When Bernie Lawrence opened his travel insurance renewal quote and saw the figure £1,009, he says he “nearly fell over”. The 77-year-old retired courier from Fleet, Hampshire, had watched his annual premium for a couple’s European policy climb from under £100 before his heart surgery to more than ten times that amount. His experience lays bare the punishing costs that older travellers with pre-existing medical conditions can face — and the difficult choices they must make to secure cover.
From running to bypass: one retiree’s story
Lawrence had always been active and fit, he says. But in 2018, while out running, he suffered chest pains. Nine days later he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. Before the operation, he and his wife Barbara, 79, bought annual travel insurance for Europe for under £100. After the surgery, and as they grew older, the price began to rise sharply.
In 2022 they paid £302 for the same level of cover. Then Lawrence developed atrial fibrillation — a common heart rhythm disorder — and was placed on an NHS waiting list for an echocardiogram. The couple were quoted £1,200. “I just couldn’t believe it,” Lawrence says. “All I was waiting for was for them to tell me something I already knew: that it had gone and probably wasn’t going to come back.” Unable to wait months for an NHS appointment, he paid privately for the scan. Once he had the all-clear, his quote fell to £584.
The couple paid £805 in 2024 and then £1,009 this year for annual cover before a Mediterranean cruise. Lawrence has never made a claim on his policy, but says he thinks insurance companies view older people as “a bit of a cash cow”. He adds: “You can’t really argue with them because they say: ‘Well, you’re 77 years old and you’ve had all these things in the past.’”
The price of a pre-existing condition
Lawrence’s case is far from unusual. Travel insurance premiums are calculated based on your age, the nature of your medical condition, where you are travelling and for how long. The impact can be stark. The Guardian — the original source — checked prices for a 57-year-old traveller taking a seven-night trip to Spain using the Medical Travel Compared website. With no condition declared, the premium was £12.43. Declaring a diagnosed anxiety disorder (not referred to a psychiatrist) left the price unchanged at £12.43. Diagnosed asthma requiring up to two medicines pushed it to £14.65. Breast cancer with last treatment three to five years ago and given the all-clear came to £13.94. But for a traveller with angina and one previous heart attack, no new symptoms and currently fit, the premium rose to £18.76 — an increase of about 50%.
Some common conditions such as anxiety, high blood pressure, arthritis and asthma only add a few pounds to a typical policy, according to the original article. However, you may face high costs if you are still under investigation for a condition or waiting for treatment. Disclosing medical conditions is essential, as failure to do so can invalidate your policy. Insurers typically ask about medical issues you have had during a certain period — usually the last five years — but the time frame can vary by provider and condition, sometimes covering the previous two years or even longer for serious illnesses such as cancer or heart disease. If you had a condition and have recovered and received no further treatment since that time, you do not need to disclose it.
Research by the specialist insurer AllClear suggests that 18% of Britons plan to travel abroad this summer without insurance, leaving themselves at risk of enormous bills. Two years ago, insurers paid out £262bn for medical expenses for UK travellers who needed emergency care or treatment while on holiday. James Daley, founder of the research and rating agency Fairer Finance, warns: “Travel insurance can get very expensive if you’ve got a pre-existing medical condition. But it’s incredibly important that you take out insurance that covers you for your condition – particularly if you’re travelling to countries like the US where there’s no reciprocal health agreement with the UK. If you end up having a medical emergency in the US without insurance, the costs can run into the tens and even hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
Finding cover: advice and options
Price comparison websites allow you to search for policies even if you have pre-existing conditions, but it is important to check the small print with the insurer before you pay. It is also worth checking that anything you declare to the comparison website is included in your policy details once you go through to buy cover. If you cannot find cover via a mainstream comparison site or through a traditional insurer, specialists such as Medical Travel Compared, PayingTooMuch or AllClear could help. You could also find a broker via the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (biba.org.uk).
When applying, you may consider buying a separate policy for the person with pre-existing conditions rather than a couple’s policy or group insurance. However, Tommy Lloyd, managing director of Medical Travel Compared, says his company would generally recommend that the entire travelling party is insured under the same policy wherever possible. “This helps ensure that cancellation and curtailment cover applies consistently across the group,” he says. “For example, if a traveller’s medical condition unexpectedly worsens before departure and the holiday has to be cancelled, a joint policy is more likely to provide protection for all insured travellers who are unable to travel as a result.” He adds: “While cost is understandably an important consideration, travellers should be careful not to focus solely on the cheapest premium. The scope of cover and how it responds when travelling companions are affected by a medical condition can be just as important as the price paid.”
In 2021 the Financial Conduct Authority introduced rules intended to help customers with pre-existing conditions. If an insurer is unable to provide cover or if the premium is more than £200, it should signpost you to a specialist company that can offer insurance. A spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers says: “We recommend shopping around for a policy that meets your needs, and comparing factors such as trip length, destination and policy excess. Improving access to insurance is a key priority for our industry, and we continue to engage with members and stakeholders on this issue.”
‘It’s just ridiculous’: a second case study
Ian Wardle, 68, a part-time parish clerk from Hatfield Peverel in Essex, knows the shock of a sky-high quote all too well. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in July 2020 after discovering a golf ball-sized lump in his neck. Scans and biopsies revealed 26 cancerous lymph nodes, some “the size of an orange”. Wardle underwent chemotherapy from September 2020 until January 2021, followed by maintenance treatment until the end of 2022. He has since been given the all-clear.
Once he recovered, he and his wife returned to travelling, including a trip to the Maldives, for which he found affordable cover. But when he tried to arrange insurance for a solo motorbike road trip to visit his brother in South Carolina in 2024, he was stunned by the quotes on comparison websites. “Some of them, even just for a week’s cover, were like £5,000 or £6,000,” he says. “I was just thinking: ‘No, I’m not paying that. It’s just ridiculous.’” The high premiums almost stopped him travelling. “It just put everything in perspective,” he says. “I just couldn’t justify spending that sort of money for a week’s trip.”
He found more affordable cover through AllClear Travel Insurance and says he was happy to call rather than buy online. “Being able to talk to someone was quite important,” he says. “There’s always a worry that if you don’t tick the right box or miss a detail, then they won’t pay.” He now pays about £1,000 for an annual policy that covers travel to the US.
