Travel Insurance with last minute Pre Exisitng?

[new]

Raised cholesterol in last bloodwork, leaving for Disney in a month, anyone know of an insurance who can cover me in case I have a heart attack or stroke on vacation?

 

[I Believe in Pixie dust]

Try Manulife, they have one for pre existing conditions and not very expensive. I bought it last year for my daughter who has many complex medical issues.

 

[FigmentSpark]

If you have CAA, check them out, as they give members a discount on all insurance.

 

[bankr63]

Check the policy wording carefully, but generally elevated triglycerides are not considered a pre-existing condition UNLESS your doctor is treating you for it. Did your Dr. put you on Lipitor or similar statin to control your levels? If yes, you are then being treated and rules change, but if a Dr. does not consider it to be treatable, it's not a condition at all. Most policies require a condition to be stable (no change in treatment or escalation of symptoms) through an elimination period, and the elimination period can be anything from a couple of weeks to 9 months. If the elimination period is short you are fine, if it's long, you won't be covered if you are being treated.

We get our family coverage through Ingle Insurance, a Toronto based broker (but online too if not in Toronto like us), who has several options available. We have a reasonably priced package that only has a 2 week elimination period, and some other features that were important to us (like kids don't have to be with the primary policy holder to be covered - our son attends track events in the US regularly without us).

 

[Sue M]

Blue Cross has a pre existing condition option. For not much more $. I always add it on even though I don’t have pre existing (except for when I had knee surgery) because I don’t trust insurance, they’ve been known to pull something out of their hat before to avoid an expensive claim from stories I’ve heard.

 

[xlxo]

I like CAA's generosity, but I like Blue Cross's "first payer" clause even more!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/buy...ess-coverage-a-couple-s-hard-lesson-1.3495864

 

[new]

Check the policy wording carefully, but generally elevated triglycerides are not considered a pre-existing condition UNLESS your doctor is treating you for it. Did your Dr. put you on Lipitor or similar statin to control your levels? If yes, you are then being treated and rules change, but if a Dr. does not consider it to be treatable, it's not a condition at all. Most policies require a condition to be stable (no change in treatment or escalation of symptoms) through an elimination period, and the elimination period can be anything from a couple of weeks to 9 months. If the elimination period is short you are fine, if it's long, you won't be covered if you are being treated.

We get our family coverage through Ingle Insurance, a Toronto based broker (but online too if not in Toronto like us), who has several options available. We have a reasonably priced package that only has a 2 week elimination period, and some other features that were important to us (like kids don't have to be with the primary policy holder to be covered - our son attends track events in the US regularly without us).

Thanks for your clarity, funny my policy person couldn't explain it that well. My doctor just wants to see if I can get it lowered on my own, not wanting to prescribe medication. Because cholesterol will be rechecked in a year, does this mean I am considered unstable?

 

[bankr63]

Thanks for your clarity, funny my policy person couldn't explain it that well. My doctor just wants to see if I can get it lowered on my own, not wanting to prescribe medication. Because cholesterol will be rechecked in a year, does this mean I am considered unstable?

Actually, all I can really advise is to read YOUR policy carefully. Pay particular attention to the definitions (generally section 1) and then refer to that definition each time the word is used elsewhere in the policy. The wording on things like preexisting condition, stable, and elimination period will have very specific definitions. You will then be able to decide if your policy reasonably covers your situation.

I used to purchase family travel medical from one of the major Canadian banks. One day (after my son was diagnosed with T1 diabetes) I sat down and actually read my policy carefully. I quickly learned that more often than not I had been travelling with questionable to non-existent coverage. The elimination period was horrendously long, so that if you had seen your doctor and been treated for the flu in December, you were not covered for anything respiratory for 9 MONTHS. I also realized that I had sent my son to a 2-week training camp in the US thinking he was covered, only to discover that since I, the primary named, was not travelling with him, he had no coverage (note: he was named on the policy, as were all our family members).

The policy I replaced it with (through the source above) has much more concise and liberal language. All named persons on the policy are covered whenever they travel, alone or accompanied. The elimination period is a couple of weeks, so as long as I have recovered from that flu 2 weeks prior, I'm good. When I read the language of my current policy, it is obviously intended to cover me and my family - the other one read like it was intended to create loopholes to deny my coverage.

Note also that I carry an annual policy because we live about an hour from the US and often will travel down to shop or for a weekend camping/kayaking trip in the Adirondacks. For our situation a full time policy makes sense, and it is only a few dollars more than one individual trip policy. If you are buying a single trip policy, most of the above commentary applies, except that you will generally know about preexisting conditions at the time of purchase. For us, things that crop up during the policy period then become conditions until stabilized.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Thank you for Ingle Insurance's name! I phoned Blue Cross and Ingle this afternoon and I really liked how informative Marie from Ingle was. While the lady with Blue Cross answered any questions I had, she certainly did not expand or give me information that she felt I may needed to know. However, Marie went into detail for our family and my Dad's police. I believe I might purchase the yearly coverage for our family with Ingle. I'm waiting for the questionannaire my Dad needs to answer to arrive via e-mail and then I'm heading to his house to discuss it.

 

[Tiki_Sara]

What's the question regarding cholesterol on the insurance application? On mine it says "Have you ever been advised by a medical professional to take a statin or other cholesterol -lowering medical professional" rather than a question about my levels or blood results.

 

[Jon-1984]

So I see I'm a few months late for this convo but I'll post any way for future readers. I always get the caa annual travel insurance plan. It's a good price. One year I had to actually use it as I had a bad asthma attack and I ran out of my puffers. It was a fairly easy process to .make a claim. The insurance paid up front for me to go to the doctor / centra care centre in Orlando so I got to see a dr right away. I will always use caa as they did not even once give me any trouble taking care of me when i needed it