Travel insurance with pre-existing medical conditions cover

What is a pre-existing medical condition for travel insurance?

At Cover-More we define ‘existing medical condition’  as: a disease, illness, medical or dental condition or physical defect that, at the ‘relevant time*’, you were aware of (or a reasonable person in your circumstances would’ve been aware of), and meets any of these criteria:

• It involved (has required) a trip to an emergency department, hospitalisation or a day surgery in the past 12 months.
• It needs prescription meds from a doctor, regular check-ups, ongoing treatment or risk factor control, or specialist consultations.
• It's a documented medical condition affecting the brain, circulatory system, heart, kidneys, liver, respiratory system, or involved cancer.
• It involved surgery on the abdomen, back, brain, joints or spine that needed at least an overnight stay in hospital.
• It’s chronic or ongoing (whether chronic or otherwise) and medically documented, or is under investigation, pending diagnosis or pending test results.  

'Relevant time' means something a bit different depending on your policy type: 

• Single trip policy: It’s the time your policy was issued.
• Annual multi-trip policy: It’s either the time your policy was issued or the first time you paid for any part of the trip in question – whichever happens last. If you pay for some of a trip before you purchase your policy, the relevant time for that trip will be the date you purchased your policy. 

Yes, you may be able to get cover for your medical conditions with our Cover-More policies.  

We automatically cover many existing medical conditions in our base plans. You’ll be eligible for this cover if at the time you buy your policy:  

• all your existing medical conditions are on our list of automatically covered conditions
• you haven’t been hospitalised or needed treatment by a medical practitioner in the past 12 months for any of the listed conditions
• you aren’t under investigation for any of the listed conditions
• you aren’t waiting for investigation, surgery, treatment, or procedures for any of the listed conditions
• your condition meets the criteria outlined in the PDS.

Wondering how to get travel insurance with a pre-existing condition if you don’t meet this criteria? Just take our online medical assessment when you’re getting a quote. We’ll then tell you if we can offer cover for it, and if there will be an extra cost to add it to your policy.

Important: You won’t have cover for any claims that relate to or arise from any of your existing medical conditions if you do not  include the cover in your policy. 

Yes, you do need to declare all your medical conditions when buying a Cover-More policy if:  

1. all your conditions aren’t on our list of automatically included conditions;
2. your conditions don’t meet all the criteria;
3. or you have a combination of conditions on the list and not on the list.

Any claims related to your condition(s) won’t be approved if you purchase a policy without including cover.

What does this look like in real life? Here are two possible scenarios:

1. You don’t declare you’ve got endometriosis, and a flare up causes you to miss a pre-booked tour, flight and a few nights of accommodation while you’re abroad because you needed to stay put to help manage your pain. We won’t be able to help cover any of the costs related to this – you’ll be left to pay new bills and lose any non-refundable prepaid costs.
2. You don’t declare you’ve got a history of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) – or that you’ve recently had one cut out. While you’re away, the treated area gets infected. You ignore it because you think it’ll just get better. But then the infection leads to sepsis and lands you hospital for multiple nights in a foreign country. You’ll be left paying the bills – not us – which could be expensive.

Here’s how to complete our online health assessment.

1. Get a quote using your trip details, and continue to follow the prompts.
2. We’ll ask you if you’ve got any existing medical conditions during the quote process. You’ll be directed to our online health assessment if you say yes.  
3. We’ll ask you to list each of your existing medical conditions and ask you some question about them. Make sure to answers these questions truthfully and as accurately as possible. It can complicate things if you need to make a claim later and you don’t answer truthfully.  
4. We’ll review what you’ve shared when you’ve finished the online health assessment and let you know if we can cover your conditions.  
5. You’ll have the option to include the cover in your policy if we accept and can cover your conditions. We’ll make it clear if there’s an extra cost attached to including this cover in your policy.

If you need any extra help, you can ring our team on 1300 72 88 22 – they'll talk you through the process.

We can cover a lot of conditions on a Cover-More policy, but there are some we just can’tbecause of their risk factor

If you take our online health assessment and we tell you we can’t cover any of your existing medical conditions, it means any claims directly or indirectly related to those conditions won’t be covered.  

You can still get cover for other travel scenarios that don’t involve your uncovered conditions, like:

• missed connections
• stolen passports
• luggage delays.  

