Do you think holiday insurance is a necessity or a luxury?

This always worries me with travel insurance. The one we use asks for anything we have been investigated for/treated within the last 2 years except for certain conditions such as high blood pressure where you have to declare no matter how long ago.

We have ours through our packaged bank accounts. We’re youngish, healthy and don’t do anything adventurous on holidays so it works fine when I’ve claimed.

PIL used to travel in Europe with just EHIC cards. At the time we discovered this, I was working for a funeral director and we had recently had to repatriate someone from Spain so I knew the costs involved in that (it was a young person who had travelled without insurance and who had had an accident).
That cost though is nothing compared to a medical repatriation and I pointed out that if they broke a leg on holiday the cost of getting them home could be massive. I believe that they took my advice after that and MIL now won't travel without insurance even though her medical history means it costs a lot.
I have no sympathy for anyone who chooses to travel without insurance. There are so many Go Fund Me appeals that people can't be ignorant of the consequences of travelling without insurance.

Depends on pre existing conditions.

Who did you use?

Another idiot, and of course the obligatory Go fund me plea. Also, please get extra cover for any potentially dangerous activities , sports etc or the insurers won’t pay out, plus if accidents happen when the alcohol level in the body is high they won’t pay out in those cases either.
https://mol.im/a/15906943

It’s not just about what happens to you. We had to cancel a holiday due to a family death a couple of days before travel. Got our money back except the excess.

My youngest son has various disabilities, I'm ex cabin crew and wouldn't dream of travelling without insurance.

Last year we took him to Florida and while I was arranging his insurance (well over £1000 for him alone) I got talking to the advisor about vaccinations. It turns out that if you haven't had all your childhood vaccinations, anything vaccinations that are offered to you and those that are recommended by FO for the country you are visiting and for your age, the insurance company can refuse to pay out- it's in the fine print. We had to get a paediatrician letter for DS to say he was advised against certain vaccines/ couldn't have them to ensure the insurance was valid. I didn't realise this and he's been away many times before- he could have had any claim refused.

Well worth checking if you or your kids aren't up to date with vaccines.

I nannied for a family who went on a snowboarding trip without insurance (each thought the other parent had done it) and the dad had an horrific accident with life changing injures. 3 months in a foreign hospital and a private jet home (due to injuries he had to lay completely flat) and the cost was hundreds of thousands, IIRC it was approx £850,000 before the flight and that didn’t include the extra costs of hotels and flights for the other family members going back and forth.

It financially ruined them, they ended up selling and downsizing their home. It was horrific.

Based on that I will never ever go on holiday without insurance. If I can’t afford it then I can afford to go

Some bills are horrendous-how can they afford it?

I have multiple health conditions and just paid over £100 for insurance for 10 nights away. Some people are very foolish not to take it out!

I work in the industry and have been personally involved in helping people out in circumstances like these. They'd have got you home, or put you in a hotel. Of course you wouldn't have slept on the street.

Where else would i have slept? Train companies have no duty of care unless a passenger has started a journey with them or has a reserved seat. I didn't have the money for a hotel so where do you think i would have slept?

Yes it did but it still paid 75% of the hotel bill. I travel all over the country by car, train, plane and boat and i understand how easy it is for one little cog to mess up a journey. Now that i have been ill i realise how life can change in the next second i wouldn't dream of travelling without it, If myself our my DH took ill 200 miles from home it would be really expensive for the partner not in hospital to stay close by. So i will pay a few £s to insure the trip.

If you can't afford the insurance then you can't afford the holiday.
Years ago my great aunt, at the age of 92 and hale and hearty, went to Spain to see her God daughter. She got a scratch to her leg, went to bed ok and then died overnight of blood poisoning. The family found her in the morning. The insurance company were superb and fully supported my father, who was her executor, with all the paperwork. Body repatriated by them etc. An extreme case but thank heavens for the insurance.

