Swine Flu Insurance Procedures

What actions to take between contracting swine flu and making a travel insurance claim.

Firstly, ensure that the chosen travel insurance policy does not have a pandemic exclusion clause, because this would not cover swine flu. Thankfully most insurance providers no longer use this clause, meaning that redeemable costs incurred from swine flu (H1N1) are now just as applicable as any other form of illness.

Government travel advice (e.g. From the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the UK, or the US Department of State in America) typically invokes an automatic refund for package holidays booked through tour operators when advice is issued against travel to a stated country.

However, if searching for cheaper deals by purchasing flights, hotels and travel arrangements independently, then without any travel agent or tour operator affiliation with ATOL or equivalent industry body, unfortunately these purchases are treated as individual products, meaning that government travel advice will not result in a direct refund. To recover these sums it is necessary to make a claim through a travel insurance provider.

Swine flu will most commonly be catered for in a travel insurance policy under the cancellation clause. It does not matter which member of the group travelling together catches it, as long as they are included in the policy.

To validate the authenticity of the cancelled trip, it is important to get written confirmation from a doctor. But beware that many surgeries will refuse patients with this condition and instead refer them to a telephone based service in order to reduce the spread of H1N1 to medical staff.

If an airline refuses to allow a passenger to board a flight because suspected flu symptoms; they should get written confirmation of this decision from the airline immediately. This documentation will be key to later proving the actual events, otherwise, it could be assumed the flight was missed due to lateness or personal disorganisation.

Technorati tags; travel insurance, pandemic exclusion clause, swine flu.

Pandemic Exclusion Clause Against Swine Flu?

Earlier this year swine flu gripped the world and travellers monitored pandemic developments eagerly, but how has swine flu influenced current travel insurance policy, and why are insurers no longer afraid of it?

Fundamentally, travel insurance policies should treat swine flu as any other medical emergency. However, particularly during the outbreak of the swine flu pandemic, several insurance companies resisted providing cover against customers catching swine flu on holiday or before flying; protecting themselves with a specific clause.

Pandemic exclusion clause

In particular, travel insurance policies combat the risk of swine flu with the pandemic exclusion clause. This clause exists to limit the insurer's liability if a global pandemic were to truly take hold. Claims on such a huge level could potentially bankrupt even a large insurer and the role of the pandemic exclusion clause is to prevent that from occurring.

Notably, swine flu has impacted the world on a much smaller scale than the media coverage would have us believe; the duration of news broadcasts relating to H1N1 is entirely disproportionate to the actual number of cases.

Swine flu versus normal flu

Swine flu has reportedly taken 700 people from the world's population in the first four months of the pandemic. Bear in mind the global population is currently estimated at 6,787,000,000 (6.8 billion).

What is also interesting to note, is that conventional influenza (normal flu) takes between 250,000 and 500,000 people each year, in the seasonal epidemics we are accustomed to every autumn and winter.

Industry response

Having made this comparison, it is understandable why the travel insurance industry is willing to largely drop the pandemic exclusion clause from policies currently on the market.

This point is further reinforced by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) making a blanket statement reassuring consumers that in the event of suffering swine flu, travel cancellations, medical treatment costs, plus further quarantine costs should be covered in the policies offered by ABI's members.



Technorati tags; swine flu, pandemic exclusion clause, travel insurance.