Our caring emergency assistance team will also be here to help you 24/7, whether you have a covered condition or not.

Important: It’s smart to double check our cover is right for you before you buy. This includes making sure it’s right for your health situation and your travel plans if you have existing medical conditions.

You can reach our team on 1300 72 88 22 if you’ve got questions on this.

Yes, it is at Cover-More – whether you take medication to help lower it or not. If your doctor has told you you’ve got high cholesterol, then we consider it a pre-existing condition.  

We automatically cover this condition with our base plans, as long as you:

• don’t have any other conditions that aren’t on our list of automatically covered ones
• haven’t been hospitalised or required treatment by a medical practitioner in the last 12 months for any listed conditions
• aren’t under investigation for any of the listed conditions
• aren’t awaiting investigation, surgery, treatment or procedures for any of the listed conditions
• don’t have a known heart condition or cardiovascular condition.

Good to know: We may be able to provide cover for your high cholesterol if this doesn’t describe your situation. Just get a quote, say yes when we ask if you’ve got any existing medical conditions, and then declare your high cholesterol when you take the online health assessment.

No, it’s generally not. However, it’s important to consider if you’ve got other existing medical conditions connected to or caused by COVID-19, like chronic fatigue syndrome or heart issues. You should declare these conditions when taking the online health assessment if this is relevant to you.

Unsure if this is the case for you? Ask your doctor if you have any confirmed conditions resulting from COVID-19 complications – they’ll know best.

While we’re on the topic… our plans come with some COVID-19 cover. We can help with a bunch of COVID-19-related scenarios so you can worry less.  

Yes, we do consider cancer an existing medical condition at Cover-More. But that doesn’t always mean you can’t get travel insurance cover for it. Cancer is complicated, and everyone is unique, so whether we can cover you depends on many factors.

The best way forward? Complete our online health assessment when you’re getting a quote. We’ll then let you know if you can add cover to your policy as an approved existing medical condition.  

If you’d prefer to speak to our customer service team about this, you can call them on 1300 72 88 22.

Yes, it is at Cover-More. But you may be able to add existing medical condition cover for diabetes to your policy (depending on a few factors).

Make sure you tell us about your diabetes (plus any other medical conditions you have) when you’re filling out our online medical assessment. We’ll let you know if we can pop it on your policy as an approved existing medical condition (and if there’s an extra cost involved).

Yes, it is for our Cover-More travel insurance even though many of us wouldn’t count pregnancy as a ‘medical’ condition. Why? The body goes through a lot of changes during pregnancy, and sometimes complications arise.

So, if you’re expecting (congrats!) and planning on taking a trip in Australia or beyond, make sure you read about our pregnancy cover in the PDS and our pregnancy travel insurance cover page.  

We can provide some cover for pregnant travellers, but there’s certain eligibility criteria you’ll need to meet. Knowing what we can – and can’t – cover will help make sure you have what you need.

Yes, it is! And the good news? It’s a condition we may cover automatically if you meet all the criteria in our PDS.  

Make sure you give the criteria a good read. If you don’t quite meet it, or you’ve got other conditions that aren’t on our list of automatically covered conditions, don’t worry. You’ll just need to take our online health assessment and tell us about your asthma and your other condition(s).  

Ready to declare them now? Hit the get quote button and follow the prompts.

We may be able to help cover costs linked to this scenario if:

• you declared your condition to us, and
• we approved cover for it, and
• you accepted and added the cover to your policy.

We might even be able to help you find the right medical care for you – whether it’s a virtual appointment with a doctor or finding the best nearby hospital.  

Just contact our 24/7 emergency assistance team via phone or our Cover-More app whenever you need. They’ll walk you through what to do next.

Yes, you should. It’s always best to tell us about any medical condition you have, even if it hasn’t bothered you recently. Why? Because our existing medical conditions cover has some strict criteria about declaring conditions.  

So, make sure you understand our definition of an existing medical condition before locking in your cover.  

Remember: You may be left footing the entire bill if something unexpected happens because of a condition you didn’t declare or get cover for.

We won’t be able to approve claims that involve undeclared pre-existing conditions, or pre-existing conditions you choose not to include in your policy.

Not sure whether a condition needs to be declared? It's always better to tell us. Our online health assessment can help determine whether we can offer cover for your condition, and if there’s an extra cost for this.