Travel Insurance - Read The Small print
Unfortunately, my Mother died prior to Christmas, in all honesty the death was sudden and unexpected although we were aware of a long-term lung condition she had endured for some time.
That aside life carried on, and like I said, this was an unexpected death.
My phone burst into action on the 18th of December, I knew something wasn’t right, as my sister never called me during the day. I was right, my eldest Sister informed me to get to our local hospital immediately as my Mother was in a serious condition after she had collapsed at home. When I arrived at the Accident & Emergency Unit I was taken straight into the resuscitation unit where my Mother lay stricken hooked up to all sorts of monitoring equipment.
I saw immediately that the situation was as bad as I first feared. At the time my eldest Sister was unable to deliver to me what the doctor had told her literally only minutes before. The Doctor came back down to see me and informed me that my Mother had only minutes and ‘possibly‘ hours left to live. That moment is all still too sharp and is still painful to comprehend; yet instinct took over.
My immediate thoughts were of course with my stricken Mother, but also with my other Sister who was on holiday in France at Disneyland Paris. I knew that she would be devastated if we did not tell her that Mum was this close to death and at least give her the opportunity of trying to get back to the UK to say goodbye.
For those of you that know Disneyland Paris, you will be aware there is a Train station right in the heart of the venue, and thank goodness there is. Without pause, my sister went straight to the Eurostar terminal and was able to get two tickets; one for her and one for her 10 year-old daughter. She was literally on the next train out of France having paid for the tickets on her credit card. And dashed back to the hotel to retrieve her passport, no luggage, no preparation, there was simply no time. She also left behind her husband and their son who were going to follow in the family car.
This is where the Travel Insurance saga begins……
There is no price on getting home to be with your Mother as she literally clings onto life. The problem lies with the inadequacies of companies selling Travel Insurance. There is so much small print contained within a policy that I would like to know if anyone actually bothers to read through the detail in its absolute entirety.
Picture the scene; you have just received a phone call from a family member informing you to get home as soon as possible as your Mother is at death’s door.
What is the first thing you do at this stage; you see how quickly you can get home. Do you think about ringing an insurance company with whom your policy is with? Of course not! The thought is not going to cross your mind. The cancellation of a holiday is trivial at this time.
At that time, instinct takes over. My sister was fortunate enough that a Eurostar train was departing for London. Her work colleagues (who helped us to track her down) arranged for a taxi to pick her up from Ashford Station along with her Daughter, it literally took desperate measures to ensure she could get to say goodbye to her Mother before she slipped away.
I know for a fact the Taxi driver put himself on the line and broke multiple speed limits to deliver my sister to the hospital as soon as possible.
Here’s the real kick in the teeth: The insurance company will not cover my sisters travelling expenses that she incurred to be with her dying Mother!
It does appear this type of situation is not entertained by the Travel Insurance industry. It would also seem that as individuals we are not entitled to make decisions that could affect the rest of our lives without first consulting the underwriters of the policy - what garbage! To me this is utter nonsense.
I talked to an independent Travel Insurance Company with regard the situation, in their response to my sister’s predicament, Richard Millet from http://www.Travel-Insurance.net said
“‘Medical Emergency Repatriation’ by name is normally seen to mean being the insured person being flown home for medical reasons.
Policies do have ‘Curtailment’ cover which may be claimed among other things if a close member of the family (Parents, Grandparents, Children.) was to become seriously ill.
This would be subject to there being no connected illness or pre-existing condition prior to the insurance being taken out or trip being booked. The claims handlers need to be informed if curtailment is for medical reasons.
Unfortunately this is quite a standard clause on all travel insurance policies.”
So the question that needs to be asked is, who is at fault? My Sister? Or the seller of the Travel Insurance policy for not going through the policy in detail?
When booking travel insurance for myself, I do not remember ever being prompted to answer the question ‘Do you think any family member will die whilst you are away?’ If yes, please give us details of the family member that you think will be affected by death whilst on holiday or travelling.
Another question I have to ask is, what if a family member or loved one has not told anyone they were ill?
Unless, you have been give strict guidelines from a Doctor or specialist that life expectancy is short you are unlikely to book a holiday in the first place.
Surely this is why we take up travel insurance? It’s called ‘Piece of Mind! – No matter what, I’m covered!
For me, there are too many unspecialised organisations selling Travel Insurance these days, I can visit Tesco and Sainsbury’s and pick up travel insurance like I can pick up my weekly groceries; credit card companies are forever sending me information about ‘their’ travel insurance.
These are bolt on products for these companies. They take advantage of the huge customer bases they have - you must remember, Travel Insurance is specialised, there are specialist companies out there that deal with nothing other than Travel Insurance, they have the authority and a better knowledge of the product than any supermarket or credit card company.
Even the sales staff in your local travel agent get a little extra for each travel insurance policy they sell you, it’s a nice way for them to boost their monthly pay cheque.
I would be shocked if there were more than ten travel agent sales staff knew the in’s and out’s of the travel insurance policies they are selling and dumbstruck if a sales agent in a Travel Agency asked any pertinent questions when trying to sell a policy.
The aftermath of the claim is even more harrowing as the company that sold the policy are demanding all sorts of documentation over and above the Death certificate, which my sister will have to pay for!
The phrase ‘Going through hoops’ springs to mind.
Let me add, it is not the money that is in question, it is the principal.
Where does it all stop? It must be easier to get off a murder charge than it is to claim from an insurance company!
My advice to anyone that reads this is simple.
If you need Travel Insurance, deal with a company that only deals in Travel Insurance, avoid the Jack-of-all-trades insurance sellers and talk to an expert that will recommend the best policy for your travel needs.
It’s not usually the product, it’s the red-tape; give www.Travel-Insurance.net a go next time you need travel insurance.
For my sister the battle goes on and do keep an eye on this blog for further developments.
Written by MrCrip on January 24th, 2007 with
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