Britons who head abroad for medical treatment can now access dedicated insurance cover underwritten at Lloyd’s.
Angelis Insurance is the first company to provide specific cover for dental, cosmetic and medical treatment carried out abroad.
Currently, standard travel policies exclude such medical treatment.
Leila Wilcox, Founder and Managing Director of Angelis, and winner of prime-time television show “Make Me a Million”, is the author of the cover.
“A staggering 74% of general practitioners in the UK reported a rise in the number of patients going abroad for treatment and this figure continues to increase,” says Wilcox, referring to a 2005 report by Norwich Union. “Angelis has launched an insurance product that offers patients dedicated cover and peace of mind.”
Figures from Treatment Abroad’s Medical Tourism Survey 2007 show that over 50,000 UK patients travelled abroad for medical treatment in 2006.
Health Tourism India’s website, an enterprise that offers healthcare tourism, states: “Analysts say that as many as 150,000 medical tourists came to India in 2004.”
Furthermore, a McKinsey report from May 2008, which uses a strict definition of medical travellers, says there are: “60,000 to 85,000 inpatient medical travellers a year.”
Whatever estimates you use, the fact remains that there’s substantial demand for medical travel and, believes Wilcox, insurance cover.
“The statistics show that this is the ideal time to be launching medical tourism cover,” says Wilcox. “The ever increasing long waiting lists for surgery in the UK make travelling abroad for treatment appealing, meaning the perfect platform exists for Angelis to build a strong business.”
Among its offerings, the cover provides the standard travel insurance coverage, but with additional benefits relating to the policyholder’s treatment, such as an extended stay or the need for further consultation during the trip.
The policy is underwritten at Lloyd’s by Cassidy Davis Insurance Group.
“The major thing for us is that it not only provides for specific risks involved in the medical treatment, but it’s also a travel insurance product,” says Chris Biles, Cassidy Davis. “This was an area of the market that Leila Wilcox identified as having a huge gap in cover. We are delighted to be able to offer a product to a market that looks set to grow.”
The product will be sold via appointed doctors and hospitals, specialist travel agents and online to anyone domiciled in the UK.
