Four out of five cancer patients say they have difficulties obtaining “sensibly priced” travel insurance as a petition demanding change in the industry has reached more than 132,000 signatures.
The PLANETS cancer charity, which helps patients with pancreatic, liver, colorectal, abdominal and neuroendocrine cancer, launched the petition as it said sufferers were being denied valuable holiday respite because of “extortionate” costs with some insurers refusing to cover patients at all.
A survey of cancer charity CEOs carried out last month by Cancer52, an organisation which represents more than 100 cancer charities, found that 83% said their patients reported difficulties obtaining sensibly priced insurance for foreign travel, with almost 50% regularly modifying plans and 38% often abandoning them altogether.
Almost a quarter (23%) said their patients regularly travelled without insurance and 43% said they sometimes did, while 73% said their patients often paid excessive amounts for cover.
Following the success of the petition, PLANETS is now working with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s financial regulator which oversees the travel insurance industry, to highlight the issues.
A spokesman for the charity said: “This has resulted in PLANETS being asked to collaborate with the FCA, as well as the Association of British Insurers (ABI), to support a review and put forward proposals to overcome some of the challenges being faced.
“The FCA has issued guidance to insurers to signpost people with health issues seeking travel insurance to directories of firms – such as Money Helper – who cover more serious conditions, though awareness is poor and this doesn’t prevent inflated costs.”
Neil Pearce, co-founder of Southampton-based PLANETS, described the situation as a “scandal”.
The recently retired consultant surgeon specialising in pancreatic, liver and neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), said: “The survey results demonstrate how significant this problem is and the immense impact it has on the finances and wellbeing of cancer patients.
“The FCA is doing work around this which is helpful – however, the fundamental problem is the industry works to guidelines and not statutes, so nothing is truly enforceable.
“Ultimately, as is described in the FCA Handbook, cover remains a commercial decision at the discretion of companies it leaves cancer patients exposed and vulnerable to extortionate fees and will continue to do so until things change fundamentally.
“I would imagine that it is hard for insurance companies to quantify the risk without specialist knowledge and an experienced judgement which requires a clinical opinion.
“We know the bottom line is these companies will be interested in easy to assess, low-risk insurance which is simple for them to make a judgment on and quantify risk – and the easy solution is to say all cancer is high risk.
“Therefore it is priced in such a way as to make it commercially safe for them and financially unappealing for customers to take out and, this way, they avoid a difficult to quantify risk which might be associated with a high payout if they get it wrong.”
He added: “The major problem with this as a cancer charity is that, while it makes perfect business sense, it is no help for patients who deserve better and we will continue to push for a better deal.”
The petition is found at: https://www.change.org/p/ensure-cancer-patients-are-able-to-access-affordable-travel-insurance
