Travel Insurance - questions

[ozwaldo]

Hey everyone,

I'm nearly 3 months post-surgery, everything is going well and so I'm attempting to plan my future.

For quite some time I've planned to travel to Australia/NZ for a year, I've done all the neccessary research and have gained a working holiday visa for 12 months.

Now I'm getting to the point where I wish to buy tickets/get insurance, well I've found some cheap flights and have been looking for insurance.

At this point my parents try to tell me that I'd have huge problems getting any insurance at all, and that I should just lay in bed for the next year (well pretty much!).

I've called several insurance companies and they say I could get insurance, but that it wouldn't cover anything related to my back operation. Now I can understand that obviously if I needed some more big surgery then it would be unfair to make the Aussies pay for it, in that case I would need to arrange to travel back. What I want to know is though, what about say pulled muscles in my back, or maybe (at worst) a rod that has come loose. Has anyone else succesfully figured this out? I feel that I'd be fine to travel, and the chances of anything major going wrong are minimal, but my parents still tell me its a bad idea.

This is really beginning to annoy me, I'm happy to go knowing that I may arrange to come back pretty swiftly should things start to hurt again, but I don't see why I can't be covered for anything minor, like maybe a little back pain that needs checking out.

If anyone else has had a similar experience I'd really like to hear from them, my surgeon is so conservative if I followed his rules then I'd barely have left the house since the op!

Thanks in advance,

Oli Norwell

[LindaRacine]

Hi Oli...

I'm guessing that it depends on the insurance company. I'm going on a cruise to Alaska in a few months, and have purchased travel insurance. The policy states:

Pre-Existing Conditions means the Insurer will not pay under any coverage in Parts A and B for any claims arising from an Injury, Sickness, or other condition of Yourself, a Traveling Companion, or a Family Member within the 180-day period before Your coverage began under this protection plan which (a) first manifested itself or exhibited symptoms which would have caused one to seek daignosis, care, or treatment; (b) required taking prescribed drugs or medicine unless the condition for which the prescribed drugs or medicine is taken remains controlled without any change in the required prescription; (c) required medical treatment or treatment was recommended by a Physician.

I'm guessing that if you travel within 180 days of seeing your surgeon, or doing something like physician therapy, or taking a medication related to your surgery, the insurance company will not pay for anything having to do with your spine.

Do you have medical insurance?

--Linda

[ozwaldo]

No here in the UK it's all done under the National Health Service, I don't have any private healthcare right now.

It was interesting to see the 180 days bit, it will be 8 months after the operation when travel so hopefully that might entitle me to something.

Can I ask when you go to Alaska, say if something went wrong with your back (sorry I can't remember if you're pre/post op), how would you go about getting it sorted? I presume they would treat you, then bill you?

From my point of view the only bad thing would be if a rod came unhooked, I had to have it put back in again, then they sent me a bill for thousands.

Supposedly the UK/Aus have a health care agreement so whereby I would be treated for free for anything that needed immediate treatment. I don't know how they define that but I'm sure an unhooked rod counts as immediate treatment required.

Oli

Hi Oli...

I'm guessing that it depends on the insurance company. I'm going on a cruise to Alaska in a few months, and have purchased travel insurance. The policy states:

Pre-Existing Conditions means the Insurer will not pay under any coverage in Parts A and B for any claims arising from an Injury, Sickness, or other condition of Yourself, a Traveling Companion, or a Family Member within the 180-day period before Your coverage began under this protection plan which (a) first manifested itself or exhibited symptoms which would have caused one to seek daignosis, care, or treatment; (b) required taking prescribed drugs or medicine unless the condition for which the prescribed drugs or medicine is taken remains controlled without any change in the required prescription; (c) required medical treatment or treatment was recommended by a Physician.

I'm guessing that if you travel within 180 days of seeing your surgeon, or doing something like physician therapy, or taking a medication related to your surgery, the insurance company will not pay for anything having to do with your spine.

Do you have medical insurance?

--Linda

[CurvySAT05]

Oli, I think it depends on what the rod would be doing if it were unhooked. I have heard of people who have had screws come loose or hooks, but that were not really damaging anything and because they are not causing any threat to "life or limb" aka not sitting on the heart threatning to poke a hole, etc. they are able to leave them in unitl they can be fixed. If it were causing breathing problems, damage to the spinal cord, heart, etc then it might be an emergency. There are many people on here with old harrington rods who had the rods break and didnt know until an x ray many years later, all they knew was they had pain. Good luck with your trave. I hope the insurance thing works out.
Mandy

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

I agree with Mandy. The vast majority of problems associated with scoliosis surgery are not emergencies. In your case, you could simply return home for treatment.

In my case, I have health insurance, so if something medical were to go wrong while on my cruise, my insurance company would pay for the treatment.

Regards,
Linda

[Alison]

Hi Oswaldo

thought you might find this information on the reciprocal health care arrragements in Australia for people from the UK interesting

http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...alta_italy.htm

[ozwaldo]

Hi Oswaldo

thought you might find this information on the reciprocal health care arrragements in Australia for people from the UK interesting

http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/...alta_italy.htm

Thanks for the advice everyone. I didn't realise that a rod coming unhooked wasn't so bad, I guess I presumed I'd be in agony or something.

I'll let you all know how I get on, etc.

Thanks

Oli

[sweetness514]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I didn't realise that a rod coming unhooked wasn't so bad, I guess I presumed I'd be in agony or something.

I'll let you all know how I get on, etc.

Thanks

Oli

It all depends on the person, like for any type of pain and where the rod gets unhooked, or breaks. I was in agony at the beginning when mine broke(but they couldn't see it on the Xrays until a year later), then had to live with less pain but there was still a sharp pain and "clicking and crunching" as I call it, where the breakage was and then when all the screws came loose b/c of the instability(months down the road), the pain got pretty bad. Some peoeple don't have pain and they find out a rod is broken or a screw unhooked and some feel some pain but no "clicking", from what I have read here. Just wanted to clarify that.