have you/would you travel UK to Spain uninsured ?

[floooops]

I cannot get insurance at the moment. I have not been told I cannot travel.

I am 45. No history of serious medical problems. The only thing I would want the insurance for is if I got injured and needed medical expenses covered.

I am going to Spain for 3 days.

You should be able to get insurance that doesn’t cover the cancer but anyone who travels abroad without insurance is crazy. The EHIC card covers basic treatment. It will not cover evacuation if you can’t fly on a normal plane and it won’t cover repatriation of your body if you should have a fatal accident. DH was ill in USA and the insurance even covered my hotel bills for a month. My advice is to go away in this country for a weekend.

Your quote for 3 days is astronomical. Have a look at an annual policy, it may not be much different. Very sorry for your situation.

Does the body have to be repatriated to it's original country, I'm not sure of the laws on this.

Then you may as well flush your money down the toilet. If the form you fill out when you apply for insurance asks you medical questions which you fail to answer honestly, it invalidates your policy. One of the reasons insurers insist you are registered with a UK GP is so that they can check your medical history, should they need to at a later date. They will absolutely look for reasons not to pay out claims.

On holiday in Spain, DH became ill in the early hours. Doctor called to hotel cost euros200. Ambulance to hospital. Hospital wanted euros 1k transferred before they would even look at him.
Just so you know what can happen. It was food poisoning. Total nightmare. Luckily we had insurance.

I share your pain and ended up having a (lovely) UK holiday as a result.

In my case, it was a referral for symptoms (which I’ve had for years), but as it’s undiagnosed, couldn't get insurance (only decided to get a referral on advice of friend).

But in answer to your question, no, I would travel abroad.

Thinking about it, in the past, got insurance but they wouldn’t cover certain conditions.

I would if I had my GHIC card (or whatever it is called) and enough savings to cover me if anything awful happened.

If you have anything wrong with you which isn't life threatening and you have a holiday booked best to leave it to get checked out when you get home as you may not get insurance as the NHS is so slow with diagnosis, anything in fact.

Yes, go. Have you got a GHIC (the post Brexit equivalent of an EHIC) card?

Why would that make a difference? Generally an EHIC/GHIC gives you the same state health cover as residents, so I'd check what that actually means in Spain then make a decision. Repatriation wont be covered, but you may find that many other things are.

My SIL travelled to New Zealand without insurance in the same situation as you. Good luck.

Have you checked how much an annual policy would cost with the people who've quoted you £200? It might not be significantly more. I'm a walking medical disaster area on paper (actually I feel fairly well in reality!) and I pay about £400 for annual cover for Europe. I'll occasionally travel with specific exclusions whilst waiting for tests (eg accept that respiratory illness not covered but everything else is) but I'd never risk travelling with nothing at all.
It's becoming harder and harder to sort out though, with long waits for investigations and treatment these days.

Have you got a post brexit EU health card? Have you somewhere to stay there if for whatever reason you did have an accident etc?

Some properly stupid posts on this thread.

stop recommending the GHIC. As already stated, this doesn’t cover repatriation or evacuation.

@floooops, can I ask who you finally got the insurance off please?

I have never had insurance for Europe. Just use your ehic which covers you for emergencies

Obviously you aren't covered for repatriation etc but thats your risk.

Ehic would have covered that

Nothing wrong with recommending the GHIC. It has, after all, replaced the EHIC following Brexit.

Most of us aren't recommending GHIC alone, being perfectly aware that it doesn't cover repatriation, but have it alongside proper travel insurance.

We had a recent experience of a freak accident on holiday resulting in a broken limb. £10k hospital bill, £4.5k medevac to the hospital, £5k repatriation cost back to the U.K., £2k additional accommodation bill. The insurance company were an absolute nightmare, but at least some of that was covered by them directly (we’re now battling to get the remainder, which was put on a credit card, back).

Besides, if you read travel insurance policies carefully, many state that you MUST have a valid GHIC for trips to Europe anyway as part of their policy so it's not bad advice to suggest getting one...

Yes, and the government website also recommends having proper travel insurance alongside the GHIC.

So if you needed special flights / repatriation what happens then, when you haven’t bought insurance ‘for Europe’?

Make sure you have a GHIC. I used mine in Spain this year for emergency treatment.

When I was in my 20s my then boyfriend and I were booked on a big expensive trip abroad. I'd bought travel insurance, all good to go. A week before we were due to leave, he had a grand mal seizure and died. The insurers didn't pay out as the epilepsy hadn't been disclosed to them. Reason it wasn't disclosed is that I didn't know! We'd been together for two years, he hadn't had a seizure in over five years and had never mentioned it, even when I checked he had no medical conditions when organising the insurance.
Fortunately, I just lost the cost of the holiday. I shudder to think what would have happened if the seizure had been a week later and we'd been abroad. Since then I am anal about making sure we're all fully covered and disclose every little thing.
Don't go abroad without it, totally not worth the risk.

@LittleGreenDuck that's awful. Poor boyfriend.

It wouldn’t have covered me for repatriation, which at age 11 and left in a wheelchair for several weeks I very nearly needed. It also wouldn’t have covered the cost of my parent’s holiday because, obviously, I couldn’t spend 2 weeks in hospital on my own. Medical transport to and from the airport. It’s not just about the operation. It was a close call whether I was going to be allowed home on our scheduled flight. When I say I nearly died, I really mean it.