Can I get a travel insurance policy which is valid for NON-MEDICAL claims, despite undeclared medical conditions?

Question

My wife and I have several medical conditions, which when combined push the price of travel insurance right up.

I understand that if we go for a cheaper travel insurance policy, without declaring our medical conditions - and a situation arises while we're on holiday related to those medical conditions, then the insurer will naturally say that since we did not declare them, we would not be covered. I totally get that.

However my question is - what if we choose to omit our medical conditions, but then something happens completely unrelated to our health? For example, the cruise is cancelled (and they do not refund us directly). Or our luggage gets stolen. The point is, would the failure to declare medical conditions invalidate the WHOLE policy; or just those parts which wouild come into force if the claim was a medical one?

Additional: We do not foresee ANY problems arising due to our medical conditions. They are well under control. Also, we live in the UK, so medical bills for us are not an issue. I appreciate that when travelling this may not always be the case - but really, thank you for the answer so far. I have never heard of "Cancellation insurance". I just looked it up: however all results I have found so far refer to cancellation as part of the whole insurance package. I can not find any specific "Cancellation insurance" which excludes medical declarations.

Answer 1

The product you are looking for is called Cancellation Insurance. A typical product covers you in the case that you have to cancel a trip due to unforeseen circumstances, or for something like luggage theft. Medical issues would be a valid reason for cancellation. But the payout for cancellation is limited to the value of the trip. It will not cover any medical expenses.

For this reason it is usually possible to find a policy that will cover you for cancellations without asking too many medical questions. I've done this in the past, and received a refund when I had to cancel due to an illness in the family. Even if they do ask you about your medical history I would not expect a serious price increase, because the insurer's liability is limited to the cost of the trip.

Having answered the question I do have to tell you that I very, very strongly recommend you not to take a trip if you do not have medical insurance coverage. If you can't afford the medical insurance, stay home. The cost of a serious illness while abroad can easily bankrupt you. Having to sell your house to pay medical bills is a very bad way to end a trip. Also many countries and many companies will require you to have medical insurance.

In answer to your other question, if you lied on an insurance application form then the insurance company are going to argue that this invalidates the entire insurance, whether or not the claim is related to illness. A doctor friend of mine says he routinely gets requests for complete details of his patients medical records from doctors treating his patients overseas, and that this is almost always because the insurance company paying for the treatment is looking for reasons to deny an insurance claim, by finding some condition they did not declare, whether it is relevant to the claim reason or not. Googling will turn you up a big list of horror stories where this has happened.