In Hong Kong, is a medical questionnaire needed as part of buying travel insurance?

Question

A Hong Kong resident and citizen, my grandmother bought travel insurance:

1. that exclude pre-existing medical conditions that she does have

2. from her agent with AIA in Hong Kong

3. at a cost of $600 Hong Kong Dollars (around $77 USD)

4. for 14 days

5. for travel to North America.

But shockingly, her agent told her that no medical questionnaire was needed and thus she did not complete one. Is this correct? This agent appears wrong, because without a questionnaire, then how is it possible for my grandmother to be (e.g.):

6. reassured coverage, to prevent the insurance company from exploiting pre-existing conditions to deny genuinely new medical problems during her travel?

7. priced correctly? $600 HKD appears far too cheap.

Answer 1

Yes, he's correct. Personally I have never seen travel insurance with a medical questionnaire, and I buy it a couple times a year.

Most of travel insurance excludes preexisting conditions, and generally this is not a problem. The way most of them work is you pay for the medical expenses yourself, and then they reimburse you when you're back and file a claim. At this point your claim is evaluated to see if it could be written off as preexisting condition. Here the patient medical history could be evaluated thoughtfully. Since the majority of travelers never submit any claims, dealing with questionnaires during the purchase phase would only increase their expenses.

Regarding $77, it depends what is the coverage amount, and whether their insurance is accepted by the US hospitals directly. You know it is very expensive here, so plan accordingly. Having the hospitals here accepting the insurance (your agent should be able to answer that; get his answer in writing) would also greatly improve its value as you wouldn't be dealing with paperwork - a tremendously annoying process when you're on a hospital bed.