Travel insurance for people living with dementia

SophieD

Registered User
Mar 21, 2018
4,045
0
London
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
73,927
0
72
Dundee
Not sure if my response is relevant as it is retrospective.

When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?


I always took out travel insurance when I took my husband abroad and I always disclosed his dementia.

Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

I originally got my travel insurance by googling different companies and then comparing the cover and costs. Since then threads on this forum have contained recommendations of various companies used by members.

Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?

Never.
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,018
0
Bury
Mirroring
https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/thr...ple-living-with-dementia.117344/#post-1652585
with the addition that single trip not too far in the future is considerably cheaper than annual.

In my position there was no problem with travel cancellation costs, car to France with daughter, ability to to change/move ferry bookings FOC, just insure the day before you go.

It typically took 4 single trip insurances to equate to an annual.

I can appreciate the logic behind this.
 

chrismarbella

Registered User
Dec 14, 2010
1
0
Spain
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
I'd say its mission impossible task! I take Mum on a cruise each year and this year thought I'd found an insurance for both for ex pats and with existing medical conditions through a UK broker. They sent me all the information and I duly read through it and it seemed to be OK and inferred any pre-exisitng illness would be covered, which sounded great even though it cost nearly 600 GBP just for her alone!! However, just before I went ahead on-line to take the insurance out I thought about it again and called. I was told she would need to have a Medical Screening and they gave me the number to call. After a lot of to and thowing due to GDPR etc I managed to convince the agent Mum, due her her dementia, could not answer the questions and I would have to do it, but it took a lot of persuasion and was stressful for me! Conclusion .....after all the questions it was a NO ! Wasted time and money on a call....and saved myself form wasitn nearly 600 gbp. There has to be a firm out there willing to cover Dementia travelers, they need holidays too as so their carers, but I fear this will never happen. Moral of the story call first no matter what the small print says!
 

john51

Registered User
Apr 26, 2014
292
0
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
I always declare my dementia. There is always a question about if I need more help than 6 months ago. I answer this appropriately. There are not many companies that give annual insurance. Stay sure do. I am thinking of getting quotes from companies that covered my wife during and after cancer treatment to see how their prices compare...if they will cover me.
 

vernon

Registered User
Jul 24, 2014
22
0
north west
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
we do declare that my husband has dementia
on line company on annual basis
never but i always say that i will be with him 24/7
 

mobton

Registered User
Oct 6, 2015
8
0
My husband and I still go abroad a lot as we have our own place in Spain . He is 72 and has Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia . Following Nat west recently telling me they wouldn’t cover him when the current policy ends I have just taken out an annual policy for him with Allclear . Declared his Alzheimer’s and have got full cover including cruise cover for just over £350 .
 

cumbria35

Registered User
Apr 24, 2017
89
0
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
We always have worldwide annual travel Insurance, before my husband had dementia, but have had no problem getting it since diagnosis (his dementia does not cause a serious problem yet). We have it through Nat West Bank, not cheap but if we need it and can pay for it why not. Have not used it much this year only for coach holiday in Uk but last year went to Menorca. We asked for airport assistance which was excellent. I am 83 and husband will be 87 in October. You must answer questions honestly, they use an English underwriters, better when we speak to someone older as younger people are just ticking boxes.
 

dasntn

Registered User
May 21, 2014
29
0
North Devon
- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

I did for the trip we took this year for the first time. I hadn't before as we have general travel insurance through the bank, and in the past my wife was not so severely affected. Also we have tended to holiday in the UK for the last few years, but this year we went abroad.

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

I googled and found a provide that seemed to understand Dementia (from their questions) and didn;t charge too much.

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


No

Thank you :)[/QUOTE]
 

Ancien

Registered User
Jun 22, 2015
2
0
Whilst it was still possible to undertake holidays I would take travel insurance but not mention dementia. Once holidays became impracticable there was no need for insurance.
 

