Travel insurance
Cover for the risks of a trip, such as a sudden medical emergency, cancellation or lost baggage. Here is what it usually does, the gap that catches medical travellers, and what to check before you fly for treatment.
Cover for the unexpected.
Ordinary travel insurance is built for surprises, such as an accident or sudden illness, not for treatment you planned and travelled to have.
Travel insurance is a policy that covers certain risks of travelling. A typical plan helps with a sudden medical emergency abroad, an emergency that forces you home, cancellation or cutting a trip short, and lost or delayed baggage. It is designed around the unexpected. The whole model assumes you did not plan for the thing that went wrong.
That assumption is exactly where medical travel runs into trouble. A planned procedure is, by definition, not a surprise, so most standard travel policies contain an exclusion for planned or elective medical treatment. In practice that means the policy will usually not pay for the treatment itself, and, more importantly, will usually not pay for a complication that arises from it. If a wound becomes infected or you need a longer hospital stay after surgery you chose to have abroad, a standard travel policy commonly treats it as outside cover.
This catches people out because the words travel insurance sound like enough. They are not, on their own, for someone going abroad to be treated. Reading the exclusions before you travel, rather than after a problem, is the single most useful thing you can do here.
Mind the gap, then fill it.
Because the standard product leaves a gap, separate specialist cover exists for people treating abroad. It is often called medical travel cover or complication cover, and it is designed for the risks the ordinary policy excludes, such as extra hospital nights, treatment of a complication, or being brought home if you become too unwell to travel normally. The detail and the limits vary a great deal between providers, so read what is actually covered rather than the name on the front.
A few practical points help. Tell any insurer the full truth about a condition you already have and about the treatment you are travelling for, since an undisclosed fact can void a claim. Check whether you are considered fit to fly after your procedure and whether a clot risk affects that. Keep your normal travel policy for the ordinary travel risks if you wish, but do not rely on it for anything connected to the treatment. And remember that if a complication is not covered by anyone, the cost usually falls on you, which is reason enough to settle the question before you book. Read the exclusions, ask the insurer plainly, and get the answer in writing.
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