Breathe easy and declare your child’s asthma
As the October half term fast-approaches, when many families will head overseas, MedicalTravelCompared.com is encouraging the parents of children with respiratory conditions to make certain they are adequately covered by their travel insurance policy. Childhood asthma is a common condition, with 1.1 million children in the UK affected. But because a formal diagnosis of asthma is often delayed until a child reaches a certain age, and, in many cases the asthma is relatively mild, the danger is that parents do not or cannot obtain sufficient cover when purchasing travel insurance. This puts the family at risk of high medical bills if an attack occurs while on holiday and the child is admitted to hospital.
MedicalTravelCompared.com is a travel insurance price comparison site created specifically for those with pre-existing conditions, offering access to the largest choice of specialist providers. The site was launched this summer to tackle the difficulties those with pre-existing medical conditions can have in securing appropriate travel insurance cover at the right price.
Lauren Stovell, Business Development Manager at MedicalTravelCompared.com explains: “Asthma can flare up when on holiday due to the most innocent changes to the environment – such as the polish used when cleaning a hotel room, or allergies which are not triggered at home – and an attack could mean an emergency trip to hospital. The challenge for parents arranging travel insurance is that doctors are often hesitant to give a firm diagnosis of asthma in young children, as their respiratory system has not fully developed. The question is therefore what to declare to ensure they have adequate cover should the need arise.
“Our recommendation is that parents ask their doctor to confirm what has been diagnosed – to check the exact term used on their child’s medical notes. This should then be provided to the insurer in lieu of confirmation of asthma. Common terms to look out for include RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) bronchiolitis, ‘viral induced wheeze’ or ‘a respiratory wheeze’. This way, emergency medical treatment required due to the condition during the holiday will be covered, potentially saving the family thousands of pounds in medical bills.”
After just one simple set of medical screening questions MedicalTravelCompared.com offers a list of travel insurance policies and their premiums to cover the relevant medical conditions.
“MedicalTravelCompared.com was created to make the whole process of comparing cover and premiums as simple as possible, so that anyone with a pre-existing medical condition can get on with the fun bits of planning their holiday,” confirmed Lauren Stovell. “By streamlining the process of arranging cover, we also hope MedicalTravelCompared.com will make it easier for families to declare their kids’ asthma or other respiratory condition, ensuring they have the right level of cover for their needs, rather than risk the huge emotional and financial cost of being stuck abroad without cover when they need it most.”