I know how difficult and expensive, if not impossible, it is to get travel insurance once you reach a certain age, particularly if you have a health issue or even a previous health issue. However I object to being written off, which has led to my intense dislike of insurance companies. Although we are living longer and staying healthy in our dotage the insurance companies and banks have decreed that being in your fifties is bordering on personal extinction. A friend in his fifties is finding it almost impossible to get a 20 year mortgage, and life insurance, a requirement to get the mortgage, is equally challenging to obtain.
I was lucky to survive my twenties and thirties, what with being shot at, having operations in barely equipped hospitals , childbirth, frequent international travel and living in countries where your chance of survival was limited. I am much more likely to survive now except the insurance companies don't see that way. What makes me even more incensed is that on the rare occasion that you may make a claim they find an excuse not to pay it.
When I was living in Khartoum I had to have an operation in Khartoum hospital. For anyone unfamiliar with Khartoum it sits in the desert and malaria is the largest killer of its population, followed by starvation, bilharzia disease and everything else known to man. The anaesthetic was delivered by a gas mask, such as I remember from my childhood. Breathe deeply and count backwards from 20 I was told. I seem to remember it used to be 10. I was on 19 when the power failed and the last thing I heard was a voice saying, 'Wheel her out onto the balcony we'll have more light there.' Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised later to find I was still alive, and not an insurance company in sight.
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