For many older Australians, organising travel insurance can feel more stressful than booking the trip itself.
And it’s not simply about age. Many people assume travel insurance applications are straightforward. You disclose your medical conditions, answer honestly, and receive a quote based on your level of risk. There are boxes to tick to add travel insurance when you buy a flight or some accommodation sites.
When you’re young and in perfect health, that’s easy.
Getting older means we’re more likely to have pre-existing medical conditions so we need to fill out more detailed questionnaires and satisfy more criteria to obtain travel insurance. What complicates matters is that increasingly, it’s not just about our medical conditions, but more about how insurers interpret chronic illness.
One of the biggest problems is that not all insurers assess illness in the same way.
Sometimes, the questions they ask don’t reflect how modern medicine now manages long-term disease.
This is especially relevant for people with autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, which are now often treated with biologic therapies or immunotherapy.
These treatments may be given regularly in hospital day units or infusion centres – not because the condition is worsening, but to prevent progression, reduce relapses, and preserve function.
In the past, hospital treatment often implied severe illness or deterioration. Fortunately, medicine has changed in a positive way.
Many people receiving these treatments are stable, functioning well, and travelling independently. Yet they still have to answer “yes” to questions asking whether they have received hospital treatment in the past year or two.
That can create problems.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a good example. It’s a degenerative autoimmune disease affecting the nervous system. In recent years, newer therapies have dramatically improved outcomes for many patients, slowing progression and reducing relapses.
Relatively new MS treatments like Ocrevus, a type of immunotherapy, are given six monthly. Usually, patients receive Ocrevus through infusions over a few hours at a hospital. This has been proven to slow progression and helps them maintain their symptoms, mobility and function.
And even travel independently.
But some insurance companies seem to be using outdated ideas about autoimmune conditions like MS when they evaluate these treatments.
A significant issue is that insurance questionnaires often lack nuance. A question such as:
“Have you been to the hospital for treatment at any point in the last two years?” may not distinguish between:*
Yet medically, these situations can be very different.
The result can be:
For travellers, this can be deeply frustrating. Especially when they’re feeling well enough to get around and get their doctor’s approval to travel while on an effective treatment.
This doesn’t mean insurers are acting unfairly. Travel insurance is fundamentally about risk assessment. Insurance companies understandably need to assess the likelihood of medical claims overseas.
When it comes to insurance, travellers need to remember that not all companies judge risk the same way because they don’t.
Some insurers are far more experienced and up to date in assessing autoimmune conditions and newer therapies than others.
That’s why shopping around matters.
It’s also why speaking directly with insurers or the team at Travel at 60 – rather than relying solely on online forms – can make a difference.
Sometimes, getting more information from the doctor who is treating you can really help clear things up:
People can feel devastated when they get a pricey quote or are turned down for insurance when they’re planning a trip. Particularly if they’ve already paid for flights and/or accommodation.
But another insurer may assess the same condition very differently.
The important thing is not to under-disclose or simplify medical history out of frustration.
If something goes wrong overseas, failing to disclose relevant information can jeopardise cover entirely.
Instead, it’s worth taking the time to:
As medicine evolves, insurance systems are slowly evolving too. But they don’t always keep pace with each other. That’s why it’s worth shopping around for a travel insurer that works for you and covers any health issues while you’re away.
IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.