UK Travel Insurance with a Pre-Existing Medical Condition 2026

Why "I'm not sick at the moment" is the wrong test

The most common UK travel insurance mistake is to not declare a condition because the person feels fine on the day of buying. The legal test is not how you feel. It is how the insurer's medical screening is worded, and that wording is far wider than most readers expect.

MoneyHelper, the official guidance service for UK consumers, defines a pre-existing medical condition (PMC) as any condition you have been treated, investigated or seen by a doctor about in the last 2 years, plus any condition awaiting tests or surgery, plus any serious condition ever (cancer, heart, respiratory). A controlled blood pressure on tablets counts. A clear MRI from three months ago counts. A two-year-old GP appointment about indigestion that turned out to be nothing counts.

If the screening question covers it and you do not declare it, the insurer can refuse the entire medical claim, even if your eventual claim has nothing to do with the undeclared condition. The Financial Ombudsman's 2023/24 published rejection-grounds list puts undeclared conditions at the top.

The non-obvious truthYou are not penalised for declaring. You are penalised for hiding. The FCA's January 2026 increase in the signposting threshold from £100 to £200 actively widens the band where the insurer must offer cover at a fair price before nudging you to a specialist. Honest declaration triggers protection, not refusal.

What counts as a pre-existing medical condition in 2026

Each insurer phrases its medical screening slightly differently, but they all flow from the same MoneyHelper definition. Treat the four categories below as the safest default for declaration:

When you are unsure, declare and let the insurer rule it out. The 2-minute call now is cheaper than a five-figure claim refusal later.

The FCA signposting rule in plain English

Since April 2021, the FCA has required UK travel insurers to direct customers to a specialist provider in four specific cases. The rule lives in the FCA Handbook at ICOBS 6A.4.

The insurer must signpost you to the specialist directory when, because of your declared condition, the insurer:

• Refuses cover outright.
• Cancels an existing policy mid-term.
• Offers cover with a non-removable exclusion on the medical condition.
• Loads the premium by more than the trigger amount.

The trigger amount was £100 from 2021 to 2025. From 1 January 2026, the FCA raised it to £200 in Handbook Notice 133, and it will index every 5 years to CPI. So in 2026 a mainstream insurer can load your premium by up to £200 without referring you to the directory.

The directory itself is free, public and hosted by MoneyHelper. From January 2026, each firm is limited to one directory entry, which makes the comparison cleaner.

UK specialist insurers for PMCs (2026)

These are the UK specialist insurers that consistently appear in the MoneyHelper directory and price PMCs fairly. None of this is a recommendation; always quote two or three live, like-for-like.

How to do a UK medical screening correctly

The medical screening is the single most consequential 5 minutes of buying a policy. Three practical rules:

1. Use the exact diagnoses on your GP record. "I get a bit short of breath" is not a diagnosis; "mild COPD, prescribed Symbicort" is. If you do not have the exact wording, ring your GP surgery for a summary of conditions.
2. Answer every question as written. If asked about "investigations" in the last 2 years, include the cleared MRI you had 18 months ago. If asked about "specialist appointments", include the follow-up you forgot about.
3. Phone the insurer if anything is unclear. Keep a record of the date, the agent name and the answer they gave. If a claim is later disputed, that record is your strongest defence.

Use the recorded medical-screening lineMost UK travel insurers offer a medical screening by phone in addition to the online form. The recorded call is a stronger paper trail than the online form, because the agent is bound by your verbal answers, not the form's tick-boxes. If your conditions are at all complex, prefer the phone route.

What happens if you don't declare

Insurers handle non-declaration under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012. In practice they look at whether the non-disclosure was deliberate, reckless, or careless.

• Deliberate or reckless: the insurer can avoid the policy from the start, refuse the claim, and keep the premium.
• Careless: the insurer can either avoid the policy if it would have refused cover entirely, apply a higher premium retrospectively to scale the payout, or apply the exclusion they would have used.

The Financial Ombudsman's 2023/24 review received 4,466 travel insurance complaints, the highest since the pandemic, with undeclared PMCs near the top of the rejection-grounds list. So the cost of an undeclared condition is not theoretical.

Insider insight: the three loading patterns most readers do not see

There are three structural patterns in how UK insurers handle declared PMCs that change which insurer fits you best.

• Some insurers exclude the condition rather than load the premium. The policy still covers your trip, just not anything caused by the declared condition. For long-quiet conditions like a 15-year-old cleared melanoma, this can be cheaper than paying a loading.
• Specialist insurers price each condition individually. Mainstream insurers tend to load the entire premium by a percentage. So a mainstream £50 policy with a 200% loading becomes £150; a specialist might add £25 for the actual condition and quote £75 total.
• Combined conditions can be cheaper than the sum. If you have both Type 2 diabetes and controlled hypertension, AllClear and Avanti often price these together as one cardiometabolic profile, not two separate loadings.

What you should actually do

Three steps, in order:

1. List every condition you have been treated, investigated or seen by a doctor for in the last 2 years, plus any serious condition ever. Use your GP record.
2. Get a mainstream quote first. If the loading is above £200, the insurer must signpost you (FCA rule). Take the directory link or go straight to MoneyHelper.
3. Quote two or three specialists like-for-like (same medical limit, same excess, same trip). Pick the cheapest fair price. Phone-screen complex conditions.

Pre-existing medical condition travel insurance FAQ

This guide reflects UK travel insurance rules in force as of May 2026. Sources: FCA Handbook ICOBS 6A.4, Handbook Notice 133 (Oct 2025), MoneyHelper, ABI 2024 claims data, Financial Ombudsman Service 2023/24 review. Always read the insurer's own medical declaration and policy wording.