# Travel Insurance for Treatment Abroad



## hobiegirl

Hi,
I am going to SIRM Orange County USA in September and trying to find travel insurance to cover this.So far I have not found a company who will insure me as I am going there for medical treatment.
Does anyone know a company that will?
What has everyone else done about this?
I would be grateful for advice.
Thanks Chris


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## yfinlayson

Hello, 

Sorry this doesn;t really answer your question, but I am currently in the US having cycled at SIRM LA, Dr Nouriani, best cycle by a mile I have ever had - 7 realy good embryos, most positive on the marker test.  I have annual travel insurance which probably didn't cover me for IVF, so I guess I am out here uninsured for the tx.  Everything went to plan though so we are OK.

Good luck with your tx, I couldn't believe how good they were over here.  Perhaps the clinic might be able to help?  

Yvonne


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## hobiegirl

Hi Yvonne,
I am so pleased that everything has gone so well for you!!Have you done the transfer yet?Are you flying home soon after or waiting for the betas?
We are unsure yet whether to fly home 3 days after transfer or hang on for the betas...
Can I ask you who you ordered your meds from?
It's a big decision to go to the US for tx but we have heard such good things and my chances just seem a lot better there.We really liked Dr Acacio when we spoke to him.
Really wishing you loads of luck and that you will become another of their success stories!!
Chris


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## yfinlayson

Hi Chris, 

We had the transfer on Saturday - 7 good embies, Doc would only put back 4, even though I argued for 5.  He only gave me 4 as I had travelled so far.  3 grade 1 and a grade 2.  Most were then rated at 100% out of 100% so I can understand why they wanted to go for 4.

We flew back to Florida the day after to cut the journey (due to a few hiccups - they found a cyst - we were running very late) as we had to start coming home.  We were in LA for over 3 weeks, 2 days in Florida.  It only cost us $119 to get from LA to Florida with Jet Blue, so this cut the first journey to 4.5 hours. Seats have a 34 inch seat pitch. We then flew back to Glasgow with flyglobesoan where a business class seat was £500 each, and we were very glad of that.  It is a long journey back.  With hindsight I would have stayed for the 2ww but I was bored rigid with LA and its surrounds.  We were itching to get home.

I would recommend popping to Palm Springs when you are there, we had a really nice few days at Le Meridien Parker, and as it was low season the rooms were very cheap.  We moved around every 3-4 days or so to try to make it more of a holiday, but I know others prefer to stay in a flat.

Dr Accacio is lovely, we spoke to him in the clinic a couple of times!

We ordered the drugs from MDRX pharmacy, they were doing a special offer on Bravelle, which was our stim  drug.  MDRX are mainly a fertility pharmacy and they do their own compounding too, as I need Viagra Pessaries.  The clinic recommends them, and will pass your prescription to them for filling.  One of the girls who posts on this site and had treatment at Cornell New York had sent me a list of several US pharmacies, and overall MDRX were quite competitive.  They are used to Fed-exing the drugs to patients or to clinics.  They may have another pharmacy for the Orange County clinic, the nurse will keep you right.  

PS Watch out for the draining of your bladder with a catheter after ET!  Caught me by surprise, not painful though!


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## Lara B

Since I saw someone not so long ago on here asking about travel insurance for the USA, I've been looking around for travel insurance for our DIVF in Spain.  It seems that most if not all companies won't cover you at all if you are having medical treatment abroad.  What do other people do?  Do I claim ignorance and go ahead with normal cover or does anyonw know of a company who will cover us?

Thanks

Lara


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## HEM

Hi

I rang up the Insurance company, (it is linked to my bank account and said I was going to Spain for Fertility Treatment and they said it was covered, but to be on the safe side I applied for a European Health Insurance Card for myself and my partner just to be on the safe side.

Helen x


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## melj215a

Hiya
I'm having IVF treatment with Dr Sher   in Las Vegas starting November/December 2006.
I'm travelling from the UK and would really like to chat with anyone else from the Uk who is having treament with SIRM. In particular am having trouble getting travel insurance to cover prebooked IVF medical treatment. Is anyone else having treatment in the US who lives in the UK? If so do you have any suggestions about insurance coverage as this would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Mel


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## Claudine

Mands on the ICSI/Multiple Cycles thread was looking into it as she's cycling at Cornell Nov/Dec.  Not sure how she got on, she's just over there now for a biopsy...


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## melj215a

Hi Claudine
Thanks for your message and many congratulations on your pregnancy!
Mel


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## yonny

Can anyone tell me if they had to get special travel insurance to go abroad for treatment or is a basic one adequate?
Thanks
Yonny x


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## HEM

I rang my Insurance company to check and they said the cover was adequate and no special terms had to be imposed or any extra premium - mine is linked to my bank account I think from memory it is Fortis Insurance

Helen


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## yonny

Thanks!!


