Travel Insurance again

[fyfin]

I am very interested in this thread as my friends are visiting Spain for a 6 week stay and they are both pensioners but one of them had angina and when it was told to the insurance company (they have an annual policy) they asked how long ago was the last attack. The answer was 15 years so they said there was no need to mention it BUT on this holiday , just this Wednesday he experienced chest pains and was treated at the hospital in Almeria and had an angiogram.
When they contacted the insurance company E-sure they said he wasn't covered as they hadn't declared a pre-exisiting condition. Hopefully they will be a recording of the conversation with the advisor but I doubt it.
To make matters worse he needs a triple bypass (in Granada hospital) and is being told that the EHIC card doesn't cover it and they are not well off so cannot pay and he is not allowed to travel so they are both distraught.

Then , just when it couldn't get any worse they spotted that the EHIC cards were 3 months out of date but I renewed on line for them today and the Spanish hospital hasn't noticed so far.

Now they are asking me how much would Granada hospital charge for a triple bypass but I can find no info and I guess it depends on lots of factors.

Some lessons to be learned here for others I think and if anyone has any advice i would greatly appreciate it.

[Mowser]

he is not allowed to travel so they are both distraught.

Best solution is simply to fly back to the UK whether they say he can travel or not.

[fyfin]

I suppose that is an option but they are keeping him in hospital so far, and they must think it is pretty bad or they would release him. Probably the best result would be to have the operation in Spain as another neighbour of ours who was actually insured and offerred a triple bypass in Tenerife decided he would prefer the op in UK. But when he returned they put him on a waiting list and 2 years later (still no op) he died from a massive heart attack when his wife weas our shopping.

Who knows how long he would have to wait here and from what I have been told the Spanish hospitals are better , cleaner and the staff are more likely to speak English than the ones here