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?

And their calculation of risk was obviously a good calculation, because what they thought had a high risk of happening did in fact happen. The policy was probably priced to put her off, as if she had paid it they would be on the hook for at least a million.

Tbf her adult children who traveled with her are stupid too if they knew about it.

Credit where it is due, I did have to claim once on a policy when my mother died while I was away and had to curtail the trip and fly back. They paid for remaining hotel nights and reimbursed for the return flights. Unfortunately I have no recollection of which company it was...

I don’t see how the choice for her was taking that risk or never travel again @Nc92982822

She was spending 4 weeks in Florida. Surely the cost of that (accommodation, food, spending money) is close to 3K a week? She could have cut the length of her trip in half and went for 2 weeks like most people do, and comfortably got travel insurance.

Also she had been 20 times before so I don’t see why it would’ve been some great tragedy for her not to go again.

I agree with you that it’s ridiculous behaviour. My mum pummelled into myself and my siblings heads from when we were about 17 and started going away with friends that we had to have insurance because she did not have spare funds to cover medical bills should anything happen. Alas, first non-parent holiday sibling went on as a teen resulted in a broken foot. The insurance policy that covered it was only £12 at the time
so very good advice indeed.

I do however feel some sympathy for the woman in question in this scenario though as she was quoted £3k for insurance and I do understand that being elderly it was a question of taking the risk or never going away again. I have less sympathy for people who’s insurance is 20 quid for the week but can’t be bothered to pay it and then want everyone else to stump up when things go wrong though.

That poor young girl got her body smashed apart BY A PARAGLIDER who crashed into her. Have some sympathy and also maybe question why the paraglider didn’t have insurance to pay for his accident before you go off on her having no shame

Good luck to her family - nothing wrong with wanting to do anything you can for your mum/grandma and there's no obligation to give - but perhaps they could also use it to encourage others to get travel insurance and spare other families from going through this ordeal.

Yes £3,000 is expensive, but insurance premiums are based on calculations of risk and her quote was high for a reason. They would have taken into account her medical history, the likelihood of illness and the severity of it, and the cost of treating and expatriating her if it happened. Had she taken out the policy, they would have had to pay out many times this amount.

YANBU

i wouldn’t give a penny to these feckless twats

She 'saved' for 2 years for a 4 week vacation in Florida but couldn't pay £3k for insurance.

What do these people do that they can have a 4 week holiday?
Aren't the grandchildren in school?

Not sure if she paid for the sons and grandkids but let's break the costs down
Staying 'offsite' to the theme parks
4bed villa in Orlando can be anything from £130-400 a night. So between £3700 and £11200 for the 28 days
Flights are at least £500 per person.

Assuming they did some theme parks
Universal + Disney 14 day combo is £900+ per person.
Food in The theme parks is around $60-210 for a family of 4 depending on where and what.
Being generous you could go and just have a villa holiday, avoid the theme parks and not spend a great deal of money.

I just can't be sympathetic.

Her sons have just abandoned her and left the daughter to pick up the slack.

According to her family it would have cost 3k to insure her. Her medical costs are likely in excess of 1 million. Any company who had insured her would now be £997,000 out of pocket.

Hardly gouging.

Like people who are disabled should 'suck it up' and just don't deserve the same little things, joys, a once in a lifetime experience or luxuries occasionally in life that other people are allowed. Selfish of them? Pure ableism from the tower of privilege that has never had to live with long term disabilities.

Yeah, no. I'm disabled, wheelchair user. always have been. I've travelled (extensively before the pandemic, less so now) and budgeted for insurance. I pay an annual premium. She could have gone for three weeks and put money towards insurance. It's about personal responsibility and priorities. Travelling is not a right for anyone, disabled or not.

The son of one of my mum's friends did this about 10 years ago on a party trip to Thailand. Sadly he got very drunk/high on drugs and fell from a height, killing himself. His friends launched a Go Fund Me to get his body repatriated. His mother (who he was estranged from after he spent time in prison for being caught carrying a knife) has never fully recovered from the shock and grief.

I do have sympathy for some people who can’t ever travel, especially if they have family or friends abroad like I do. I don’t know what I’d do without my regular visits to the US.
And I’m not a fan of insurance companies generally so yeah the system does need to be looked at.

However ,in this specific situation the woman had been to the US twenty times and was staying for 4 weeks.

As I said above she could’ve either not went - as she’d already been multiple times - or went for a shorter time and used that money saved for the travel

But this was a 4-week holiday at Disney in Florida for 3 adults and a child. That would be massively expensive. She could have reduced the duration of the holiday to a more standard 2 weeks and could then have afforded the travel insurance.

According to the newspaper articles, she has been on holiday to Florida over 20 times, so this isn't a poor penniless pensioner wanting one holiday of a lifetime before she dies.

