To be sick of people starting to fund me pages when they go on holiday without travel insurance and can’t afford medical bills when they end up in hospital?

Agree, she's a bloody idiot.

You’re talking about the uk governments granting permission to travel to other countries based on insurance?

why do the uk government care if you end up with medical debt in the another country?

The taxpayer only pays for any treatment required once the person us back in the UK, treatment which they are entitled to and the cost of this is the same whether they were insured or not. The taxpayer is not responsible for covering any cost incurred in other countries.

You don't have to contribute.

It doesn’t need police involvement. It’s simple. You produce your proof of insurance at check in, and if you don’t have any then you’re not permitted to travel.

I don’t think that’s true. I’m not sure any assistance is being offered to this woman.

I suspect that poster meant a requirement of travel. Like a visa. You need to evidence your valid travel insurance before you fly. It would be difficult to set up and I don’t know if it’s a plausible option but I actually think it is something that could be explored at government level.

Because if the idiots who tavel without cannot get funding to pay for their treatment or to repatriate them,mthe taxpayer foots the bill
Why should they pay for a selfish greedy person?

Also what about the rich people who can afford to pay out of pocket for medical expenses? Why would you make something a legal obligation that only poor people need?

also how can you make other countries who want tourism and couldn’t care less whether tourists can pay legal bills change their legal system so they don’t let uninsured people in?

very colonial to expect you can somehow set laws in other countries, especially when it’s just to avoid the outrage of a go fund me 🙄

It's not worth the risk imo.
I've had 2 friends injured abroad, one broke her leg in China and was covered by insurance, one who ended up paralysed after an accident. He was on a temp visa over there anyways but when coming back to UK, the luggage handlers damaged his specialised wheelchair and this wasn't fully covered by insurance and he was offered a much shitter version. The one he was offered would have made him more reliant on others, didn't do half the stuff his had done and was less comfortable. He had to start a GFM to try and cover the cost of the one that was damaged as the airline basically said "not my problem".

Why?

It's questionable whether travel insurance would cover those pre-existing conditions - they might well have been excluded from the policy.

However, a four week holiday to Disney World cannot be cheap - I know someone who paid £10k for ten days, and that was about eight years ago. If it is the case that cover was offered, but she couldn't afford it, taking a shorter holiday might have been the answer.

Florida isn’t cheap, especially for 4 weeks, she just didn’t want to pay it. However it’s not her who has done the go fund me it’s her family, who could have perhaps checked she had insurance before going, it is her own responsibility bur her kids left trying to fix it, v selfish tbh.
although at the end of the day no one HAS to donate to help her get home etc I won’t be, I’ve been to Florida many times, always taken out insurance especially in USA it’s not worth the risk if something were to happen.

Agree, my child injured themselves on holiday accidentally in October. Bill was 2.5k for a visit to the hospital. Got it back a week after we put the claim in when home. Id of felt sick if we didn't have insurance, I'd never risk it. We went away a couple of years ago with my sister and her family and she never bothered and said "no one will hurt themselves". Such a stupid, irresponsible point of view.

Firstly totally irresponsible.

But having bought holiday insurance myself I can tell you that they can take the piss. Things we declared from the last 24 months and paid an extra few quid for a visit to the dentist (for a filling), chronic migraine, a sprained ankle and sciatica. Granted, the last one is probably a risk but the rest... 🤷

A family member of mine has recently been diagnosed with a heart condition. They disclosed this to their travel insurance company as they had 2 trips booked next year, the premiums will increase to the level that they can no longer travel so they have had to cancel their holidays. Travelling without insurance with a known health condition is idiotic.

You really want the police to waste their time and our money policing this? Why? How would it be punished?
Also, it's not as simple as "having insurance". You need suitable insurance which covers what you're doing and to whom you've disclosed every pre existing condition and doctors visit you've had in the past x years. Are the police going to check that too?

So just don’t donate. It’s weird to get angry about something that needn’t affect you in the slightest.

You don’t have to contribute or spend time reading about them though. Getting “sick of them” is ridiculous

This lady has a list of conditions prior to trraveling. Yanbu. I agree travel insurance should be compulsory if you travel.

Insurance premiums can be extremely high for some pre-existing medical conditions. However, if a person can't afford them, then they shouldn't be travelling. The US in particular is renowned for having expensive, private medical care. This particular woman's family now are faced with spiraling medical costs, all because their Mother was stupid and selfish enough to not take out medical insurance.

Surely everyone knows that even if in general you don't bother with holiday insurance, the USA is the one place you absolutely do? How utterly foolish.

Probably people who are also daft enough to not take out insurance.

I'd say YABU, purely because they don't impact you. You don't have to donate.

Its obviiusly stupid, but there are plenty people who do massively stupid things thst we have no choice but to pay for through our taxes and NHS. From morbid obesity, to having kids when they cant afford to look after them, playing dangerous sports and getting hurt, to binge drinking, to being a dodgy politician. I could go on.

The grand majority of people, if not everyone to some extent, makes dumb decisions that impact others. This, at least, doesn't impact anyone else unless they choose it too- maybe apart from the woman's immediate family. If you're her immediate family then you'd be reasonable to be pissed. If you're not, then you're probably overreacting a bit to feel much about it compared to what does impact you.

Its not high on my list of priorities to donate to.

Horrible thing to happen but the financial burden is something that could have been lessened
People need to take personal responsibility and taking out travel insurance is one of those responsibilities.