Holiday insurance.. why don't people get it?

[15February1960]

Reading so much lately about people going abroad on holiday without insurance.. then setting up Go Fund Me to help.. Then people even in the UK having to cancel holidays because of illness etc leaving them or friends out of pocket.. why don't people think to get insurance even if you live in the UK and are holidaying in the UK? I have annual insurance that covers abroad and the UK..

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I've always got it when I was younger but I found it very complicated for our last trip now I'm old and I couldn't be strictly honest and still get it. I ended up feeling I wasn't sure if we were really covered even though I paid several hundred pounds. Things like minor issues I'd mentioned at GP appointments so might be on my record, ie back pain, but hadn't had investigated further or diagnosed because it was minor, things I know the cause of like numbness due to nerve damage from surgery but have never mentioned to a doctor, if I ticked numbness or back pain I couldn't buy the insurance because I hadn't finished sorting it out and don't intend to. In the end I had to leave them out and hope for the best.

I’m an insurance broker and I find travel insurance complicated! I may have to claim on mine, in a few days (keeping my fingers and toes crossed I don’t) but, at least I had the forethought to include my friend, who I’m travelling with, because she thought the holiday automatically included it.
People don’t read their policies so wonder why they’re not covered when they go on benders or decide to use a local motorcycle!
We’ve had people complain about not being covered for cycling competitions, I’m not a mind reader, when they’ve not mentioned they’re going to cycle let alone take part in a competition!

They think bad things only happen to other people
They don't understand that we left The EU so lost some rights
They think that The British Embassy is there for this sort of thing
They think a British passport gives them some sort of special status
They dont understand what it covers (when DD went away on her first holiday without us she wasn't going to bother as she wasn't taking valuables)
They are so used to The NHS that they assume they can get free healthcare everywhere
They are entitled
They are stupid
They don't consider it an integral cost of the holiday

I often wonder if all the people travelling to Turkey for cosmetic surgeries have any form of insurance? I’m guessing not but could be wrong

I have cover through my bank account and both DH have some health conditions, we called them and these are now covered and only cost us £30. I used to work in insurance and so know the value it has.
The number of people who assume it won't happen to them or only take the insurance out just before they go, don't disclose medical conditions is ridiculous. The ones who non-disclose are then shocked when their claim is rejected and those without then start the online gofund me.
Insurance should just be a part of going on holiday, if it's really expensive either go elsewhere for the insurance, go elsewhere where treatment might be cheaper so brings down insurance costs or self insure. Have the money yourself to cover any costs (or your family has the money). However, don't expect others to pay for your bills.

I think a lot of people probably fall foul of the complexity of it all, even if you are fully literate, reasonably knowledgeable etc it can be quite overwhelming with so many different factors to be considered, let alone if you have any sort of language difficulty or similar. The industry could really do with some standardisation. A PP mentioned elderly parents, I was trying to do holiday insurance with a broker once and mentioned that my Dad had had a stroke earlier in the year, he was fine again by then but we had the discussion about paying out in the event of the death or serious illness of an elderly parent and he said if it looked to be possible at the time of taking out the policy you need to declare it, but who thinks of all these things.

There have also been stories in the news that insurance hasn't paid out because HRT hadn't been declared. Now people know this they can declare it but that is the sort of thing that would be missed when buying insurance

We have never, ever risked not having holiday insurance - either for holidays in the UK, or abroad.

Over the years:

1. My DH was hospitalised whilst abroad for almost a week.
2. We had to fly back a few days early once due to a very close family member being taken seriously ill.
3. We had to cancel one holiday due to my DH being taken ill very suddenly.

Thankfully, all of this was covered by our holiday insurance.

Many reasons, just two of which are: some people can't get insurance and some people prefer to self insure (ie. have the funds available to pay if something goes wrong).

It's also shockingly difficult to claim with some companies, which may put people off. 20 years ago, I received a claim form as part of the travel insurance documentation, or just sent an email with the details and received reimbursement. Now there's no form available with the docs, nothing on the website, I have to call to request a form, which involves at least 40minutes on hold, only for the call to mysteriously cut out just when I'm about to give my email address for the form to be sent to...then if I ever get the form, it's horrendously complicated.

