question: do I still have a 'heart condition'?

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SASKIA

Member
Joined
May 12, 2010
Messages
23
Location
Whakatane, New Zealand
Hi, I'm just going to post an email I sent to my cardiologist today. I'm sure he will answer my question but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Can you please tell me, I have been confused about this for many months now, do I still have a heart condition / heart disease? I assume what I have would be called chronic heart disease as it is something that will affect me in the future again. But for now I am 'fixed' and so am apparently 'normal'...?

The reason I ask is for matters of travel insurance and health insurance etc, I do not know what to write on such forms (not that I am planning to travel any time soon). I would be honest and say I had an aortic valve replacement 2009 but then won't I have to always have a letter from you any time I travel for the insurance companies?

Thanks for your time. I am just very confused as to what label I have these days :)
 
SASKIA said:
......I am just very confused as to what label I have these days :)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I completely understand your question, but "yes", I consider myself to have a permanent heart condition that has been "fixed", but not cured. I do not consider my surgery to be a "label" anymore than others with a chronic health condition would consider their condition to be a label. If questioned about details of my heart condition, I always answer on a "need to know" basis and if the questioner doesn't need to know, I don't volunteer information. However, on medical questionaires, I summarize the facts since avoiding these facts may come back to "haunt" me. That has worked successfully for me, for a long time.
 
Heart Condition?

Heart Condition?

I agree with Dick... you really have no choice but to disclose the fact that you've had heart surgery if asked. The "need to know basis" thing is a good point. Answer questions honestly and directly without volunteering information which doesn't need to be disclosed. If they don't ask... don't tell.

-Philip
 
You don't have a heart condition. You did, but it's been fixed.

However for the purposes of travel insurance etc you have to declare the valve swap and they bump up your premium accordingly.
 
Saskia
Unfortunately you are now a heart patient for as long as you live.
I do not know how insurance works in NZ.
Living in Australia the only country I can now travel to is NZ having had heart surgery, lucky I have travelled to many countries before surgery.
NZ has a national health reciprocal arrangement with Australia so I am covered and I do not have to traverse any other countries or transit their airspace while uninsured.
 
OldManEmu said:
Saskia
Unfortunately you are now a heart patient for as long as you live.
I do not know how insurance works in NZ.
Living in Australia the only country I can now travel to is NZ having had heart surgery, lucky I have travelled to many countries before surgery.
NZ has a national health reciprocal arrangement with Australia so I am covered and I do not have to traverse any other countries or transit their airspace while uninsured.
Click to expand...

Wait, I can't travel anymore??
 
Saskia travel isn't the problem, getting travel insurance that will cover heart issues is the problem.
If NZ is like Australia the national health system will have reciprocal arrangements with a number of other countries and that will cover any emergency treatment.
With the exception of NZ most of the other counties Australia has arrangements with are in Europe.
To get to Europe requires transiting countries and not having insurance while doing so, I do not like the idea of potentially massive medical bills should anything go wrong.
Worse still in some countries you will not even be treated unless you pay in advance for the treatment.
 
Funny thing, my heart surgeon told me, before my surgery, that I wouldn't have to report that I had a heart problem - that I was cured - and that life insurance rates would drop after the surgery. Boy, was he wrong. Great surgeon, but not that good with the truth about this one.

As far as traveling is concerned, I can't imagine Australia saying you CAN'T travel anywhere but New Zealand. It's probably just a case of not having insurance in another country if you get sick (and perhaps not being able to get a travel insurance policy that covers you outside of Australia and New Zealand).
 
Protimenow said:
Funny thing, my heart surgeon told me, before my surgery, that I wouldn't have to report that I had a heart problem - that I was cured - and that life insurance rates would drop after the surgery. Boy, was he wrong. Great surgeon, but not that good with the truth about this one.
Click to expand...

