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.

One of the gofundme pages near where I live was for a young child who ended up in hospital and diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. This was somewhere in Europe and they would not continue treatment unless the family could pay and due to not having insurance they couldn't fly home either. It was tragic, but completely preventable. I can't actually remember 100% but I believe he passed away out there so the gofundme paid to bring him home. So so sad.

I am gobsmacked? Where have you travelled to?

It is pretty well advertised, even booking a flight it prompts you every time.

There is a woman trying to raise £6000 in my local area today as her H died in Spain and she didn't realise he didn't have insurance apparently
Its a daily occurance

She'd be better getting him cremated in Spain and bring the ashes back.

Possibly but she will have to navigate all that in a foreign language anyway so its still a bit of a nightmare.
There are always people stuck abroad somewhere raising money for medical bills who didn't bother with insurance. I have told my DC NEVER to travel without it, DD went on her first solo holiday with her BF recently and she said she only thought about it in relation to getting things stolen rather than anything medical.

I would never travel without insurance…..I have also drummed this into my children

It also prompts you to book seats, hire a car, pay for luggage etc etc, I don't do any of that either! Maybe I should. Have travelled all over in the past but mostly Europe lately - this year been to Morocco, Spain & Croatia. I don't have contents insurance either thinking about it.

You have been very lucky.

I just cannot believe anyone would travel without it. There are enough horror stories on here to convince you it's necessary surely? I go away 3-4 times a year and have done for over 20 years and have only used missed flight insurance part of the insurance once, really useful as it was £9 and the flight was just rearranged with no hassle for a different airport (other airport snowed in). Our friends all had to pay out for new flights as it was only covered if you had the missed flight part, other time was for missed port insurance on a cruise so actually not massive things to claim for but I know so many people who have had to claim for huge sums of money due to illness.

I guess with contents insurance, as long as you have enough money to completely replace all your contents, furnishings etc if you had a house fire then that's down to you but the number of gofundmes I see when that happens is disgraceful. You're probably talking 20-30k to replace everything though, possibly more.

Same, I actually would think a lot less of someone who does not deem it necessary. Imagine travelling with your partner or kids and you falling ill abroad without insurance. What sort of person would put their family through that.

Apologies if already mentioned but isn’t cancer in situ, stage zero? I thought stage 1 was first stage of invasive cancer that has started to spread into surrounding tissue?

And doesn’t grade 1 simply mean it is slow growing? But could be any stage?

Check your diagnosis because you may be confusing grade with stage and that is why your quotes are very high?

Statistics suggest otherwise! More like I have not been very unlucky.

The thing is that its massively selfish for your family. Even if you are lucky enough to have a space few hundred k lying around how is it OK to put your family through having to try and access money to try and get you medical care or worse yo get your body home rather than paying £20 at most for insurance.

Its unlikely for major stuff but minor stuff that causes travel disruption isn't that rare.

A house fire is unlikely but I still have buildings insurance, its probably less likely that getting inhured or unwell on holiday.

I read somewhere that a third of travellers do not have insurance.

A third that is madness.
I can't believe it's that high. Unless they are including UK travel because I get lots of people wouldn't bother with insurance for UK holidays.

Just keep an eye on SM and all the Just Giving appeals for people who didn't get Travel Insurance (or who lied to get it and got found out) and you will believe that a lot of people don't get it

rather than paying £20 at most for insurance

The thing is, though, it's not £20 once you start getting more medically complex. It's hundreds. Or it's £20 but excludes all pre-existing conditions, or any currently under investigation, or anything you've seen the GP about in the past 2 or 5 years, or whatever each insurer specifies. It's not just 'tick one box for the whole family and go' any more.

Yes, I could well believe that people don't bother for UK holidays (I wouldn't).

The thing about insurance is that most people never use it. In a few cases it's compulsory such as car insurance.
If you are wealthy enough to meet very high unplanned costs you don't need it but just because you have never needed it doesn't mean you never will.
If your house burnt down and you could afford to replace everything then you might choose not to have insurance.
I don't believe in insurance for things I could afford to replace such as kitchen appliances. However if DH was hit by a bus or has a heart attack on holiday the costs could run into 6 figures. That makes insurance worthwhile.

We did actually go to Spain for two weeks without insurance - only realised when we had a problem returning to UK as DH lost his passport and we had a lot of extra charges relating to this - we looked to see if we could claim, then realised hadn't booked it. Just an oversight. And its an odd one because if we'd booked insurance at the same time as we booked our flights/ accommodation we would have been fine but in actual fact at the time of travelling DH had a cancer diagnosis and an operation booked for when we returned .

Possibly not, if there is a major change between taking out insurance and travelling I think you are supposed to update the insurance company.
I do hope your DH is doing OK though

Arrgh, this is a HUGE bugbear of mine, and cancer patients get a really crap deal when it comes to travel insurance. You have my sympathy, OP.

I had endometrial cancer five years ago, stage 1, and it was completely treated, full hysterectomy, and basically NO chance whatsoever that I could have a cancer-related medical emergency while on holiday.

But I really struggled to get insurance for all the things I DID want covered (car accident, illness etc) because 99% of insurance companies can't look beyond a cancer diagnosis.

I would have happily listed it as an exclusion, but most wouldn't consider that either.

There's absolutely no "nuance". I was lumped together with people with active/terminal/progressive/stage 4 cancer - the sort that really could result in an emergency.

I did end up with Staysure in the end, and found an annual policy was better value, but I am delighted to have hit the five-year mark so I can start saying "no" to that important question.

Still doesn't excuse not having insurance.

Yes he's fine thank you @Hoppinggreen . Successful operation with no need for further treatment, just yearly blood tests. We are definitely more in top of booking insurance now - I think it got missed as we normally book the different aspects of our holiday separately ie accommodation, flights, car hire etc .

@CointreauVersial
Most "pre-existing conditions" mean anything you have seen a doctor for or taken prescription drugs for in the last two years.

Unfortunately I don't think you can ever tick no to a cancer history or anything heart related. I had breast cancer and I am 5 years clear now but every insurance company I've looked at says have you ever had a cancer diagnosis. The follow on questions clarify that it's 5 years plus.