Yes they are idiots or ignorant generally if they end up on go fund me. But on your second point I disagree. My DF has medical conditions which make insurance totally unaffordable. But he still travels (not to anywhere remotely adventurous), has a credit card with a fat credit limit and totally understands and accepts the risks. He'd never ever expect anyone outsie immediate family to help him out.

A lot of people have multi trip insurance coverage from bank accounts and other policies so the norm of buying it has stopped for many. Plus most people think in terms of “having to be flown home” or “sick on holiday” or “lost bag” so if they are travelling by car and not handing over their luggage to anyone else, they’ll risk the ghic coverage being enough.

It can be very difficult to get proper cover, there are always surprises in a claim. If over 65 even without any pre existing conditions the cost is often the same if not more than the flight. If you have existing conditions whether or not over 65, the cost can be prohibitive. But I'd rather not travel than go without insurance TBH.

Many say that once you go to a reciprocal country or one that accepts the GHIC, well then you're ok. In most circumstances yes if it's an emergency and you need A+E, but not for other things like GP and drug charges. The biggest issue non insured forget is that even if you are treated under a reciprocal arrangement, the danger is that you might need medivac to get you home. What do you do then? Or if you die abroad, how to repatriate your body? I suppose one could be cremated abroad, but still.

I'm over 65 and have some existing medical conditions. I won't travel without insurance though. It's peace of mind for me and I don't mind paying for it. Mind you I have PHI and an annual travel insurance package is available with that, and in my case pre existing conditions are not a factor in the cost, which is 165 per year. A bargain I reckon. But not everyone has PHI either, so I don't know....

I'm going on a holiday soon where I had to give details of my insurance or they wouldn't let me go. It is a slightly "off the beaten track" type of holiday but I was interested that I had to give the details (& glad they insist).

UK holidays often only cover a minimum stay of 2+ nights. Add in a excess per person and it isn't necessarily worth it, especially if transport is covered by breakdown cover and possessions by home insurance.

Not really. I’ve had holidays when I’ve felt well enough in between my treatments for cancer and other major health issues. A call to your insurance provider before travel to update your records is all it takes.

We don't bother for Europe, just have GHIC card. If one of us died we'd never bother flying the body home, we'd have a local cremation. Most of the time we're in Spain as we have a house there so would just stay there if required. For long haul trips we do get it though.

@savemetoo do you have the funds to pay up front and claim back later?

Well if you find it complicated god help the ordinary Joe and Jane!

Seriously though if you’re an insurance broker, don’t the insurers KNOW how complex their documents and terms are? I mean don’t they consider giving real value to their customers by trying to understand that it is a nightmare trawling through their stuff? And as an industry doing something about it? I somehow expect not as so long as premiums get paid and they can refuse claims on detail they are winning financially.

I’m not joking that even with a blasted spreadsheet it was impossible to compare similar aspects because they tended to be just oh so slightly different. And trying to remember EVERY SINGLE time a doctor has been consulted over last 3 or 5 years, do people really keep track of this especially the small stuff, if not, I don’t think we should be taking up precious GP surgery resources asking for sets of records for our trip to Spain or whatever. But if our memory should innocently fail us that invalidates the insurance.

The insurance ombudsman would ensure that an insurer paid out if it was a broken leg that the hrt would have made no difference but most people wouldn’t think to go through the process.

What about WLIs bought privately?

yay … everything is the issue here when you have a complex health history.

Yes I can find a hols insurance to cover me. I can pay. I also have no doubt theyd find a reason to not pay tbh……

It wouldn’t help when people are abroad agd struggling though. You’d still get the GoFundMe going 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Which is the whole point. You’re still stuck abroad with or without insurrance

Because travel insurance is a con. If they can get out of paying they will. If you go to the EU take your GHIC card with you and put money away each year to pay for that extra flight home in an emergency. I had an annual Europe policy with Saga - quite a high premium as I'm on various pills for routine 'old people' stuff. Breast cancer diagnosed 3 weeks b4 I was due to go on family holiday, rang and told them....they cancelled my annual policy on the spot (refunded the 3 months' premium left that I'd already paid) and then quoted me £890 for 10 days in Spain. