travel insurance

When my daughter was born, we signed her up for travel insurance. At 9 months old, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. Now the travel insurance company is saying that itwill not cover any claims related to epilepsy because it is a pre-existing condition. However, I thought insurance companies defined pre-existing as a condition that is diagnosed before trying to sign up for their insurance plan. We didn't know my daughter had epilepsy until she was on the travel insurance plan for nine months. Do I have any legal recourse at all b/c this severely limits our life if we don't have insurance for her if we travel abroad?

If you've got a copy of the policy look up their definition of what a pre-existing condition is. If you don't have a copy ask for one.


Pre-existing conditions do not necessarily have to be diagnosed beforehand. I'm afraid it's not a clear cut situation, there have been cases where the person has successfully made claims about conditions they did not know existed and ones where the claim was rejected as, for example, a large tumour was found that was deemed to have been pre-existing given its size and the time elapsed, even though the person did not know about it beforehand (this is a medical insurance claim).


While not quite a claim you can try the Insurance Claims Complaints Bureau at: http://www.iccb.org.hk/ to see if they can help you.


Hopefully they will be able to sort it out for you.

A question about the contract itself. Travel insurance by its very nature is usually a short-term contract (typically for 7,14,21,30,60 or 90 days) to fit in with a particular trip. So even if the condition was unknown the first time round it is unlikely it would be unknown the next time. Are you sure it is travel insurance?


And I agree that you need to check the insurer's definition of 'pre-existing condition' because that will be the critical factor.