Debs42

Registered User
Jan 27, 2013
34
0
Warning - its very risky to take insurance and not mention a medical issue, whether it’s dementia or something else, because that just invalidates your insurance and the company could refuse to pay any claim whether it’s related to the dementia or not.
I’ve taken insurance several times, mainly for Europe but once for Seoul, Korea. I haven’t been able to do it online because of some of the medication my husband takes, which is also used for schizophrenia, and the online systems reject refer to a telephone line. However once you get through to a real person it’s fine. The key question they ask is ‘will he be accompanied all the time ?’ To which the answer of course is yes. After that, they are quite happy to insure us, although last time it was on the basis that they would not pay any claim related to his dementia.
 

mickeyplum

Registered User
Feb 22, 2018
237
0
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
Until this year, when we have stopped having holidays I have always taken out travel insurance for my husband who has dementia. I think the company was StaySure or something like that but it was very reliable and reasonably priced. We were refused cover by some companies when we reached the age of 80 though we had no health problems at that time. My husband's only problem with dementia at that time was with his memory and I was always honest on the online form. But I realised last year that he was getting nothing out of the holiday any more, and the travelling was exhausting for both of us, so I called it a day.
 

Scrimjay

Registered User
Mar 31, 2019
24
0
I was wondering whether to take out insurance for us, as my husband has dementia, although it doesn't cause too many problems at the moment. We only holiday in the UK. Having said that, last time we were away, he managed to go out of the room in the middle of the night, instead of going to the bathroom & was brought back by the night porter (I presume). Not sure how long he'd been wandering around... I would be interested to know if such insurance cover any "accidents" in bed? My husband is always worried about this. He wears incontinence pull up pants, just in case, although has never had an "accident" to date.
 

Spamar

Registered User
Oct 5, 2013
7,723
0
Suffolk
Better to go to a place that caters for those likely to have ‘accidents’. We went to one and they were great! Might go there on my own account one day, they will help me dress, always a struggle ( I have arthritis). But my OH had vas dem and Alzheimer’s, and nobody blinked at the things he got up to! Not cheap, but worth it.
There are others around, but no personal experience.
 

TJH2110

Registered User
Jun 19, 2012
6
0
Wallasey, Merseyside
Better to go to a place that caters for those likely to have ‘accidents’. We went to one and they were great! Might go there on my own account one day, they will help me dress, always a struggle ( I have arthritis). But my OH had vas dem and Alzheimer’s, and nobody blinked at the things he got up to! Not cheap, but worth it.
There are others around, but no personal experience.
Do you have the information on the places you alluded to please?
 

TJH2110

Registered User
Jun 19, 2012
6
0
Wallasey, Merseyside
Hi everyone,

One of our Programme Partnerships Officers is doing some work around travel insurance for people living with dementia, and is hoping to get your input on the below questions. Some feedback may be used anonymously as part of Alzheimer's Society's consultation to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the financial regulator.

- When you go on holiday, do you take out travel insurance and disclose dementia? If you don’t take out travel insurance, why not?

- Would you know where to go to find travel insurance that covered dementia?

- Have you or a loved one ever been declined travel insurance for living with dementia? If so, what explanation did you get?


The deadline for feedback is September 15th.

Thank you :)
AGE UK and the Alzheimer's Society websites have a list of travel insurers who specialise and will cover people with dementia. When we were still able to go away I got insurance through these companies and they were reasonably priced (around £350 for the one trip).
 

PaulEd

Registered User
Feb 2, 2020
45
0
Worcestershire
Quick question. I'd like to take my mother to France in September as she always used to go every summer. Confinement has really demotivated her and she says she would like to go to france. We need to tell her existing insurer or take out a new policy. My simple question is do we need a statement from the GP or anything like that? Are insurers interested in the stage of Alzheimers?
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
73,927
0
72
Dundee
My experience (although not recent as my husband died 4 years ago) was that I didn’t need anything from the GP. The travel companies ask you to declare the existing condition and then you’re taken to a site where you’re asked a few questions about the Alzheimer’. Found that every company I used asked the same screening questions so they must have been standard questions.

This link might be useful for you -

 

Recent Threads

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
137,809
Messages
1,990,204
Members
89,473
Latest member
SuzieMK27