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HIV-friendly Travel insurance
Posted by Neil on November 20th, 2008
Apologies if the following seems to be advertising - but I’m not getting anything for it, and I know that we have a number of HIV+ divers within the club, who may be interested in this…
I know it’s the wrong time of year for most of us to be thinking about Travel Insurance, but I’ve recently read somewhere that some mainstream Insurers are starting to provide HIV-friendly travel policies. I’ve done a bit of investigation, and it appears to be true.
Insure and Go will cover HIV-positive travellers, and more importantly will not exclude HIV-related claims, provided that you declare the condition in advance, and satisfy a couple of criteria - the main ones being that you have a reasonably high CD4 count, a reasonably low Viral load, and have not changed your medication in the last 6 months, or refused medication against medical advice.
There’s no additional premium to cover HIV, either, and since their Annual Policies start from around £50 per person (compared to around £100 quoted by some of the “specialist” HIV insurance companies), it seems pretty good value. They cover Scuba Diving to 30m as standard, and to 40m or even 50m for an additional premium. They’ll even cover Cage diving with Great Whites!
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I had also noticed it, Neil! The last few years really have seen a big change in the way the insurance industry views travels/divers who are living with HIV.
Reply to JasonOne of the main UK scuba insurance companies, Westfield, now covers HIV positive divers, without any additional premium. They are somewhat more expensive that Insure and Go (£116 for their Sport Diver Annual Travel Insurance), but, being specifically scuba-focused, they do offer an excellent package (no depth limit, as long as you are diving within your qualification or undergoing training, and medical costs covered to the value of £5million - including hyperbaric treatments and air ambulance evacuations).
They treat HIV the same as a number of other “existing conditions” and require that you be diving in accordance with your training agency rules, so, if you agency requires you to have a regular dive medical, then this needs to be up-to-date for your policy to be valid (ie BSAC require that you have an annual medical if you have to take regular medication). They will also not cover claims resulting from an existing condition, if the medication that you take for that condition was changed in the previous twelve months (but claims that didn’t result from the existing condition would not be effected).
Your travel experience is extremely valuable to other PLWHA
Sometimes the official information about HIV travel restrictions differs from the reality discovered by positive travelers. Recently a good friend told me that she applied for residence in Poland and she didnt have to undergo a medical testing,contrary to the official specifications.
Please post your travel experiences in this blog( http://countries.bravejournal.com/ ) so we can have a clearer idea about positive traveling and help each other.
Reply to www.plwha.orghttp://countries.bravejournal.com/
http://www.plwha.org