In a lot of countries you pay first then claim it back from your insurance

I get travel insurance every year, have done since I was 20. I include my 2 adult children on mine so we're all covered in Europe together or separately. It cost me £28 this year. People are idiots. And I'm not a boomer, i"m a millennial.

Ds is away in Poland this week for 5 days His travel ins was just £15.

If your foolish enough to travel without insurance don't expect any sympathy or just giving contributions from me. That said if the person does have insurance but for whatever reason outside of their control the insurance won't cover it I will happily contribute.
Stupidity on their part does not constitute a emergency on mine

As a holiday let owner in the UK we strongly advise guests to have insurance that covers in case of cancellations. 99% of our guests are from the UK and the majority don't have insurance. But accidents, illness, something unexpected happens and they think that our small business should be their insurance and refund them. It happens all the time, and we just can't afford to refund guests like that.

In the case quoted, the person was in Edinburgh, staffed 24/7 with loads of resources available. They'd have easily sorted something. Insurance was just a waste of money.

Hilarious that you think train companies always get you home when trains are cancelled or find you a hotel. My experience is that you're abandoned on your own if you're at anything other than a large city centre station where there are train staff at the station, and even then, they're sometimes unhelpful. Trying to use their "contact us" phone at an unmanned station to get help when you're stranded is a waste of time as you're talking to a call centre miles away who have no local knowledge and have no arrangements in place to help you, especially if late at night. Their "advice" is usually to sort yourself out and make a claim afterwards!!

My brother in law didn’t declare that he used to take ramapril as his blood pressure was back to normal, but it was still on his notes. The insurance decided not to pay out, he ended up with a bill for 2k, he was in Cape Verde. He’d had an allergic reaction to mosquito bites, nothing to do with blood pressure, cheeky bastards.

I declare everything and also have a EHIC card for European travel. To be honest I’d sooner stick to European destinations after an horrendous experience with Mexico. I’ve commented on here about my daughters treatment, $15000 for a 24 hour stay with food poisoning, thank gawd we declared all her meds and medical conditions 🤦‍♀️

It is an absolute necessity!!

My daughter who is 30 has lots of medical issues so I helped her sort out the holiday insurance, it cost £40, thank god we did. She holidayed in Mexico in a 5 star TUI hotel, RIU Cancun, and suffered with food poisoning, as did many of the guests there. They were advised by TUI to isolate in their rooms for 48 hours, had she done this she could possibly have died of dehydration.

She made her way to the hospital, by this time she was delirious and very poorly. The shocking bit is that until your insurance has checked with your G.P that you’ve declared all your illnesses they won’t give the hospital the guarantee of payment. So my daughter called us as the hospital was demanding 6.5k. We had to pay this on the proviso that it was a holding charge and would be refunded.

The next day they wanted the same again, we simply didn’t have it. I contacted Zurich and asked them to call my daughter, they did this and demanded that they stop harassing her as they had given guarantee of payment to them. Whilst this was going off they’d locked all exit doors so my daughter couldn’t leave. Zurich spoke to them and demanded they let her go, they also tried to take her passport.

She already has PTSD which was declared and Zurich advised the hospital of this, they suddenly released her then. It was a fucking nightmare. To date the hospital hasn’t returned our money, Zurich advised us to claim out of pocket expenses. I have to admit Zurich we’re amazing and disgusted but not surprised at the Joya hospital in Cancun. The total bill for a 24 hour stay was $15000!! Thankfully Zurich are deducting monies already paid by us, so the robbing bastards don’t get the 6.5 k twice.

Sorry for the long rant, but it answers the question of whether it’s worth taking out the insurance, pay £40 for a good policy or $15000 🤷‍♀️. By the way at the time of booking TUI quoted £200 for insurance, so it’s worth shopping around.

I bet you've paid far more than £75 for insurance over the years. Train companies also have a duty of care to get you home if trains are cancelled - they'd have sorted out alternative transport for you, and quite possibly paid for a hotel if they couldn't. Don't be dramatic, of course you wouldn't have slept on the street.