An update from swiftcover.com:

“Swine flu is covered by swiftcover.com’s travel insurance and will be treated just like any other medical condition. Customers who fall ill, or who are stopped from getting on a flight by an airline, must contact our emergency assistance company, as detailed in our documentation, who will assess the situation and arrange alternative flights or transport, as well as accommodation if deemed medically necessary.”

An update from esure:

"esure travel insurance will treat swine flu cases in the same way as other illnesses. esure will cover the policyholder if they, or one of their travelling companions, are diagnosed with H1N1 and need to cancel their holiday. esure will cover medical costs if they contract swine flu whilst abroad in addition to costs incurred if they need to be quarantined.

esure’s advice to all travellers is to follow the Government’s guidelines with regards to swine flu and call their insurer as soon as possible if they become ill, one of their travel party becomes ill, or if they are denied travel by an airline."

An update from the Association of British Insurers:

"

• Swine flu is treated no differently from any other illness by travel insurers.
• Travel insurance will typically cover the cost of medical treatment abroad if people contract swine flu while on holiday. It will also cover the cost of rearranged flights and accommodation for anyone covered by the policy.
• People diagnosed with swine flu before they are due to travel abroad, and any immediate family members (spouse, parents and children, with some policies covering other relatives) due to travel with them, will be covered for the cost of holiday cancellation. Under normal circumstances a doctor's certificate is required to confirm that the customer was not fit to travel, but given the current circumstances we would expect insurers to be flexible on the time it takes to obtain such a certificate.
• Airlines have standard procedures for dealing with passengers who they believe are medically unfit to travel for any reason, and have medical teams available to make assessments. Travel insurance policies should cover the costs of rearranged flights and cancelled accommodation in these circumstances, if the airlines do not have ‘failure of service' provisions. Customers will need written confirmation from the airline's medical advisers that they are unfit to travel in order to validate a claim.
• The costs of accommodation and rearranged flights for people who are ill and placed in quarantine abroad and have to stay beyond their planned departure date will be covered by travel insurance policies. Those who are quarantined as a precautionary measure may be covered - insurers will consider claims on an individual basis. Customers will need written confirmation of the quarantine to validate their claim.
• Travel insurers are studying details of the Government hotline and website to diagnose people who think they may have swine flu, and assessing what evidence will be made available to support a claim that a customer is unfit to travel."

An update from M&S Money:

"If passengers are turned away by an airline due to suspected Swine Flu they would be covered by M&S Travel Insurance under cancellation. The customer would need to provide a medical certificate in the usual way in order to make their claim."

Hello,

An update from American Express:

"In the first instance the airlines should be looking to offer the customer an alternative travelling date - it is obviously in their interests to keep the revenues from all passengers especially in the current environment.

We would direct our customers to firstly approach the Airlines/Operators for alternatives dates or compensation.

If customers did come through to us after speaking to their Travel Organiser we would look at them on a case by case basis. The claim would need to follow our standard claims process, when we would look at when the policy was taken out, when they fell sick, and yes we would require a Doctor's certificate to valid their claim."

Hi Huckster,

I hope the insurers find a pragmatic answer to this. By the end of next week at the latest, the swine flu helpline will be set up to hear symptoms over the phone and prescribe drugs instead of contacting your GP for medicine. They won't be diagnosing - if you tick sufficient boxes, you'll be issued with tamiflu.

These are not medical staff and the press suggests they will not be in a position to supply doctor's notes. That means people could still be contacting their GPs, even when they have been told not to, in order to claim for their insurance.

I just don't know how insurers will get around this, and I agree with you that with potentially millions of cases over this year and next, this could get messy if they don't find a suitable solution.

Felicity

Felicity

My own thoughts on this are that Insurers will have to look at this on a case by case basis. They will have to decide if it is a case of disinclination to travel e.g. someone deciding not to travel for fear of catching swine flu on the plane or whether the person is ill, so not fit to travel. Policies don't cover cancellation due to disinclination to travel and only cover cancellation if unfit to travel backed up by doctor note.

In the event that a GP note is not available due to workload, I would expect Insurers to accept the voucher referred to in bold below, which prescribes anti-flu drugs to an individual. This presumes the voucher has been made out to an individual and is prescribed only to those with symptons and not as precautionary. I believe that the anti-flu drugs are now only prescribed to those with symptons.

Anyone with flu-like symptoms who suspects they might have the swine flu virus are being advised to stay at home and use the "swine flu symptom checker" on the NHS Direct website, or phone NHS Direct - NHS 24 in Scotland.

If swine flu is suspected, your GP should be contacted - and he or she will issue a voucher for anti-flu drugs.(extract from BBC online advice article)

This seems to make sense and I wonder what view the ABI has on the voucher being suitable evidence, rather than a GP note, in the circumstances. We could see millions of swine flu cases over the next few months and therefore Insurers will have to take a pragmatic approach. They might not have the staff available to deal with all the complaint correspondence otherwise.

Huckser

Hello,

I spoke to the ABI today, which confirmed that insurers need a doctor's note to confirm that people have swine flu, before they will cover a lost trip (see my article on swine flu and travel insurance for the exact comments)

Given that we are being told not to go to our GPs with swine flu, this seems to me to be a really problematic situation.

I can completely see the insurers' point that they cannot simply give a carte blanche for everyone to cancel their holidays if they want to, based on self-diagnosis, but I can also picture GPs being overwhelmed by clamouring, sick people, desperate to claim for their lost trip.

I'd be interested to hear what everyone else thinks. What is the best, pragmatic way of solving this - is there a solution that is not open to abuse? What would you do?

Cheers,

Felicity