(I don’t really know where to post this question, so if this is not the right place, please move the topic moderators)
I’m trying to look to the future and plan for next year. I have inquired about travel insurance and it’s not going well. I can’t get travel insurance till 90-120 days till after the all clear from the specialist (Also counts if there turns out to be nothing) and with that I might be paying sky high premiums. I do need a form of insurance to study abroad. I’m kind of fearful I won’t be able to get that type of insurance anymore.
Has anyone delt with the travel insurance dilemma?
Any advice welcome.
Cheers,
Bertie
Hey Bertie,
Yes, last year I needed cover to travel from Australia to the UK. I was told they would cover me BUT not for pre existing conditions, which I accepted and acknowledged. I took the trip without any major issues and did not need to make a claim.
Now, I must also say here, I have previously had issues with gaining hospital health cover. I too have a ‘brain issue’ and when I tried to obtain cover the assessor told me I was wasting my time, they wouldn’t cover me. I enquired 'What if I simply broke my leg?" and was told that they could claim I’d had a dizzy spell which caused me to break my leg and as such this would null and void my cover. “What? even if it has nothing to do with my head?” and I was told and a quote “We have 100 lawyers who would fight any claim”.
Admittedly this was not travel insurance. For the travel insurance I was covered, but if it came to hospital cover whilst travelling I am unsure that I would have been covered.
Some insurers can be all ‘Yes, yes’ that is, until you go to make a claim. Then they’ll put up every obstacle known to mankind. I have previously needed to make a claim on my Total Permanent Disability cover, which I had been paying for many years and the insurer made this whole process SO difficult. In the end I had to engage a lawyer to deal with the mongrels, they made it excruciatingly hard to claim.
Please make sure you investigate it all FULLY before you travel.
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
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When I was a kid, we would hang out at LAX and watch the pickpockets…it was air conditioned. Back then there were machines to get travel insurance, sort of like a coke machine. I haven’t seen any in years. Good luck, maybe Canada has some type of agreement with England?
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This is a very good point from Moltroub. Australia and the UK do have a reciprocal health agreement. I would certainly be recommending you investigate any such agreements too.
Also a HUGE +1 regarding pickpockets. My wife was busy on her iPhone at the railway station in Amsterdam and a pickpocket ‘team’ spied her not paying attention. But I spied them and gave them the ‘Evil eye’. They got the message a backed off real fast. So be aware. I watched them target someone else. One walked up and ‘accidentally’ bumped into a traveller. When the traveller turned to see who bumped him (and apologise), the other was picking his pocket. They are cunning and work in teams, be careful and be very aware.
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
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I will look into reciprocal agreements between Canada and the UK. I’m not a huge fan of insurance companies, but I do have the time right now to do some research.
I will keep an eye out for pickpockets. My everyday carry bag is a reproduction of a WW2 MKVII gas mask bag. The dome buttons are hard to open at the best of times!
I have heard of some English town councils giving out bells to women to put on their purses to scare off bag snatchers. Might be an idea.
Thank you again for the advice,
Bertie
Since my High School days of free entertainment (LAX) and then later the USN, I keep paper money in my front pocket. I also carry a thin card holder that’s supposed to keep people with those fancy gizmos reading my credit card
My niece recently told me a story about an American getting sick in the Dominican Republic and to be flown to the States would cost $20 grand. I tried to tell her that was cheaper than my med flight to WFBH. But apparently since they were out of network.
So I found this which you’re probably aware. https://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/united_kingdom-royaume_uni/consular_services_consulaires/health-sante.aspx?lang=eng
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I did see the Travelers Health info. That’s just my luck! They university I attend does provide a GP for students at the cost of 50 pounds. I’m going wait and see the doctor next week and then write my university about what exactly I need coverage wise.
Thanks for all the help,
Bertie
Sorry I can’t help more. If I ever win the lottery, I’ll send you the currency for your insurance…I just always forget to buy a ticket.
If you don’t mind my asking, what are you studying? One of my Aunt and Uncle’s used to do something with Elderhostels. They would pick different places around the world, take classes and had a blast. It’s on my to do list when I get old enough. Another Aunt went back to university after retirement and studied archeology, she went to Israel for a dig one Summer. I bet she talked about that for ten years
I study Local and Social History. My main area of interest is the UK and Europe between the World Wars. The social changes of that area and time period I find absolutly fascinating. I graduated from the Local History programme at the University of Oxford’s Continuing Education Department. I have also taken online course and participated in their Summer School for Adults. I’m working on studying there full time. Not being able to go this year, or being able to study/read/focus due to the headaches I’ve been having for awhile, has demonstrated to me how important it is to me. I miss it so much. Hopefully I can return to it soon.
Cheers,
Bertie
Hey Bertie,
I must say the changes in life have been one of my biggest stumbling blocks. I had a role I was very comfortable in, I’d studied and right at the end of my studies they discovered an issue. I had just gotten myself a piece of paper (a qualification) and then they operated. I pushed myself to recover and sure, there were issues to be managed, and I did recover enough to continue and progress in my role.
Then, some years later, I had another hiccup in my journey (what I thought was a hiccup anyway), which turned out to be a major incident. I again tried, as I had before, to push myself along, this was not a good idea on my part, doing myself more harm than good and I haven’t been able to return to work since.
I miss my job SO much. To say life took a 90 degree turn would be an understatement, more like 180 degree. Previously I worked with people with disabilities and now I’m the one with the disability, ironic really, but a reality I have no choice in. We have no choice but to accept our reality as bad as that can be. I may make that sound easy, it ain’t. I rebelled against it. I don’t want to accept ‘THIS’, but time has proven to me I must. I now must manage within my ‘new’ limitations, to say that has been frustrating is another understatement.
I do hope that you can return to it soon, but please do not be pushing it, do not do what I did. Take the time your body NEEDS to recover fully and not just your minds desires. You will be more than just thankful if you do.
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
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Very sound advice. I am just trying to look forward as a way to foster hope. I need a little of that these days. But I will take things as they come and try to follow this very good advice.
Thanks,
Bertie
How fun is that! My first babysitter whom I remember was a teen in Germany, soldier shot into their group waiting on a movie. She was hit along the neck, deep enough you could lay a finger in the scar. She taught me some German.
Had a Russian woman watch me when we moved. She had X-ray vision, I’m sure of it…she always knew when my younger brother and I were up to no good behind the house. She would not speak Russian unless her mother was visiting and then only in her home with doors and windows closed. The Cold War was still going on back then.
Even had a professor who survived one of the concentration camps. He was a fantastic man.
It’s amazing how people who grew up in a different continent in different times, were so instrumental in my belief system as an adult today. I can easily understand your passion about that era!
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