With a mere week remaining before departure, we’re up to our necks in panic. Among the things still not obtained are travel insurance and Brazilian visas. Could be interesting if I have to tell Dave I’ll be sinking drinks in the US while he presents my work to the IGC, but it won’t come to that, more’s the pity.

On the matter of travel insurance, the main problem is that although there are about 30 or so different policies we could apply for, there are only five or six major underwriters that actually are the insurers behind the brand names. Due to Di’s osteopetrosis and vision problems, if one of the underwriters chooses to reject the pre-existing medical conditions for cover, then we have to rule out about six different policies.

The main problem is that while there is no real treatment for the osteopetrosis if she breaks a bone, other than not walking too much on it (ie: not even crutches needed usually), we are concerned that if she were to step off a curb and be hit by a car, then the insurance company would claim she broke a bone because of the pre-existing condition, not because she was hit by a car at 50mph. The same goes for the vision - if she manages to gash her arm on a tree branch, would that be covered or not, since if she had 20/20 vision, she might have seen it? It’s a very grey area with the potential for us to pay lots of money for premiums and then get nothing out of it because they link it all back to pre-existing conditions.

Our SPOTD award went to the medical assessor who had, according to their own words, “spent all morning looking at the file but regretted to say that cover was being declined” right before she asked Diana what was the difference between osteoporosis and osteopetrosis. Bear in mind that this was not one of the general call centre people, but a person employed by the insurance companies to assess potential applicants for medical conditions. There is a bloody big difference between the two conditions, but the assessor had evidently not bothered to read up about either. Rather frustrating to be declined by an official for no good reason, but hey, after the fun and games of the US visa recently, we’re getting used to simple-minded folk in dangerously high positions of power.

The other irritating thing with the rejection of the pre-existing cover was that not only would they not cover broken bones, but they would also not cover non-related illnesses for Diana such as flu or gastroenteritis or injury in the event of a car accident. However, they were still prepared to charge the full premium, presumably as a “convenience” for us in some way.

Di was, as you might imagine, simply delighted with this offer and told them where to go and which bus to take…

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001