Preexisting medical conditions/travel insurance/school cover
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TeacherGal
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am
Preexisting medical conditions/travel insurance/school cover
I am traveling and have World Nomads insurance. I have just discovered I have a genetic medical condition, not serious and treatment would not be too expensive. I haven't submitted a claim to World Nomads yet. I'm wondering if I should pay for treatment myself and not inform World Nomads as they may share my information with other insurance companies making it difficult for schools to acquire medical coverage for me in the future. Any thoughts?
Response
It wont be difficult for ISs to secure medical policies, whether your condition would be covered is a different matter. Even if you pay for treatment yourself it may very well be possible for an insurer to identify the condition as pre-existing anyway. It isnt even likely to be an issue in IE. You arent going to really lose anything by using your insurance for treatment.
Re: Preexisting medical conditions/travel insurance/school c
For what it's worth, we have had amazing luck. At school #1 my husband was diagnosed with cancer, right after we accepted a job with school #2. School #1 was also changing insurance companies/plans and we were trying to negotiate treatment in the States that would cross over both schools' contracts. Long story short, the hardest part was getting the US hospital to understand that we were covered by all 3 insurance companies including the treatment he needed in the States. He had 6 rounds of chemo + all the care + a stem cell transplant and follow-up care in the US--we paid virtually nothing out of pocket. Nine months after he was finished with his after-care from the transplant we accepted a job with school #3 and no questions were asked about health. He had to have some follow-up scans in the US (so it would be based on a pre-existing condition) and our new insurance didn't question any of it. I shudder to think of what would have happened if we had lived in the States and tried to change jobs. We have 2 friends who also needed cancer tx at that time who lived in the States and their medical bills are horrific. Neither school 2 or 3 asked any questions about health while we were hired. Lucky? Or is that typical for "good" international schools?
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TeacherGal
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 8:51 am
Re: Preexisting medical conditions/travel insurance/school c
That's great news Mamava.
My concern would be insurance companies sharing information with other insurance companies on past illnesses and so premiums being very high or being denied coverage. I worked in a school years ago where an elderly teaching couple was denied health coverage. The school didn't tell them until they had been working a few months that they were walking around with no health coverage at all!
My concern would be insurance companies sharing information with other insurance companies on past illnesses and so premiums being very high or being denied coverage. I worked in a school years ago where an elderly teaching couple was denied health coverage. The school didn't tell them until they had been working a few months that they were walking around with no health coverage at all!
Discussion
@mamava
You were very lucky, not from your IS but the insurance companies. That was a lot of opportunity for you to be denied, especially with seeking treatment in the US (which many policies have exclusions against). ISs have very little recourse or remedy should your carrier have denied your treatment. There is very little they can do other then request the insurance reconsider and possibly remedy any deficiency in documentation, if they say no, its just no. An IT that makes an issue out of it is likely to find themselves dismissed which solves the problem. I know of a number of ITs that were denied treatment and benefits (such as recovery time after surgery) who were just dismissed.
@TeacherGal
Premiums are generally negotiated before your arrival and are in place well outside any meaningful influence you would have on them. Occasionally an IT will be told the policy wont cover X condition but a rider is available that the IT can elect to absorb the cost of. If anything your treatment would be denied, but your condition doesnt sound like one of those that is very expensive and if you can afford it now, you can afford it later if you are denied treatment for that condition, but its very, very likely it will be a non-issue and the treatment would be covered.
Use your insurance, this is trivial issue then you are fretting about.
You were very lucky, not from your IS but the insurance companies. That was a lot of opportunity for you to be denied, especially with seeking treatment in the US (which many policies have exclusions against). ISs have very little recourse or remedy should your carrier have denied your treatment. There is very little they can do other then request the insurance reconsider and possibly remedy any deficiency in documentation, if they say no, its just no. An IT that makes an issue out of it is likely to find themselves dismissed which solves the problem. I know of a number of ITs that were denied treatment and benefits (such as recovery time after surgery) who were just dismissed.
@TeacherGal
Premiums are generally negotiated before your arrival and are in place well outside any meaningful influence you would have on them. Occasionally an IT will be told the policy wont cover X condition but a rider is available that the IT can elect to absorb the cost of. If anything your treatment would be denied, but your condition doesnt sound like one of those that is very expensive and if you can afford it now, you can afford it later if you are denied treatment for that condition, but its very, very likely it will be a non-issue and the treatment would be covered.
Use your insurance, this is trivial issue then you are fretting about.