Travel insurance

If you have a pre-existing medical condition such as HIV, travel insurance companies often withdraw certain medical and emergency benefits from their policies, or, worse still, refuse to give cover at all.

Most travel insurance policies have some sort of exclusion for HIV and other medical conditions such as Hepatitis, even when people are healthy and their condition is well managed.

Even if an accident or illness abroad is not HIV related, omitting to let your insurer know about your HIV status would invalidate your policy.

Travel insurance is essential when planning a holiday because illnesses and accidents are actually more likely to occur and can become even more traumatic and certainly expensive when you are abroad and there is always a possibility of having to cancel a trip because of accident, emergency or illness before departure. Recently there has been a spate of people falling from hotel balconies on holiday who required expensive procedures such as air ambulances.

Even when travelling within the European Economic Area, you should take out additional travel insurance as the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) only covers treatment costs. The EHIC is not an alternative to travel insurance. It will not cover any private medical healthcare or the cost of things such as mountain rescue in ski resorts, being returned home to the UK, additional transport costs such as ambulances or lost or stolen property.

Find out more about accessing healthcare services abroad.

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