I spent thousands on medical bills on holiday – but my travel insurer won’t pay after I didn’t declare common infection

Q) I BOUGHT travel insurance with AXA for my trip to Las Vegas in August last year.

On the last day of my holiday, I went to hospital with serious swelling in my legs and missed my flight home.

I was worried about the medical bills, but AXA assured me I was covered and I put in a claim as soon as I got better.

But last month, it declined my claim as I hadn’t declared a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) I’d had 18 months earlier.

This has nothing to do with my condition and I didn’t realise I should have mentioned it.

Can they really decline my claim?

Helen Braithwaite, Aylesbury

A) INSURERS have a number of caveats in place before they will pay out for a claim.

Forgetting to disclose a previous medical condition or errors with your personal details can both invalidate your policy if you make a claim down the line.

This is because insurers need to know how much risk they are taking before they agree to cover you.

But exactly what you need to disclose isn’t always clear – and the rules are even murkier where you innocently forget something.

If you forget to disclose a problem and the insurer would have covered you even if you had, they may still pay out your claim.

But if the condition materially changes your cover, you might be in trouble.

In your case, you forgot to mention a UTI you’d had 18 months ago when you bought cover for your Vegas trip, and AXA said this voided your policy.

It is important to be truthful with insurers up front to avoid this problem.

But, I thought your case was worth looking into because for many people – while very painful – a UTI is a routine infection not much different to a common cold, and many wouldn’t consider it a “medical condition”. You might forget you’d even had one.

Experts say more than half of all women will get a UTI in their lifetime.

You racked up £2,835 of expenses in the US under the impression you would be covered, plus potentially thousands of pounds in medical bills in the US – you still haven’t even received a final bill for this, so have no idea how much you could be liable for.

I asked AXA if it would consider honouring your claim given it was an innocent mistake and you had agreed to treatment in the States believing you were covered.

The company said it had already been considering taking another look at your case given the nuances involved.

It has now agreed to pay out your claim in full, and has offered to pay you extra compensation because of how long it took to settle your case.

A spokesperson for AXA said: “We are sorry for the issues Ms Braithwaite has experienced with her claim. 

“Following the initial assessment, we declined as she hadn’t disclosed a pre-existing medical condition which is requested when purchasing the policy. 

“Upon further review, we have decided to settle her claim.

“When purchasing travel insurance, it is crucial that previous medical history and pre-existing conditions are declared so that we can make a fully informed decision about the insurance cover we can provide.”

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