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## charlottesweb

Hi everyone

Whilst doing my research on clinics overseas I am becomming increasingly concerned about travel insurance.

It appears from various sources that not only are there no travel insurance companies that will cover you for treatment abroad but if they discover you are travelling abroad for treatment your insurance policy is completely invalid (for everything, even lost baggage). 

My sources are:
http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/healthinsurance/travel-health-insurance/medical-tourism-insurance

and 
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/insurance/health-insurance/article.html?in_article_id=409865&in_page_id=39

It also appears (per the Department of Health website) that the EHIC form that entitles us to free or reduced priced treatment within the EC is also invalid if we are travelling for medical treatment.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidance/Healthadvicefortravellers/Gettingtreatmentaroundtheworld/EEAandSwitzerland/DH_4114793

I can't believe that with "medical tourism" on the increase as it is and with NHS clinics sending people abroad for treatment that this is not covered.

Am I getting this wrong? Or have I deduced correctly that we are taking yet another risk and that it is all part of the journey (and the least of our worries)?

I hope I'm wrong!

Catherine
x

/links


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## safarigirl

catherine

just out of interest why do you have to tell them its for ivf?  You can just say you are going for a break - and if something comes up medically (cant go on the trip) could you not get your gp to write you a note (perhaps you need to check this before with him/her) to say you cant travel for medical reasons to get a refund?

Other than that, for lost baggage etc, i dont see why you cant claim ... it never even occured to me to say i was going for ivf ... i just took our insurance as normal (with credit card) to cover for baggage etc.  I also booked a hotel that allowed me a 24 hour cancellation ... my flights were cheap e.g. easyjet so no refund there anyway.


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## roze

We found this out when we tried to get insurance cover as I asked a company the question direcly, so did not disclose to the second company whose policy we took out; they just find every way to refuse cover/paying out if they can.

We may have been in difficulty if we had had to make a claim and it was necessary to disclose that we were there for treatment however I would have argued we were there for a city break as well and had the tourist guide/ museum entry tickets to prove it!  It pays to look carefully at the wording of a policy and whether going for donor tx is actually defined as medical treatment as defined by the insurance company themselves.

It may also be worth checking this out with the Association of Insurers etc as it is definitely an issue for discussion and clarification.  

roze


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## crusoe

It has never occured to us either to tell our insurance company that we are gong for IVF. If we lose baggage or are robbed (quite possible in BCN) I would simply say we are there for a city break or in our case equally feasible to visit relatives.
We have had to cancel flights but have borne the cost of this - Easyjet is so cheap anyway and like Safarigirl book accomodation with a 24 hour cancellation policy.
Personally I can't see the need to disclose the fact that you are going abroad for medical treatment in this case. Donor eggs is hardly high risk surgery so why would you need a higher level of cover?

Good luck with your treatment Catherine

Love Crusoe
x


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## charlottesweb

Thanks for your replies, I feel that you have all put my mind at rest somewhat, although I remain frustrated with the general situation. I think I just need to get a general travel policy and go with the flow....I like the idea of keeping "tourist" receipts. I guess if I was going abroad for mainstream surgery, I should be more concerned as I may be having a heavy general anaesthetic/being cut open etc and there's always room for complications and infection that may require further treatment (at my cost, it seems).

Roze: I think I will have a chat with the Association of Insurers and see what they say. I'll post any responses on this board so that, at the very least, we are all clear on where we stand. 

Just got to make my final decision on which clinic now!!!!!!!!!!

Catherine
x


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## roze

The other thing that occured to me is that there be some specialist insurers that would provide cover for this - most high street policies probably wouldnt. It may be more expensive but its only for a few days each time.  

roze


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## ♥JJ1♥

I can see having the usual for baggage loss etc, but what would happen if you needed emergency admission say for OHSS or if they perforated something whilst doing EC (rare I know but are all potentials when we sign our consent forms) but if you are in the USA for IVF treatment you bill can easily run into many thousands of pounds. 

When I worked in a hospital in the Caribbean we had many families admitted to out hospital acutely unwell and the bill clocking up as they had no insurance.

There must be some medical insureres out there. I know that when working wiht children who had cancer and wanted to go to Disneyland in the USA the insurance through certain companies and it would cost as much as the hiliday to insure them, but they were still on treatment.

