Trying to find travel insurance can be difficult for those with medical conditions, reports Leonie Lamont.
The need to buy travel insurance has been instilled into generations of Australian travellers, raised on tales of overseas travel and medical mishaps that could wipe you
out financially.
Denice Bassanelli, a 38-year-old mother of two who had won a radio competition trip to Japan, tried to arrange travel insurance for the week-long trip. She was so upset at being knocked back by QBE Insurance that she took the insurer to court, recently winning a landmark discrimination case.
Bassanelli has terminal cancer, and says the case is her personal campaign for fair treatment of cancer sufferers. She did not ask QBE Insurance to cover her for her metastatic breast cancer, but wanted insurance for lost luggage, cancelled/changed travel arrangements and medical/ accident cover unrelated to her cancer. As she said in evidence to the Federal Magistrates Court: "I could not see how having cancer made it more likely that I would lose my luggage or be robbed."
Her case highlights the difficulties for people with medical conditions in getting any insurance. QBE, one of the biggest providers of travel insurance, has since introduced a policy which, although covering travel-related mishaps such as lost luggage, excludes all forms of medical
cover where a person has a terminal condition.
QBE's managing director, Raymond Jones, said while the company was sorry for Bassanelli, it would appeal the case "to the highest court" as it attacked the insurer's decision on underwriting risk.
He believed it would be "almost impossible" for someone with a terminal condition to get medical cover for travel insurance these days. Which makes the last trip to Disneyland, or to visit friends and relatives overseas, a potentially expensive gamble for someone terminally ill.
Bassanelli did make her trip to Japan in 2002, and to other overseas destinations since, with insurance obtained through Mercantile Mutual - and, ironically, another underwritten by QBE and Mercantile Mutual in a joint venture. She said she had been
able to get coverage for lost luggage and medical coverage not related
to cancer.
Bassanelli said that being able to travel is very important when your time is limited. "When you are faced with your mortality, you want to go and do these things, and have no limits, because you can't put your life on hold, waiting until you retire," she said.
"This isn't just about me. I know this will help many other people with diseases and disabilities."
She recommended that people persevere if they were knocked back for insurance, and ask the insurer to evaluate, through doctors reports, their health as individuals. She also advised using an insurance broker, who could search the travel insurance market.
From QBE's point of view, it says it had paid out on some big claims where it had been difficult to differentiate between the pre-existing condition and the medical emergency that occurred overseas. It said it was cautious about offering policies that excluded pre-existing conditions. It cited one HIH case it inherited that cost it $670,000 when a cancer sufferer was hospitalised in the United States for pneumonia, then developed cardiac and renal failure. Doctors determined he was in the terminal stage of cancer and he was repatriated home.
In his judgement Federal Magistrate Kenneth Raphael found in the circumstances that it was unreasonable of QBE not to have offered Bassanelli restricted medical insurance cover and cover for her travel arrangements, etc. He noted that the company's former deputy general manager of the travel insurance division had come across 50 "difficult" claims involving pre-existing conditions during a 20-year career, which had to be set against the 30,000 to 35,000 travel policies underwritten by QBE each year.
Ragini Rajadurai, the corporate and legal services manager for the General Insurance Enquiries and Complaints Scheme, said from next year people denied insurance cover could have the complaint dealt with by the scheme. "We won't have the jurisdiction to go behind the members' commercial judgement or assessment of risk. But it will facilitate an avenue for customers to have their complaint dealt with."
The scheme's toll-free number is 1300 780 808.
