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

Our health insurance cover is £10,000,000. He will need deep pockets. Yes. People should have insurance or proof of substantial assets.

I haven’t read the thread, just wanted to say - really?! What kind of authoritarian hell do you want to sign up for? What other areas in life should we slap legally required costs on that benefit large private insurance companies and restrict individuals who are willing to take that risk and don’t have the extra cash? (And yes I agree - total pain for any family members etc if things go wrong but that really is their business). I say this as someone who has just paid out £500 in travel insurance for a holiday, btw.

My DH has multiple medical conditions and I always get a travel insurance that I can declare all his medical conditions - it’s a lot more expensive but totally peace of mind

That was my point.

My husband had a heart attack in Belgium. Our travel insurance paid for it all, including staying extra nights in the hotel. We may have paid a small excess. I can’t remember but he had a stent put it and a 2 day hospital stay.

It used to be a requirement of travel, not a law, but I think it might have been ABTA that a travel agent had to sell travel insurance with a holiday. Caused all manner of upset due to financial regulations as the travel agents needed extra training. Then it changed to needing to confirm customer had insurance - i was (briefly) a travel agent at that point and had a dad kick off because I'd told his 18yo daughter and her boyfriend they needed insurance for the £199 package to Turkey. The insurance i was selling was £15. I explained to the dad it didn't have to be MY insurance but I had to tick a box to say she had it. He called back half an hour later and said she'd have the insurance but the boyfriend wouldn't. I'd been a holiday rep, I'd dealt with the aftermath of a customer not having insurance for a relatively minor injury (sprained knee - needed to keep leg straight on flight home so 3 seats, needed new flights, extended hotel stay until those booked, transfer from airport to home as couldn't drive on top of a few hundred quid of medical costs not covered by the EHIC).

Now so much is booked online, websites do recommend insurance and promote their own but you can just tick a box to say you'll arrange your own and there's no comeback.

You're not allowed to drive a car without insurance, or have a mortgage without life cover. Medical repatriation runs to tens of thousands of pounds. I've just taken out a 5* cover for a 3 day break for £8.50, with £20 million medical cover and a £50 excess.

Go Fund Me is really up to the people giving money, it doesn't really bother anyone else, or do they pop up like ads so you can't avoid them, I use ad blockers so perhaps wouldn't see them if they did

And just to add, plenty of taxpayers who don't smoke have to pay for others who do meed health services as a result. I dont see Marlboro queuing up to fund treatment from theit profits.

What if smoking related illnesses were run on a GoFundMe basis?

At least a holiday GoFundMe is optional.

You're right, they're not the same. Vapes and ciggies literally cause death whereas a lack of travel insurance just means the risk of a mega bill.

Tell me, what happens if a single person with no friends or family and no insurance winds up in a costly situation?

I can remember buying insurance for the holiday when I booked it at the travel agent in the 70s and 80s and just buying the one with the holiday, I think you had to have it or show you had another insurance but insurance was a lot simpler in those days, and there wasn't the worry that you may have forgotten that boil you had antibiotics for a number of years ago.

It's utterly shit but how would he pay for his treatment in the event of a serious emergency followed by repatriation by air ambulance? That could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds

I do despair when people expect others to fund them not paying out for decent insurance whether it be travel or pet to name two.
There are some crappy insurance firms. With no existing health conditions, decent travel insurance isn't expensive. I had breast cancer and am on preventative blood thinners due to treatment causing a DVT in my arm. Last year, and this we've used Insurewith, it cost £80 for me, DP and DD. On top of a week away, it's not much.
People need to take responsibility, there are so many insurers out there who can provide cover. My (now deceased) FIL, who had all sorts of health conditions got cover for a trip to Australia.

It probably is too nanny state / people who eat stupid and don’t take exercise are expecting me to fund their diabetes health care and amputations - which is even worse than a go fund me which I can ignore

I wonder what people did before Go Fund Me type fund raising!

I know people travel more in latter years but I remember when people bought insurance, or not, at the travel agents when they booked their holiday. I think some people didn't even bother with travel insurance 20-30+ years ago!

When we've been on cruises they've often asked to see our insurance, hasn't been asked the last couple of times though.

I completely get your point re wealthy relative with uninsurarable health conditions.

I think it would be more accurate to say he is 'self-insured', a real thing if you can afford to take the loss if the potentially insurable event occurs. I 'self insured' for contents out of choice at one point in my life - I had nothing valuable and reasonable savings.

Other posters might be less confused about your relative's situation if they understood he is acting as his own insurer so why should he be legally prevented from travelling?

That's wrong. You pay in France and then receive a cheque covering the rest once back home. It's astoundingly efficient.

There's a world of difference between someone smoking a vape or ciggie, or eating processed meat; and someone going to another country with no travel insurance, and then expecting other people to fund their stupid decision when they get the inevitable 6 figure sum medical bill!

Can't believe you're suggesting the 2 scenarios are even remotely the same!

My gut reaction is yes, of course people shouldn't be allowed to travel without it because its just part of being sage while travelling.

But then..no...because people are allowed to be fucking stupid and as long as the aren't hurting others, it's their prerogative.

Then you start getting to nanny state. It seems bonkers people are allowed to buy vapes and cigarettes or even processed meat when they are known carcinogens, so where do you draw the line?

Airlines can refuse boarding if you don’t have proof of insurance. They can and do random checks.
im with you op, begging msgs on social media and alike.
if his family own their home they could be saying bye to that have to remortgage.

So does my family member and he doesn't travel abroad any more. It's tough, but it's life.

He can't afford to buy the level of cover he needs, but he knows the actual cost of receiving treatment if he had a heart attack abroad would bankrupt him.

That GoFundMe site needs shutting down, there is no way to prove these funds are going to who they say they are. They're making a fortune off people who fall for any old sob story. And they're like bandwagons for people to jump on, getting mass shares on social media and there's a tawdry entertainment in watching the sum increase.

As for people who travel without insurance, the travel industry should make it a condition of travel or add it to the cost of the holiday. I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone needing medical repatriation without insurance.

That applies to all insurance. But you still need it anyway, just in case.

Literally no words. None.

Been OK so far.

Well, yes, it's designed to cover the risk of a suitcase of averagely priced clothes going missing in transit, not replace jewellery, thousand pound cameras, three thousand pound laptops, iPads, Apple Watches, iPhones and everything else that people still try and claim for without any proof of ever owning them.

I was always taken by the £1997 claims per person including 4 year olds all carried in a £19,99 suitcase from Argos and the £300 of clothes + eight grand of gold jewellery and £400 of milk, margarine and prepacked ham in a two grand Louis Vuitton case claims when I dealt with travel insurance claims.

Kind of enjoyed the paying the massive medical bills, though. Not that it was nice for the people concerned, but it was satisfying to know that they weren't going to have 3am phone calls from the hospital debt collection department every day for the next 10 years - even if they sometimes got quite irate that the trainers and jeans that were thrown away by the hospital ER had an excess of £20 applied to them, it never seemed a good time to point out that I'd just authorised £104,395.34 at the then exchange rate for three nights in hospital, so being down twenty quid and having had a shitty time wasn't actually the absolute worst thing that could have happened to them.