To think that it should be illegal to go abroad without travel insurance

No- but should they need medical assistance while abroad they need to be able to fund it.

Similar with my appendix. Obviously zero chance of getting appendicitis again

I was charged extra for having my gallbladder out! I pointed out it wasn't going to cause me any problems but it didn't make any difference. It wasn't as though I was going to be travelling immediately after having surgery either, the holiday was nearly a year later!

The one that gets me is that they charge more for medical conditions even if the medical condition actually makes you less likely to claim.

I have arthritis so I'm not going to be doing anything sporty, I'm not going to hire a moped or climb up a mountain.

Thanks. We have just paid our annual premium, but will look at it for the future.

I don’t think it should be illegal but it is stupid. I’ve always taken it out and never used it…. Until now. Currently sat in a hospital in SEA having had my appendix removed. Insurance covering the surgery, the ambulance speedboat from the island I was on, says in a hospital suite.

Made a shit situation much easier.

Coming from post-comunist country I find constitutionally wrong for any country to limit it's citizens right to leave with artificial barriers, even more so artificial barriers depending on commercial sector.

We see having a passport as a basic right.
And our travel insurance works differently, you can easily get a cheap one covering health care related to accidents and random emergencies not related to your long term conditions. If you want your conditions covered, you need to disclose them and get personal add-on package (and that can be expensive)

I had to claim due to the volcanic ash cloud. We were stranded for 3 extra days. Travel insurance paid for everything. Hotels, meals, drinks. No quibbles?

Have you tried Brokersure? They have a special route for under investigation.

We are with Staysure and they won’t insure us, if we are under medical investigation.

There’s plenty of uninsured citizens living in the US who couldn’t afford healthcare if they needed it. Do you suggest they shouldn’t exist? Because it’s only the same as travelling uninsured.

I see no practical method of ensuring people travel with adequate insurance, but this is not remotely the same thing. US citizens require some form of healthcare insurance for day to day healthcare in their own country, and if they do not have any then they have to rely on things like Medicaid, charity etc. If they don't have insurance or an alternative they do not get treated. Poverty is the reason they have no insurance - they aren't swanning off to foreign countries expecting that either nothing will happen to them or that someone else will pick up the tab.

If you want a genuine comparison, then the answer here is that countries do not provide any treatment that they are not required to. So when you need something E(G)HIC doesn't cover (for example), then you don't get it, and if that means turfing you out before you are fit then so be it. Or, in another country not covered by this, no insurance no service. I am sure that Brits will condemn the iniquity of foreign countries leaving people with heart attacks to die on a pavement, but that would be the choice they are making by deciding to travel without insurance.

Presumably, if you died uninsured in USA - they'd ask NOK to pay bill.

I don't think it would be 'free' just because you're dead!

Don't be ridiculous. It would inevitably fall to the travelling companion to make calls and run around organising things. It would take a very cold person to say "Sorry, tough, you are on your own with this while I finish my holiday"

There are plenty of circumstances under which it is not practical or affordable to be insured- they are there first and foremost to make money- many scenarios will not qualify.

I recently tried StaySure and even they won't insure me

There are specialist insurers who will insure in the circumstances. DH and I are both on waiting lists so we had to go through a specialist.

We wanted to take the family to Amsterdam for 3 days. It cost less than £500 a head then. We were quoted £25,000 for travel insurance for DD1. Just because we could afford the holiday didn’t mean we could afford the insurance!

But why? There’s plenty of uninsured citizens living in the US who couldn’t afford healthcare if they needed it. Do you suggest they shouldn’t exist? Because it’s only the same as travelling uninsured.

I do have travel insurance, but it’s not unreasonable to not be insured and accept that you’ll have to potentially live out or die with anything you get struck down with in the country or your holiday, and your body may need to stay there.

Its a small wish of mine to die will on holiday in the US as I’d quite like to be buried on the coast in Maine…

Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

If you choose to go overseas without insurance then you deal with the consequences - going without insurance shouldn't be illegal, setting up go fun me appeals to bail you out should be the illegal bit.

What about free will? The freedom to travel is far more fundamental than to drive.

If the cost was £100,000s as it can be?!

My parents would find insurance, if available, to be extremely expensive and so, yes they don’t go. Because what is the plan if they need treatment (either for their existing conditions or something else)?

A

Believe that if it gives you comfort, but that happens incredibly rarely.