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Travel
for the 70+ age group
We're at the
start of a new year, we've taken all the decorations down and
the house looks kind of empty and sad. We walk into the garden
and the plants are still fast asleep; as we look up at the heavy
dark rolling clouds we can feel the icy cold wind full of sleet
on our face. Oh what we would give for somewhere warm! To aid
our dreams are the television travel programs and the hundreds
of travel guides and brochures showing us young tanned smiling
faces, with beautiful bodies, running on white sands and diving
into aqua blue seas. According to the brochures, all you have
to do is give them a call.
Oh if only
it were that simple for the over 70's!
Sure, it is
that simple if you are under sixty and not disabled, because the
problem is not the holiday, it is the travel insurance.
"How
old!" shrieked the girl on the other end of the phone? I
felt as if I was asking for travel insurance for Methuselah, when
I said that my mother was over 70 years old.
"Sorry
we only do travel insurance for people under 65 years of age,"
she snapped.
And so it
went on, phone call after phone call.
In the U.K.
we are able to purchase a one-time annual travel policy. Some
insurance companies would consider single trip policy but not
an annual worldwide multi-trip one (i.e., visit my son and grandchildren
in Canada in March and vacation later that year in Spain). I had
almost given up when I called American Express and could hardly
believe my ears when the man on the other end of the line said
YES! I had never got that far before.
"What
about a pacemaker?" I whispered, waiting for a no.
"No problem!"
he said, "we will send you the policy right away."
Why! I thought
to myself do most travel insurance companies say YES to anyone
under the age of 55 years? They could be seriously over weight,
could have a drinking problem or a drug addiction. What about
the people smoking 20 or 30 plus cigarettes a day with a very
unhealthy diet? Yet they can get cheap insurance! Why? Because
they are under 55 years of age!
Today an 80
year old, in good health has to pay over the top prices to cover
the higher risk. It is age discrimination - plain and simple!
Not all eighty and ninety year olds sit in their rocking chairs
looking like frail little old ladies and gentlemen, with nothing
more exciting in their lives to look forward to than their knitting
or the odd round of golf. Seniors are living longer thanks to
advancement in medical science, eating a healthy diet and vitamin
supplements. They now have the time, after years of hard work
and looking after a family and they did it all without the modern
appliances that this generation takes for granted to help them.
They want to see some of the world and most of all enjoy themselves;
and I for one can't think of one good reason why any travel insurance
company should say "No!" to them. Can
you?
Visit our
discussion
forums to share your experiences trying to get travel insurance
for the elderly.
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