could get the best quote and tell your daughter what it is and maybe she might like to help you with the payment if they are in a position to do so.

Marydoll - I'm another RA person and on lots of meds as a result, in addition I have other health problems. I found just travel helpful because I can phone and update them, rather than everything being on line and the fear i've misunderstood or misinformed them.
The issue of ongoing tests is a problem isn't it. I'm coming out the other end of a series of investigations and plan to phone to make sure they know about this before we go to the US in September.
I've always felt ok travelling in Europe with both an EU health card and travel insurance but as we Brexit I wonder whether it will become more difficult.

There's an advert in the Oldie magazine for travel insurance for up to age 86. www.onestop4.co.uk which says it covers pre-existing conditions.
We travel to the USA for up to 13 weeks at a time. We get our insurance through a broker - Bishop Skinner. The actual insurance is with a company called Avanti.
On previous trips it has cost about £350 for both of us (66 and 68).
This time it went up to over £700 because MrA's medication for high blood pressure had actually been lowered!
As others have said, don't even think about going to the States without insurance. I feel happier arranging it through a broker as I feel there's less chance of the company refusing or quibbling about a claim.

I too have difficulty getting travel insurance. There is only one company who will insure me was My annual policy was about £600 for Europe. Last year I was off work, very unwell due to a rheumatoid arthritis flare up. They immediately suspended my insurance and told me they could not cover any of my ailments because I was having various tests done. I can't figure out how the pain in my hands affects my insurance cover for asthma.I just couldn't take the risk of travelling without insurance in case anything happened. My poor husband would have had to deal with the mess. Good news is I have it reinstated, just back from Berlin, then Malaga and off to Rome in a fortnight. Trying to cram everything in before it is suspended again. Please don't go without insurance. You hear horror stories about families trying to raise money for repatriation.

There is a new website for all Insurance renewal quotes

www.boughtbymany.com

They are really on the ball, try it out to see what cover they come up with
Worth a look, if just to see what their take on it is

I booked an annual policy with justtravel.com earlier this year. I have various chronic conditions and a list of regular medications. I'd tried searching for on line quotes but found it difficult as entering some of my health stuff meant I was rejected. I phoned justravel.com and spoke to a staff member who was helpful and took me through their long list of questions. It was reassuring to check things out with her,rather than simply fill in an on line form and worry I'd either over or understated health issues.
I phoned them recently to update my information. I'm going to the US and feel anxious about missing something minor but then having a claim rejected because I hadn't told them. Like everyone else has said, I wouldn't go abroad, especially to the US without proper health cover.

My mother is 83 and has high blood pressure cholestral etc on lots of heart tablets. We travel to US a lot to visit my sister. She always gets a good deal with STAYSURE ins. They are specifically for people with pre medical conditions. Hope this helps.

I would be careful of buying travel insurance outside the UK someone said thier son in the States did it for them. When I looked closely at insurance for our visitors from Oz you had to have started and ended your holiday in the UK.
Nationwide gives insurance free up to 75 then an extra £50 but we pay a couple of hundred more at the moment to make sure all our ailments are covered. The charge nothing for me being type 2 diabetic.

Please , please on no account think of going without insurance or not declaring even an in-growing toenail! We also have this problem at only 73 years of age and now know that we must factor in the premiums on the cost every holiday.
Insurance companies are ruthless and will take any chance not to pay out unless each condition has been specifically listed on the declaration. Many good posts about different companies to try and to ask your relatives in the USA for a contribution.
Living in France we have used International Travel and Healthcare and we have paid £533 (for the two of us) for 16 days Premium in Thailand with one of us having had a heart attack and heart / high blood pressure problems and the other a minor heart operation and several minor conditions: asthma and arthritis.
Worth speaking to the various companies and if you preclude the cancer the premiums should drop..

Best wishes and hope you find an acceptable quote and have a lovely holiday,

WARNING to those relying on bank account insurance. I used to just rely on the insurance with my Lloyds Bank account. Then a few years ago, I read something (can't remember what it was) that got me wondering if I (with my pre-existing medical conditions) was actually covered after all. I looked at the small print. It wasn't clear on that, so I rang them. It turned out it didn't cover a person with pre-existing medical conditions unless they were declared and a supplementary fee (£100 a the time with fewer conditions than I have now) was paid. ?

I suggest trying Insure and Go, Staysure and AllClear. Ensure you tell them about everything you have been investigated or treated for within the period of time they are asking about. Insure and Go (who may be the cheapest) have been known to try not to pay out if someone has been investigated for something they forgot to mention, even though it had nothing whatever to do with that being claimed for ?

As someone else said, don't travel to the US without travel insurance. You will have to provide details of your policy before any treatment commences. Your alternative is providing credit card details where they can authorise the likely cost of treatment. If it's more than a minor problem, this could easily run into $10s of thousands or worse.

Have you tried Age Concern? They have been very good to me. I was in the States in April when I blacked out for a few seconds. I was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke. It turned out to be just a bladder infection and not serious. Nevertheless I was kept in hospital for a week and had a complete check of everything. It ended up costing several thousand pounds. Had the same thing happened at home, the doctor would have given me some antibiotics and told me to go home for a rest. In the States they really give you the works! Good luck, Bon voyage, but don't travel without insurance.

There is a firm that specializes in people with these problems, started by someone who encountered similar difficulties. I'll have a search for it. (I know I wrote it down - somewhere.....)

Have you tried Staysure, Alpha or Holiday safe? They all offer cover that takes into account your current conditions for which you are under medical,supervision and only charges for other probs like a broken hip etc

Many companies will only cover you for 31 days if you are 80 yrs old, my trip is for 50 days - causing problems !!!

Travel insurance with banks isn't 'free'. It's paid for within the charge one pays for that particular account.

Regarding OP are either of these comparison sites of any use?

Money Supermarket.
www.moneysupermarket.com/travel-insurance/over-80s/

Martin Lewis MSE
www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/over65s-travel-insurance#8085

You could try "allcleartravel.co.uk" my partner uses them and he has multiple conditions.

Ive just tried Boots but because of my age they only insure for up to 31 days.
My Bank account was Lloyds gold account (i don't think they do it now for new customers)