It is a minefield......L x


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## Womb with a View

We went to Barcelona without any special IVF insurance around 3 times, then, having thought about it and realising it was probably leaving us vunerable, we decided to ask our insurers if they covered us for tx.  My DP made the call, 4 days before we left.  As usual, we got the blurb about "this call may be recorded for training purposes", which DP agreed to.  DP told them specfically what was involved, how long, etc.  They took the fee over the phone, which was a renewal fee as well as the travel insurance for the year had run out, and said the paperwork would follow but we left before it arrived.  In BCN our donor was cancelled and I had to wait for the back-up donor, meaning we had to change travel arrangements and find additional nights in a hotel.  We incurred around £700 extra expenses doing so, but, glad we'd taken out the special insurance, we felt ok about it, sure we'd get our money back.  The IM even gave us a letter confirming what had happened, without going into too many specifics.  Back home I sent off the claim.  3 weeks later we got a letter rejecting the claim as we didn't have medical cover and to look at our policy, paragraph so-and-so, which we did.  It did say, in the small print, that we weren't covered for medical expenses, but in the main blurb it never mentioned anything about it.  

As the policy arrived some 10 days after we'd taken it out, and we were back in the UK by then, we weren't able to check the details until this point.  I called and tried to explain that DP had taken out the policy over the phone, etc and we were quoted for coverage.  They wouldn't listen.  I escalated it to the top and the manager told me "madam, we record all our telephone conversations, so we are sure our sales person wouldn't have given you cover for IVF as we don't allow it".  Great, I said, check the bloody recording......plllllllease!!!!  5 days later we got a grovelling letter, apologising profusely, asking if we'd accept full payment for our £700 with no excess deducted.....and would we sign a disclaimer against taking out any legal action against them!  All in all a mess, causing stress......and, frankly, doesn't promote confidence in insurance companies and their methods.  I can see why one would chance not having the full and appropriate insurance.....but what if something did go wrong medically?  There must be insurance companies out there who do offer coverage.  I know AlmaMay, who has legal training, is up on this kind of thing, if she's reading this.


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## Miranda7

Hello!

I'm having a mare searching through the threads, so I thought I'd post.

I'm trying to arrange travel insurance for Turkey, to cover me for ICSI and DH for TESE.

Anyone know of a company that sells insurance to cover us?

xxxxxxxxxxx


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## charlottesweb

Hi Miranda

I recently started a similar thread - it's on page 2 - and it really wasn't good news. It looks like there are absolutely no insurance companies that will insure "medical tourism"....which includes us! On my thread I included some links to some current reports.

It makes depressing reading, but there is no point in burying our heads in the sand and thinking that somehow we'll be covered.....I guess we will all just take the risk anyway!

I did say, on that thread, that I would phone the Association of Insurers, but have got so caught up with booking my treatment that I completely forgot. I will do it this week and post. Promise.

I really hope that someone posts something to the contrary  

Catherine
x


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## Miranda7

Cheers Catherine!

That's rubbish that we have to do that though - still, we're paving the way for others I guess.

xx


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## CluckCluck

Hi there,
I will shortly be going to Australia to be an egg donor for my sister. I was wondering about travel insurance. I'm not expecting to get cover for the treatment, as it is a planned procedure. But I'm wondering if I'll be able to get cover for any unforeseen complications that might arise out of it. Does that make sense? Don't know if I'm worrying unnecessarily, but wondered if anyone has managed to find someone that will cover them?
thanks!
cluckcluck


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## Empty2

Hi there CluckCluck,

When we were arranging to go to Cape town for treatment about 3 years ago I told the insurance company (albeit after I already got the policy from the travel agent) that I was intending on having IVF treatment although we were planning for a 3 month stay.  I was glad that I did because they paid for my hospital treatment when I sadly miscarried at 9 weeks and then paid for our flights home earlier whereas the airline KLM wouldn't budge on an earlier flight home for us (even though the planes were not full and we had paid already for a return a week later).

Hope this helps

emps
x


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## madmisti

Hi everyone

For those interested, I have found a travel insurance that, unlike most, does not exclude 'going abroad for medical treatment' - it is in fact specifically designed for this.

http://www.healthtraveller.co.uk/index.html

Best wishes
Misti x

/links


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## Kayds70

Dear all
After many many years of looking I have found a travel insurance company that covers you if you have an IVF pregnancy. It has IVF as a pre-existing condition. I got an annual travel insurance policy that covers IVF and my C-section (Some travel insurance companies refuse to cover you pregnancy if you have previously had a C-section!!) for £99.
I am not sure if it will cover you to go abroad for treatment, but it will cover you if you want to travel post an IVF pregnancy.
The company is All Clear Insurance services. Just search them on the web. http://www.allcleartravel.co.uk 
I hope this helps some people
Kayds

/links


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