Why would you take you family on holiday without travel insurance?!

YABU! This really does piss me off and then they do a gofundme! 😡
i don’t get it! Pay £4k for an all inclusive and can’t afford the £30’insurance??
My girls are in their 20’s and going away often with friends. I insist on them showing me proof of insurance in case anything happens!

At one time there were machines at the airports selling insurance, very expensive insurance though, not sure if they still do, I've not seen them in years.

PIL's are in their 80's and won't fork out for travel insurance. They go on at least 3 holidays per year. Won't listen to anyone's worries, they just don't want to "waste" their money

I don’t mind paying extra. My condition sometimes isn’t covered by the main providers so just glad I don’t have to get specialist cover

But how on earth would they do that and get the money required 'now' so that the immediate hospital + related costs could be covered?

If they had insurance, they provider would cover everything and then chase the paraglider.

DH's cousin and her DP visited from NZ and, quite unexpectedly he died.

Thankfully, the insurance covered the cost of extra car hire, extra nights in a hotel and repatriation.

Without it, she would have been completely stuffed.

Surely in the case of the poor girl who was hit by the paraglider, the family should claim off the paraglider's /club/hire company insurance?

(But yes, I always have appropriate travel insurance, and dangerous sports cover, even in the uk).

When we cruised with Marella a couple of years ago it was the same. We were not allowed to board without proof of insurance and Marella offered insurance so as long as you declared everything you knew you were covered correctly.

Insurance is something you should pay for, and hope never have to use.

It’s reckless to do it as an adult but if you are responsible for children and still don’t bother then it’s neglect and should be illegal.

Some people are just irresponsible

I would never travel abroad without travel insurance. It's all factored in to the cost of the holiday, like airport parking.

Sad those this accident is, if the family had travel insurance in place, there would be no need to get out the begging bowl. I don't contribute to GFM on principle, there are a lot of scammers out there.

Bloody irresponsible parents! It's one thing not to book travel insurance for yourself but when you have kids it's totally unforgivable not to protect them.

I think it should have to be purchased with the holiday.

For those with annual policies (me) there's little point in having one unless it's updated as your health changes.

When you buy the policy the details will be correct up to that point. If you're then a proscribed a higher dose of a declared medication or anything else changes the insurers should be told.

Historically I have not done this and so presumably would not have been paid. It's so important though - I don't know why there aren't reminders (by email for example during the policy term).

News articles are reporting no insurance

We hear of go fund me appeals like this all too often. Does nobody learn from them?

In a word, no - not least because GoFundMe and the like exist and some will always pay up (I see they've raised about £27k out of the £45k target already)

Wonder if it'll turn into another of those where a third party (the hang-glider's insurance?) pays and they don't need the money after all ...

Goodness knows! I can't even book train or theatre tickets without some sort of insurance just in case.

I have annual holiday insurance and I don’t leave the UK.
Trip, break a leg 300/400 miles from home I don’t think I’d be up to trundling my case into Edinburgh airport for my flight home.

Everyone's arguing about the validity of EHICs and GHICs without noticing the girl was in Turkey - they aren't valid there

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/turkey/health

2 years ago, we had a 3 hour visit to a paediatric ER in the US, USD7,000 as we were leaving, in fact, they took my credit card details as we arrived and before we were even seen. Thank god we had travel insurance, although it is important to be sure the US is included in your travel insurance.

Even having insurance, I wouldn't necessarily be confident that the insurance company wouldn't have some reason not to pay up.

The article on the BBC website says they hadn't taken out travel insurance.

Oh wow. Thank you for this info. I've been on HRT for years now and never even thought to mention it on travel insurance, despite me declaring my arthritis painkiller medication. I'll make sure I add it now.

I work as a travel insurance underwriter. If you are traveling to a developed Western European country (Germany, France Austria etc), then there is a case for just relying on an EHIC. The (big) downside is if you are involved in a serious issue then you will not be repatriated to the UK. Also it is important to remember that reciprocal care is designed to provide the same level of cover as would apply in the jurisdiction that you have travelled to. So there may still be charges. For example if you break an arm in Germany you may walk away with a reasonable cost ton pay upfront for the treatment. So you might reasonably decide you could take this risk relative to the cost of the insurance.

Never ever travel to the US without travel insurance. The cost of even a stay in a US hospital can easily get to six figures and that is just for tests without any procedures.

Even within many Mediterranean countries I would take significant care. In Greece for example some islands have very limited emergency cover and would expect that tourists will be repatriated very quickly. Rhodes as an example has less than six emergency beds. Also in some European countries nursing is limited. There is an expectation that a family member would come on site and help feed/bathe the patient.

Consider carefully how you buy travel insurance. One large provider of travel insurance on aggregator sites has had a terrible record of dealing with holiday claims. Google travel insurance doctor disciplined to see more. Consider purchasing from one of the direct travel providers.

It isn't just for medical emergencies either. Your insurance company will arrange for you to be extracted if there's a natural disaster, civil unrest etc. and you're in danger.