Do you need to declare weight-loss jabs on travel insurance?

Use of GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic is growing rapidly. A June report by consultancy PwC estimates that around three million people in the UK are now using them to manage their weight. 

But while these medications are genuinely helping many people get slimmer, they're bulking out some of the complexity in travel insurance policies. 

Here, we explain what you'd need to declare, how much they can add to your policy, and the potential consequences of not disclosing weight-loss drugs.

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What you need to declare

When we asked 48 insurers if prospective policyholders would need to declare being prescribed weight-loss or weight-controlling drugs – without having other medical conditions – the answer given was yes in 26 cases. The rationale was that the insurer needed to know about any prescribed medication or medication change.

In reality, even with other insurers, you might be prompted to disclose either the treatment or the reason you're using it. 

Of the 22 insurers where you weren't required to say you were using GPL-1s, with some you were able to declare them though not required to – while others would consider obesity to be a medical condition which would need declaring, even if the specific treatment didn't.

• Find out more: best insurance for medical conditions  

Will it increase your premium?

Using a major comparison website, we carried out a mystery shopping exercise to see how declaring weight-loss injections affected the cost of annual European travel insurance.

The 10 cheapest quotes for a 42-year-old traveller averaged £16. After declaring weight-loss injections, the average rose to £18 – an increase of 15%. Between individual insurers, this made differences of between £0 and £8.21 (69%).

We also tested what happened when we declared obesity as a medical condition and when we declared both obesity and weight-loss injections. In both cases, the average premium was £18.  

Importantly, our traveller didn't have any other conditions that GLP-1s can be prescribed to help manage – such as high blood pressure or diabetes.

• Find out more: what customers pay for medical conditions cover

What happens if you fail to declare them?

Medical cover is arguably the most important part of your travel insurance policy. According to data from Just Travel Cover, medical claims account for 30% of claims made, and constitute 56% of total costs paid out by insurers.

In most policies, pre-existing medical conditions (conditions you had before insuring your trip) aren't covered unless they've been declared. It's also unlikely that you'll be able to claim for a medical complication caused by an undeclared medical treatment – for example, a bad reaction to a weight-loss drug.

Recent survey research by Admiral has found that millions of customers don't disclose medical conditions, jeopardising their cover. While around a quarter knowingly withheld information when buying their cover to keep the price down, the research also found that large numbers of customers were unclear about what needs to be disclosed and when.

• Find out more: weight-loss injections and tablets: how they work and how to buy them safely