Rea attended the Genetic Alliance UK, (formerly GIG) conference last week. Among the people she met was Fiona Macrae, a former travel insurance broker.

Fiona suffered from cancer and found it impossible to obtain travel insurance that covered her. For many of us, we experience the same difficulty when mentioning that we have ‘Birdshot Chorioretinopathy’ and are taking immunosuppressants and steroids. Many travel insurance companies will only provide cover that excludes any incident related to our Birdshot (and our medication – in this case it may mean that if we fall sick on holiday, and it can be viewed as being caused by our immuno compromised state, we may not be covered).

Fiona was inspired to set up ‘Insurancewith’ which was launched in March of this year. This company specialises in people with medical conditions (rare and common) and provides relevant travel and health insurance cover. The website can be accessed at: https://www.insurancewith.com/

Here is a short piece from their website, explaining the services offered:

Insurancewith.com: doing more than just insurance

“Insurancewith has been created specifically to help those suffering with medical conditions get travel insurance at very competitive rates.

We have worked hard with underwriters to explain the medical conditions and secure much better rates. We take a realistic approach to our policy holders illness, meaning that we look at the actual risk, not the perceived risk.

Insurancewith is a trading style of infinity insurance solutions, which in turn is a division of travel insurance facilities group. Established in 1996 our group of companies has been specialising in the distribution of reasonably priced travel insurance for 13 years.

Insurancewith has vast experience in providing travel insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Our policies have been developed by people who have personal experience of cancer and who have previously developed an award winning travel insurance policy aimed at people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Fiona Macrae, herself a cancer survivor, heads up and is the driving force behind Insurancewith.

Insurancewith is more than just insurance, working closely with the medical charities that support people with pre-existing medical conditions, we want to acknowledge their support and are therefore donating £1 from every policy sold to charity.

Furthermore, Insurancewith do not shy away from rare complicated medical conditions, that only effect a small percentage of people. Why should these people be refused travel insurance or have to pay exorbitant premiums just because their condition is rare and not understood.

At Insurancewith we aim to provide people with security and peace of mind that their medical condition is fully understood and covered, allowing them and their travelling party to relax, unwind and really enjoy their holiday in the knowledge that should they need to make a claim they are fully covered.”

In discussions with Fiona after her talk, many of us mentioned that we had particular difficulties in getting life and health insurance too, particularly for rare diseases. In regards to health insurance, we related the difficulties that people had experienced in getting Birdshot covered, as health insurance companies see it as a ‘chronic’ condition, and many health insurance policies only cover ‘acute’ or non recurring conditions.

Fiona was very interested in hearing our stories and seeing if she could develop similar models for life and health cover.”

Do members think this would be useful?

Should we also be contacting Insurancewith to see if we can be one of their named charities? Or work in partnership with them?

Over to you

Rea