英伦广角 2010-04-04 重病患者旅行保险费用激增（在线收听）

Fiona MacRae had hoped her holiday would break up months of hospital treatment. A trip to France was supposed to take her mind off her breast cancer, but she says travel insurance companies were intrusive and insensitive.

You’ve been through your treatment. You don’t want to be telling somebody constantly about it on the phone call,a stranger,discussing personal medical information with what can sometimes be kids in call centers.

Thousands of people who need time away are facing similar problems. Many companies will increase insurance prices or even refuse cover. We called 10 companies to see what impact illness had on prices. Eight companies wouldn’t cover previous problems like cervical cancer, another asked for a medical report,in the last case the price jumped from 67 pounds to 2037 for ten days in New York, that was because of previous conditions. Which the consumer watchdog say people are effectively blacklisted from getting travel insurance.

The insurance industry does need to catch up, you know, ok, if there are conditions where there's a big risk, obviously, that should be reflected in the policy, but people should be getting fair deals.

The cost varies depending on where you travel. It's much more expensive from ,say ,America,where medical bills are higher.

The sort of things people could do to make it a much more affordable situation or even perhaps travel without insurance is to travel in Europe where if you can get a easy card, where you can get reciprocal medical treatments under the reciprocal arrangements with the NHS. and that will be a much more affordable trip for them.

But Fiona says people who have previous conditions should be able to travel to faraway places. She's now set up her own specialist insurance company, but accepts, the industry still has a long way to go.

Amy Lewis ,Sky News