Martyn J. Ravenhill

Warn any visitors about UK travel insurance risks !!

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Dear Expats,
My family have had a horrific experience with a company called Flexicover Direct - Europ Assistance. After fighting with the Financial Ombudsman I find out that these companies act fully within UK law and are NOT doing anything wrong. Please if you have any input to help put a stop to this scandle I would be most grateful.

Martyn J. Ravenhill

I am responding to an on-line appeal from ITV television "Tell us your health story", in order to highlight a serious danger that exists regarding medical travel
insurance in the UK.

Insurance companies issue cover for holidays based solely on
declarations made by the insured party without any check of medical
records being made. People are not told to check their declarations
with their GP before cover is offered, because checks with the GP
are only wanted by insurance companies in order to reject claims.
In the meantime many people could be travelling abroad without
sufficient medical cover.

This actually happened to my elderly mother, who has multiple
conditions and is on a complex and changeable range of medications.
Despite her best efforts to remember everything and paying extra
premiums for her heart condition, she was inadequately covered and
was refused payment for an emergency operation in Mexico that
finally cost her over $21,000 US. Had she failed to pay, they would
have put her in prison. I know this is true, as she was visiting my
home here in Mexico and I discussed it with the Hospital Manager at
the time.

Insurance companies are under no obligation to check with GPs in
order to set the correct level of cover before you travel, and of
course in the UK no one has their medical records at home to refer
to when they try to declare their medical history. It seems utterly
wrong for the insurers to accept premiums on this basis,
particularly when they could be dealing with people with altzeimers,
or some other mental incapacity. But of course the insurance
companies are not interested in giving you the cover you want and
need. They just want your money with the least possible risk of
having to pay out, so this situation suits them very well.

The Financial Ombudsman is funded by the insurance industry and has
a vested interest in maintaining this scandalous practice, but my mothers
MP Anne Milton agrees with us and has written to me saying 'this is
a dangerous and under-reported problem.' Safeguards like MOTs,
credit checks and building surveys are built into the system
elsewhere for people's protection- why can we not have a similar
safeguard to ensure people do not travel aboard without proper
medical cover? I would like such a regulation applied to our
insurance industry, especially for people in the 70s, like my
mother, who could have altzeimers for all they know. This blatant
exploitation of old people makes me very angry!

I can supply full details of our case if it would be of interest to
anyone. We fear that many old and vulnerable people, without
our bitter experience, are at serious risk and could easily fall
foul of this booby-trap called holiday health insurance.

For more details please contact me on 00 52 322 306 0179 or email me
to this account

Yours faithfully

Martyn Ravenhill

Martyn J. Ravenhill

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Re: Travel Insurance problem - Disgrace !!
Posted by: sick-grandmother on 11/07/06 at 10:04 PM
You have to be sooooooooo careful !!!
...........
How I agree with you Martyn. The British travel insurance industry is an utter disgrace Flexicover and Europ Assistance are just 2 of them. There is absolutely no way the average person can declare every condition they have ever had for the purpose of travel insurance and the industry will use every trick to escape payment.
There is also a problem with declaring existing conditions.
I have high blood pressure controlled with a cocktail of drugs. Some companies load their premiums heavily, others accept you without premium increase. But there are literally millions of people in this country who have undiagnosed high blood pressure and these people can get travel insurance with no problem, yet they must be a bigger risk than those with diagnosed and treated high blood pressure.
The best insurance I had was with the French travel company VFB who offer insurance which has only one restriction - you are not travelling abroad against the advice of a medical practitioner. Why can't this be standard for the industry - if one company can do it, why can't the rest?

Michelle

I am an Austrialian newly arrived in London UK.

I am sure I saw this complaint about Flexicover Direct on the Squeaky Wheel website, and it sounded appalling. I hear lots of people get turned down for these type of insurance claims. I am very concerned about getting insurance here in the UK for the trips I plan around Europe, using the UK as my base. I am wondering if I can pay some local tax and then be eligible to utilise the British national health service resources throughout the European Union rather than risk falling foul of dodgy insurance deals. Does anyone have any advice please? I don't have reliable records of every medication I ever took before! I guess it's the notion of falling sick in a place they don't speak English that really freaks me out.

Cheers

Michelle

Martyn J. Ravenhill

Dear Michelle,

Whatever happens DON'T COMPLAIN !!!!
Flexicover / Europ Assistance threatened to sue me and my sick mother [literally she hadn't had her stitches out] however the company which Is "proud of the fact that its products embrace Senior Citizens and OAPs" instructed their lawyers to send us a threatening letter demanding us to withdraw our complaint or else.............???????

It is a sin -

Colette Fritschy

Martyn, Sick Grandmother & Michelle,

Flexicover and Europ Assistance (their assistance co.) are ALL in it for the money - that's business !!!! Why do you think the tallest buildings in any city are ALL insurance companies??? Wake up you lot - it is a legal con - enough said.
I am an expat and my husband and I are always having guests from the UK visit, my advice is go use the French outfit, forget Flexicover, Europ Assistance they sound right crooks!!!!

Good luck in getting the British system changed, everyone will have to leave before they do that LOL

Colette

Michelle

I read all about the terrible Flexicover experience, but who exactly is Europ Assistance? Are they some equally bad company? I thought the point of what Martyn was saying is that they are all equally bad in the UK, and that Flexicover have just done what they are allowed to do to make a profit- maybe like Colette says I must try a french company...but I'll have a language problem I expect...!

Martyn, why do you advise not to complain? You can't be sued just for making a complaint or raising a legitimate concern surely? I thought that was the point of these Expat forums, to share experience, to network and to advise and help one another? Anyhow isn't your mother's Member of the British Parliament taking up the case now? I am sure I read that on the Squeaky Wheel. I read Squeaky Wheel all the time, it is a great site.

I am grateful for your advice and for Colette's, but this is all making me more apprehensive than I was before about my travels in Europe...Has anyone here actually done the "Grand Europe Tour" with good insurance?

Michelle
X

Judy Jetburg

Hi,
My husband is a brit still waiting for his green card anyway he is in the insurance business - I told him about Flexicover threatening to sue because you complained........ !!!!!!
He could not believe it and said they must be real cowboys.
You mention a lawyers letter, can we see it?
Phil said ALL expats should check their insurance and tell any guests to take extra care
JJ

Michelle

We were all talking in the office today about this awful Flexicover case. Everyone agreed that it's unreasonable to expect old people to know all about their medications in the UK when people here don't have access to their medical records. Martyn, can you tell us what the latest position is? How is your mother coping with the terrible expense?
Sorry for my previous question about Europ Assistance. I have now read the whole sorry tale again and realise that they are one and the same! Taking advantage of old people's frailty really makes me angry. Maybe we should all get up a petition!

Hi Judy btw! Welcome aboard!

Martyn J. Ravenhill

I would love to get a petition - does anyone know how to do it right?

M.