Physicians, bless their hearts:rolleyes2:, are among the most naive of people when it comes to real world issues. They often live in the world as it should be:angel:.....not as it is:eek2:. I guess that goes with keeping your nose in text books until well into adulthood.....and in having "teams of paid experts":confused2: making their life decisions for them.
 
Protimenow said:
Funny thing, my heart surgeon told me, before my surgery, that I wouldn't have to report that I had a heart problem - that I was cured - and that life insurance rates would drop after the surgery. Boy, was he wrong. Great surgeon, but not that good with the truth about this one.

As far as traveling is concerned, I can't imagine Australia saying you CAN'T travel anywhere but New Zealand. It's probably just a case of not having insurance in another country if you get sick (and perhaps not being able to get a travel insurance policy that covers you outside of Australia and New Zealand).
Click to expand...

Sorry, but doctors don't know anything useful about medical insurance. If you are applying for an individual insurance plan (a plan not through an employer), there will be quite a bit asked about your previous medical history, including surgeries. If you withhold any information, and something happens to you in the future because of pre-existing condition (or surgery), you'll be canceled for fraud. The majority of people who have their medical insurance canceled is due to either fraud or lack of payment.

Anyone's best bet for coverage with any kind of pre-existing condition is in a group plan through an employer, where, as long as you have no gap in coverage, you will be covered for any and all pre-existing conditions that you might have. If you have to leave your job, opt for COBRA. Yes, it may be expensive; however, it's far better than having nothing. If you use up all your COBRA benefits and meet the other 4 criteria necessary for a HIPAA guarantee issue plan, you can get an individual plan and not be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.
 
Thanks for all the info! I'm a New Zealander but am lucky enough to have an Irish passport as well. I was a resident in London at the time of my surgery and had it there. I think I could have had it there even without the passport but it sure saved a lot of hassle. I tried to come back to New Zealand to be with my family but in the end I needed oxygen to fly and the airline would not permit me to fly without a medical assistant (at a total cost of around £15 000, of course not covered by my travel insurance as it was a pre-existing condition) so in the end I had no choice but to stay in London, where I was fortunate to receive excellent care and lucky enough that my parents could afford for my mother to come over.

So OldManEmu, I totally understand your reluctance to risk it as the main thing we were afraid of was - what if I was unable to continue for the whole flight and was made to disembark in Singapore and have surgery there at a cost of US $100 000+ ?? not money I or my family have, that is for sure.

I don't believe that will stop me from traveling, but it may well limit the time I spend away, and I will be sure to have check ups before I leave the country. Anyway, travel is still a far off thought at this point, I am just happy to be home at last after that insane time.:eek2: :)
 
I am resident in Canada where I had my surgery. Four months post op I travelled to Europe and visited six countries. I purchased Travel insurance in Canada before the trip for my wife and myself. Our rates were exactly the same at about 50 dollars CAD for 2 months, we were both covered for about one million with insignificant deductibles and my pre-existing condition was covered. There were two stipulations. The first was that both my condition and medications needed to have been stable for 30 days prior to my departure. The second was that I not travel in the United States!
In the time since then I have been unable to find a policy that will cover me for the heart, for travel in the US. Since I am frequently in the US that means I am self insured there. Worst comes to it I start selling property to pay the tab.
 
We just had a lovely month traveling to Greece and Egypt, exactly one year after my AVR surgery. To get the respective visa's we had to prove that we had adequate medical cover. Our normal medical insurance is not valid outside the borders of South Africa.

I also purchased travel insurance and after making a full disclosure of my heart related issues in writing we were covered for 3 million US$ as a family of 3 at a cost of about 300 US$ for the month. The Greek visa was a full Schengen visa so we could have travelled to a number of European countries..

The Egypt leg of out vacation added to the cost as the insurance company suggested that any mishap there will result in full evacuation, either to Europe of back to Cape Town.

So Saskia you can certainly travel, just get good travel insurance for the period you will be travelling and disclose everything IN WRITING before hand to the company. They may load your premuim but then it is so wonderful to have the energy to travel again!!
 
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