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.

Saying I used my GHIC - I also have travel insurance.

@Maddy70 wouldn't have covered the doctor call out charge either. Because 2 days into a burst appendix I wasn’t walking to a medical centre (or anywhere!). They literally ran with me on a gurney. Was also luck enough to have local relatives. Otherwise insurance would have provided a representative and translator if needed. 1990s

It would cover emergency treatment I think, but not anything requiring complicated surgery, long term in patient care, repatriation alive or dead, accomodation and travel for relatives…..

I was taken straight to a private hospital as we were insured. Within 15 minutes I’d been x rayed and on my way to surgery. I had such widespread peritonitis that they couldn’t guarantee I’d survive the surgery and were quite blunt that an hour later I would have been dead. Good luck with that in a state hospital as the initial diagnosis from the call out doctor was gastroenteritis.

The children’s hospital was actually just over an hour from us. That’s normally where the GHIC cases went. The private hospital was a very painful 30 minutes but sounds like those minutes were pretty important

Yeah, it was a pretty dreadful time. Many years ago now 😔

One reason your quote will be higher is the increased risk of you cancelling the holiday and claiming for the cancellation.
In addition, if you have an accident whilst you are away the treatment (and therefore the cost) will be more complex given your existing condition.
It's not just about becoming ill from your cancer whilst you are away.

Which company is this please. My friend has cancer and is looking for insurance to travel overseas.

No, any accident or incident and you could end up having to pay out tens of thousands of pounds.

Have you tried Goodtogo insurance? Iva had stage 1 cancer (now cured) and have used Staysure in the past, but Goodtogo came out cheapest for our trip to Portugal this year.

I used goodtogo insurance

Try the Post Office their questions are less intrusive than most and I found them better than the specialist older people / health conditions insurers.

It would have covered the cost of an ambulance.

I’m not talking about an ambulance though. The doctor who visited me in the hotel (visit covered by our insurance) called the ambulance when he realised I didn’t have a tummy bug and was mortally ill.

I’m talking about necessary things when you need a hospital stay in a foreign country where there is a language barrier. My surgeon had limited English. We were lucky to have a local relative - most people can’t say that.

Are you deliberately misunderstanding?

I cannot believe these people not taking out travel insurance on this thread. If no illnesses it's literally a few quid. I think my family one is way less than £200 incl cruise cover and gadget cover for a while year. Short trips are under a tenner at times.

Get insurance the day you buy your holiday FFS. Unless you have a spare few hundred k in the bank. Although anyone who has that sort of money won't be stupid enough to not get insurance.

I am sick of seeing these gofundme pages asking for money as they didn't bother to buy travel insurance.

The GoFundMes that I've seen have been from people who took out the 'few quid' basic insurance without realising that preexisting conditions might invalidate it.

Not everyone realises that insurers can cancel your insurance if you correctly inform them about a new condition between taking out the policy and going away. I've been stung that way -- well enough to go, but undiagnosed so struggled to get any replacement cover. (It was for a big occasion for a family member abroad, so not easy just to 'holiday in the UK' instead.)

Yes, a lot of people just rely on the one from the bank as well and just think it will cover me as I'm under 70 or whatever it is

The 2 I have seen recently locally to me were both due to them taking out no insurance at all. One was an absolutely tragic story involving a child. I just couldn't get over how irresponsible it was. I still donated as it wasn't the child's fault.

I have seen several in the last few years where people haven't taken out any contents insurance at home either. Craziness.

No not at all. Surely if you felt so ill you would call an ambulance or get yourself to a hospital. If you call a private doctor then of course you will be charged ...

Yes- just apply for a UK GHIC card

Do you automatically call an ambulance if you have a tummy bug? Because that’s essentially what it was … until we found out it wasn’t.

Similarly on another trip many years later, my DH was unfortunate enough to be struck down with food poisoning on the day we were due to fly home. He certainly wasn’t walking to the chemist, or a medical centre, he wasn’t able to, and calling an ambulance for food poisoning isn’t really appropriate. He still needed to be seen and treated though so a call out was the only option.

The call out doctor literally walked me to a cash point before treating him. Cost me a couple of hundred euro, more than my excess. Good job we were insured though as we got the money back.

Anyway. As someone who has had to claim on insurance, and has accessed services that would be costly without insurance on more than one occasion, I would never consider travelling without it. You go ahead though, just make sure you can cover the extras without expecting me to contribute to your gofundme.

Have you looked at this? Emergency care would be covered with this

www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/
Spain health service is much similar to UK (I'd say better in some cases) and free at the point of use.
I would go, providing you have EHIC/GHIC sorted.

Great for emergency care but not for longer term treatment, medical repatriation or even in the worst scenario bringing a bady home
Also, insurance companies don't just pay, they also organise things

In the states my dad slipped and broke his arm. He also had a fit due to the pain. He needed emergency care, they also did various heart tests due to the fit but on top of that we were about 8 hrs drive from the airport, he had a hire car and was the only person able to drive it so the insurance arranged someone to collect the car and fly us to the main airport.

I get that obv it's out of Europe but my point is that he needed more than the emergency care, that bit is what the insurance would be required for

GHIC card will not pay for anything but necessary emergency treatment. If you need anything else such as specialist or long stay in hospital abroad you will not be covered nor will you be covered if a medical flight back home is required. These things are enough to bankrupt most people, not worth the risk.

Have literally never bought travel insurance in my life. Has never occurred to me!