US travel insurance advice for elderly couple traveling to US from UK

griffin1977
Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:43:14 +0000
Factual Questions

So my mom (83) and dad (82) are coming to visit me in the US in a couple of months. They are both healthy for their age and can manage the trip fine

They are trying to get travel health insurance, an increasingly difficult task as they get older (and the US health care system becomes more dystopian).

The issue they’ve hit this time is my mum has a minor appointment coming up in March, its a minor matter that has no chance of suddenly blowing up into a massive expensive medical emergency a month later. But the insurance company they are dealing with (Saga) said it’s a deal breaker, and won’t cover them. I’m assuming they don’t want people to basically use travel insurance as a cheap alternative to paying for private health coverage (or they are just looking any excuse to not cover them because of their age)

So what is the best advice for them to try and get round this? (The obvious one of “don’t tell them about the appointment” is not an option. Even if it was morally and practically an option, there is zero chance of my dad agreeing to that)

Is this likely something all insurance companies are likely to flag? Or could they just get quote from someone else? I am likely going to try this myself.

What are the chances they will approve the policy if they just wait until after the appointment? At that point they can truthfully answer “we don’t have any upcoming appointments”. Though we then have to fork out for fairly last minute flights.

Any other suggestions? (No “don’t come to the US it’s a fascist hellhole right now” responses please)

18 posts - 10 participants