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

Yes, or being denied a claim for consuming alcohol when it wasn't a factor in the accident and the person was totally sensible eg a glass of wine; or people who didn't say they had asthma and then they break an arm and the company doesn't pay out.

Once we've persuaded everyone to get insurance the next battle is to get them to read the policy to make sure it covers the things they intent to do whilst travelling, or not do. Accidents when intoxicated can be excluded, particularly in USA. They do mandatory alcohol testing when admitted to AE and their definition of 'intoxicated' might not be the same as the British or Irish definition.

Whenever I see those gofundmes I'm afraid my response is "that's on you". Annual travel insurance is peanuts, frankly. Yes, you may need to pay extra if you're doing certain activities but even then it's not huge sums.

Literally facing the entire family going bankrupt.

Something like half of people going bankrupt in USA do so due to medical bills.

If you can't afford to tip, you can still afford a meal out.
If you can't afford to buy holiday insurance, you can't afford a holiday.
If you're not organised enough to organise holiday insurance, you're too disorganised to travel.

I do feel very sorry for the go fund mes, but I also think they are incredibly stupid and I wouldn't contribute.

It's an absolute necessity as without it, it could be financially devastating. I have a number of pre-existing conditions so going through medical screening is a pain but I would never go without it.

However, I do on the whole think the insurance industry needs tougher regulation as there are far too many instances of travel insurance companies doing their upmost to get out of paying out for the most tenuous of reasons.

I think it should be compulsory.

Only a complete prat would go abroad without insurance
no way would I give money to a ‘go fund me’ page if it all went tits up and had an accident or something

It’s definitely necessary but also just as important to be aware of the terms. I’ve seen crowd-funders where travel insurance was in place but the person has injured themselves doing something that invalidated their insurance (like getting on a motorbike).

As I worked in a hospital for 12 years until recently, I think it’s idiot mentality to go abroad without it. Obviously going to the US without it is literally insane but in any country,, if your little darling managed to get an infection or some kind of viral illness or a complex break or a gastric issue which lands them in hospital, funnily enough you’re not going to just leave them, you need to stay in the same country until they are fit to get home. How are you going to afford that? Time off work (especially if self employed with no pay if you don’t), new travel tickets, food, all the rest?

The number of people who transported ageing parents or obese relatives over to visit without insurance who then had strokes or whatever. Literally facing the entire family going bankrupt. Travel is not a right.

Necessity.

Necessity, but I’ve also been stung where I had insurance but it didn’t apply due to a tenuous reason. They were awful and we were £3k out of pocket so I can understand some situations aren’t covered.

Another situation is my uncle who has very complex crohns and cannot get insurance. He risked it once so he can visit his dd in Australia. I’m not sure my dad will get insurance now as he has incurable cancer but he really wants to travel more before he dies (he’s not that old). Those situations I understand to some degree but they would never crowd fund. Dad said, if he dies abroad, bury him there.

It's not an age thing. All the young people our children know wouldn't travel without insurance. Some guilt their parents into buying it, but they wouldn't travel to Indonesia without insurance. Not a single one.

I agreed to take 85 yo father to Ireland recently. He thought insurance was pretty pointless and was going to cost him £150…. I said I’d refuse to take him and there was a fair chance he might need it. He bought it…

It still feels that the UK travel insurance is quite expensive and hard to get.
It probably covers you more comfortably and completely, but we have an option of cheap (1€ a day) health&basic liability no declaration insurance, which covers the random things that happen, but wouldn't cover issues related with active illness&health conditions known before travelling.

Your friend is ignorant.

I’ve never had to claim but 2 of my closest friends have had to be hospitalised abroad and obv good thing they had insurance. In their 20s and 30s at the time.

Agree! In this case the undeclared item was something that had happened and been resolved while he was unconscious having an operation - the operation was declared but he never knew about the issue that happened during the operation as it was sorted by the time he woke up and they didn’t tell him. But it was in his medical notes. He had to pay £30,000 upfront whilst they argued it though.

Your younger colleague and her circle are idiots. I'm in my thirties and would never be so irresponsible as to travel without cover for me and my family

I’ve told this on here before but in 2007 we were on a 3 week holiday in the US with loads of exciting things planned (Grand Canyon, Vegas, Disneyland etc). Whilst in the wilds of N Arizona, DH’s appendix burst - he had been feeling under the weather for a couple of days but never suspected this. He was evacuated by helicopter to Tucson ($39k), had 4 surgeries, a week in ICU ($2.5k per day) then a further week in hospital. The insurance policy cost me £52 and they paid out around $250k all in.

Anyone stupid enough to travel without insurance is undeserving of my sympathy. I’m not a boomer - my kids are in their 20s and have annual travel policies because they remember what we went through.

I don't think it's an age thing. My 21yo dd always gets travel insurance, and on her latest holiday with friends, another one of the group sent a text round to everyone reminding them to sort it out. They all agreed, so I don't think it's the case that young people don't think it's needed.

Not all of Europe and not all services. We needed serious medical interventions in Budapest and it was the insurance that got what we needed. Same in most Balkan Countries. It is a basic cover though and everyone should use it
But anyone going outside of EU or other Western European Countries without medical insurance is being completely irresponsible. All our children travel extensively and have an annual policy that includes hostels etc. It's not even prohibitively expensive.

My DH and a colleague were in a (thankfully) minor car accident while on a work trip to Germany some years ago. They both had the European health card DH also had insurance his colleague didn't and the colleague was struggling to access even basic care as the hospital insisted he needed insurance as well as the health card. Mean while DH was taken to a top specialist to be checked over at a private clinic.
Fortunately the college discovered that he did actually have cover via his bank account so was sorted in the end.

I think lots of people assume they don't need insurance because it won't happen to them, or because they think the European health card will cover them. Lots also get caught out by having not checked they are covered for everything they are doing and not thinking about only having basic cover when they get sold a parascending flight or jet ski session.

I can understand short travels in EHIC zone without one - necessary care covered "as a local" and ability to get home on the ground. Yes, there are still some edge cases (complex repatriation of still alive person), but it would mostly work.

I wouldn't dare going outside of EHIC without one, especially the expensive countries and more exotic countries where using the international hospital would be practically a necessity for both language and care.

Just to add to this. I know some people do get travel insurance but don’t declare their medical history making the insurance invalid. They are idiots too. You must declare medical history even if they don’t ask.

Yes, but not declaring all material facts will always put you at risk of insurance not paying out. After all, it's based entirely on "risk" factors. No point having any kind of insurance if you;re not honest with the declarations.