I was raised by if you cannot afford travel insurance you cannot afford to go on holiday. Even when my DF was sick with cancer we paid a premium for his travel insurance. A friend's FIL with chronic health conditions was going to just go without but then what? Sell the house or go fund me to pay? Insurance isn't cheap unless you are young and/or well but you cannot just wing it.

I've drummed how important it is into my two and admittedly it's cheap for them. I think we are just used to the NHS and we don't appreciate how expensive health care is everywhere else. I know I couldn't settle without it because accidents happen.

So no I don't contribute.

Or maybe private insurance companies shouldn't be able to gouge they eyes out of the most vulnerable people in society.

We never got to go on holiday outside the UK because the insurance was ridiculous and wildly unaffordable for my mams health issues.

Never got to go away in her whole life outside of a short trip to the seaside and that was sad.

Despite the fact that on those UK holidays there was hardly any issue (a burst ulcer dressed by a pharmacist on one holiday, thats pretty much it) it wasn't worth risking LIFE not being able to get treatment IF an emergency happened.

Your attitude sucks though and is angry at the wrong people... its not the vulnerable persons fault that their options is take the risk or never live their life, its the exploitation of massive profit companies who rub their hands at the thought of charging insane prices for stuff people can't control. Predatory discrimination in action.

I had an aunt who lived the last 5 years of her life in almost complete isolation due to being high risk. Its no life to live, many disabled people choose to take the risk of actually LIVING a shorter fulfilling life than to rot to death long term unable to do anything but its not fair they can't have access to the thing insurance/health care specifically designed for that because of greedy capitalism.

Like people who are disabled should 'suck it up' and just don't deserve the same little things, joys, a once in a lifetime experience or luxuries occasionally in life that other people are allowed. Selfish of them? Pure ableism from the tower of privilege that has never had to live with long term disabilities.

Or she realises that other people will pay.

Yeah this is what I don’t get.
Surely she could’ve went for 3 weeks instead of 4 for example and then used the money saved for the travel insurance.

I spent 4 weeks in the US recently and I’m late 30s and in generally good health and made sure I had my insurance. Of course it wasn’t 3K but I wouldn’t have went if it was that much.

And given she has been so many times before it’s likely she didn’t pay travel insurance all those times either, so this wasn’t just an innocent one off gamble. It was only a matter of time this happened.

But if anyone is that ridiculous enough to donate that’s on them really. I guess there’s all sorts of daft things people spend their money on.

Saw one the other week where a family had gone on holiday to Turkey without insurance and one of them got hit by a paraglider and needed surgery. Cue the scrambled beg on toast go fund me.

Some people have no shame. I'd never show off in public that I was too tight/ stupid to go abroad with no insurance and then expect others to foot the bill. It should be illegal.

I have autoimmune diseases which increases my travel/health insurance. I always get travel insurance.
So far I have never been quoted 3k. I take out yearly insurance so that I am covered in UK and Europe. It was same price for 2 × 2 week trips.

I assume if I went yo USA it would be mega expensive.

Remember you can get basic health care in the EU with a free GHIC.
Obviously, it doesn't cover private GP, private hospitals or repatriation.

I think the lady in question and her family were very irresponsible in not getting her insurance.
One does wonder if she learnt anything during the pandemic. It would be obvious someone with her vulnerabilities would need to take extra precautions from covid whilst travelling.

Shes been a bit silly, doesn’t mean that she and her family deserve to be bankrupted. I will find this page now and donate a few quid.
Bet she’s learnt her lesson.

What a load of nonsense. If you have pre existing conditions you get travel insurance. There are plenty of companies who will cover you- I know because I’ve done it myself (I have Addisons, lupus, asthma, all sorts of complex things). If you can’t afford the insurance you don’t go. It’s that simple. It’s not disabilist. It’s just finances and life!

It's telling that this woman has paid for this 4-week holiday in Florida for two of her sons and a grandson, but it is her only daughter who didn't even go on the holiday who has had to fly out there and is trying to raise the funds to bring her home.

I feel very sorry for the daughter but her mum, who has holidayed in Florida at least 20 times, took a reckless decision not to take out travel insurance, despite having a number of possibly life-threatening pre-existing conditions.

Haven’t RTFT. I feel sorry for her family as they’re the ones lumbered with sorting this out and they could be lumbered with paying the bills. Without insurance, her medical care could be running into hundreds of thousands given that she’s been in hospital for a while.
$20K won’t even touch the sides.

I have no issue with people setting up these GoFundMes. I would never donate, but I don't care if others do. If others don't feel for her they won't and it'll fall flat.

But yes, if you can't afford travel insurance you can't afford to travel.