Travel insurance - while pregnant

[pfunk]

My wife (Australian) is 16 weeks pregnant and we are due to fly back to see my family in Canada in two months. We have BUPA travel insurance and have had for the two years we have lived in Thailand. The most recent policy started in February - two months before my wife became pregnant. While living in the UK, we had a similar BUPA travel insurance policy that allowed an extension for pregnancy cover.

When phoning the call centre, they have informed us that there is no way my wife can be covered. We have also checked Australian providers but without any luck (our trip would have to start in Australia for them to cover).

Any tips? Or are pregnant residents of Thailand unable to leave the country without taking major risks? We are having similar issues trying to find insurance cover for when our child is born and his/her first year of life. Unfortunately, neither of our employers are interested in providing extended cover. Perhaps now is the time to leave Thailand?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[AAInsuranceBrokers]

Travel Insurance is available for your wife BUT would not cover any pregnancy problems due to her being 6 months gone by that time – she is staying in Canada for the birth ?

Medical insurance for the new born is not a problem and fairly easy to get.

Please contact us HERE as we shall need more information from her.

[stevenl]

I find your post a bit confusing. Did you have travel insurance uninterrupted? Are you presently using your travel insurance as some kind of health/accident insurance?

[pfunk]

Travel Insurance is available for your wife BUT would not cover any pregnancy problems due to her being 6 months gone by that time – she is staying in Canada for the birth ?

We already have this travel insurance. Our policy is an annual BUPA travel insurance policy in addition to our regular work-provided insurance plans for local care. The trip to Canada would be for two weeks (weeks 25 to 27 of the pregnancy) and then return to Thailand for the remainder of her pregnancy. The trip was booked several months ago before realising that she is pregnant.

I find your post a bit confusing. Did you have travel insurance uninterrupted? Are you presently using your travel insurance as some kind of health/accident insurance?

No - we have separate health insurance for here in Thailand through our employers. The travel insurance we have through BUPA has been renewed each year since we got here and it is an annual policy. Unfortunately, it does not include insurance while pregnant. We want to be able to travel while my wife is pregnant which is possible with travel insurance from all other countries we have lived (UK, Australia and Canada). While paying for anything unplanned during the pregnancy would not be a problem here in Thailand or elsewhere in South-East Asia, such an emergency could bankrupt us on our trip to Canada which includes a transit through the USA.

I hope this clears things up and thanks again for your help.

[stevenl]

Thanks for the explanation.

I would check the policy conditions. Sounds to me there is a misunderstanding, I very much doubt somebody who is pregnant will not be covered, more likely occurences related to her conditions are not covered. And even that might be doubtful since it was an already existing policy when you found out she was pregnant, or even stronger, before she became pregnant.

[dknslowly]

I work in the industry so can probably speak with some sense.

The Bupa policy has a complete pregnancy exclusion. Its not for you at this time (but the annual product is otherwise pretty good - just not for you if you're pregnant)

(refer to page 21 of the Bupa policy exclusion 6).

You can get products which give you partial coverage and some that give full coverage up to 6 months.

Partial coverage example is the Allianz CP policy whilst it has exclusions for childbirth, abortion, or miscarriage it give you back cover for miscarriage if it is the result of and injury under the accident cover.

Please refer to general exclusions page 62 of their policy. Probably not an option as what if she eats bad food which causes an issue with the baby? You're quite possibly uncovered. I wouldn't take the risk.

Another alternative is the Worldcare / LMG product. http://www.worldcare.co.th/sites/default/files/bu_th/POL-WRD.pdf

You will see on page 12, exclusion D only excludes pregnancy after the 6 month date. This is probably your best shot for coverage. They are administered by Mondial who are themselves owned by Allianz. I note that they also give you cancellation coverage for unforseen complications with the pregnancy. See pg 14, 4.3.2.b.

For alternative other than these 3, you can try AIG, ACE or even IAG (here trading as NZI insurance). I'm not going to check out their products but feel free to do so yourself.

I hope this helps

(and yes I really do work in the industry as you can tell by the fact I reference the pages!)