Holiday abroad and Insurance with GCA

I live "abroad" - and strangely we have hospitals and competent doctors here too! In fact, given the state of the NHS at the moment I wouldn't return to the UK if you paid me to! We get superb healthcare and our local hospital is outstanding. However - I live in northern Italy in a German speaking region and speak fluent German.

If you travel within the EU you are covered to the same level as the locals for emergencies using your EHIC card - but it doesn't include repatriation if you are ill nor will it cover costs of hotels if you had to stay longer because of illness. In quite a few countries you have a co-pay (your contribution to the cost) - but it is possible to claim that back from the NHS on your return. Having said that, I would be fussy about where I went. Spain is somewhere to be careful because they have a mix of state and private hospitals and you tend not to get the choice - they transport you to the private hospitals all too often and because of their financial problems they have also restricted what you can have on the EHIC - you'd need to ask a Spanish expert! I also would not go to a remote region or an island where it is a long way to a hospital (but then, I wouldn't live in certain areas in the UK either for the same reason).

How much it would cost for insurance is another matter - it will depend on whether you were hospitalised when the GCA was diagnosed and every company is different about the surcharges they add when you declare things - and you must declare everything. You cannot rely on the ordinary insurance sold by travel companies or that come with your bank account - some may cover you, others won't and all of them will attempt to wriggle out of a claim if they find you have not declared something.

There are specialist companies that cover people with a medical history and all I can suggest is that you google for companies and then phone around until you find a company with reasonable.

"specialist travel insurance pre-existing medical conditions" brings up a few that I know are recommended by the HealthUnlocked vasculitis forum - I can't put them here or the post will have to be approved.

However - another point is that you need to consider the travel arrangements - GCA is maybe not as bad as PMR in terms of physical limitations but getting too the airport, hanging around waiting, the walking - all of that is very tiring and you need to remember that. But do go if you can, but don't arrange a packed itinerary! Especially organised trips! And some people find they don't tolerate heat as well as they used to.

Eileen

Thank you EileenH for your response. Yes there's lots to think about. We did get most of our money back

after cancelling our Cyprus holiday fair play. No I wouldn't go without proper insurance cover. But I'm just thinking that the extra insurance can sometimes be nearly as much as the holiday!! I'll take your advice and Google it. Thank you very much. X

i have had pmr for 3 yearsr my insurance company charges me 14 pounds a year for pmr,i have had at least two holidays abroad per year and have never had a problem ,personally you could spend your entire life thinking what if ,steroids are not rare medication and hospitals are geared up for any problems in tne unlikely event you had a problem carolk

It depends - it is if you go to an ordinary company - but some of the specialist ones are very reasonable, especially for Europe. But include the USA, Japan or some other countries and it can be horrendous, you're quite right.

It depends on the foibles of the weather of course and you can't tell what it will be like - but I have sat in the sun on Lake Garda in March at temperatures in the low 20s! This year so far has been rubbish weather in terms of rain (snow where I live) but it isn't particularly cold even now at the beginning of March and I am hoping it will be worth taking our camper van down to Garda in 2 or 3 weeks time. But the 3 weeks over Easter last year it just rained and rained and rained! The year before it was wonderful in March. But the whole of the Med area has been bizarre this year - every dodgy lot of weather in the UK has been followed by the formation of a Mediterranean low pressure and a lot of precipitation.

But I really would counsel against anywhere too far or too warm. Good luck!

I guess you wouldn't recommend Miami in August then (nephew's wedding).

My travel insurance is with my bank account, I have informed them about my pmr and there is no extra charge for Europe not asked about further afield yet.

it does tend to be more expensive to insure for America or out of Europe ,I picked a company that specialises in over 60s many ordinary conditions are free carolk

It very much depends on the person of course - but I certainly found PMR and heat was bad enough - and it was definitely worse when I started taking pred (I had 5 years no pred, and have had nearly 5 years with pred). I live in Italy, in the mountains, but even here we have a few weeks every July/August where the temperatures are in the mid 30s. We tend to get quite low humidity but even so, those afternoons are often spent inside with the blinds down! When the humidity is high - no option! Kate Gilbert has written a book about surviving PMR and says that she thought a trip to Sicily to their friends in the summer after the PMR started was just the job (she had been living in Milan) - she found the heat excruciating, was reduced to walking with a stick and needed her husband's help to manage steps at all.

In the USA of course everything is air-conned to almost freezing (or that's what it feels like to me!) so there is some respite but I never feel it's the same. August in Miami is 29-30C and one of the wettest months - so high humidity as it is peak hurricane season and I think it rains most afternoons. I went to Barbados in that sort of weather when my husband was invited to do some research and although I had a lovely time sitting in the shade at our hosts and visiting beaches, when the humidity rose my feet ballooned! I wouldn't have missed it - but I was able to rest a lot and there was nothing I HAD to do.

I'm just really pointing out that even if you normally find heat pleasant - with PMR and pred you might find things different. The other consideration is the time difference - it DOES require a bit of thought and rest. When we have PMR/GCA we are not in the same good health we were before and a lot of things become very tiring. Going on holiday and having nothing more exciting to cope with than sitting by the pool and going for dinner is one thing. HAVING to do something is another - just like at home - but you aren't at home so it is more tiring. That's all. I went to South Korea with PMR - I arrived, slept for 2 days and then was fine with plenty of rest. If I hadn't slept those two days it would have been a different matter.