If you’re among nearly 4 million people in the UK diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you’ll need to buy travel insurance covering pre-existing medical conditions. If you’ve found it more complicated to get cover, AllClear, a specialist in providing insurance for people with medical conditions such as diabetes, can provide you with the protection you need.

If you have diabetes then your body is unable to properly regulate the amount of sugar in your blood. For Type 1 diabetes – about 10% of cases – this is because your pancreas fails to produce the hormone insulin which is responsible for converting glucose into energy. With Type 2 diabetes either not enough insulin is produced, or the body’s cells do not react appropriately to it. Key symptoms are thirst, constant fatigue and the need to pass urine more frequently.

Yes, regardless of whether you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes you must tell your insurer. If you don’t declare your diagnosis your policy may not be valid. This could mean that should you need to make a claim, your insurer refuses it, leaving you to pick up emergency medical bills and other costs that your insurance may otherwise have covered. Those might include medical repatriation (eg. air ambulance) and the cancellation or curtailment of your travel plans.

Diabetes is a chronic condition and those with it are protected by equality and disability discrimination laws. This means you cannot be refused travel insurance because you have diabetes. Insurers are though within their rights to place particular restrictions or conditions on your cover. They may also levy a higher premium. Appropriate and competitively priced policies are available from companies like AllClear which specialise in sourcing travel insurance for people with pre-existing health conditions.

The campaigning and research charity Diabetes UK offers extensive advice on the management and monitoring of diabetes, together with access to a wealth of other resources for those living with and affected by the condition. The NHS also provides wide-ranging information on the causes, symptoms, management and treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. With Type 2 disease often avoidable, this includes details of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.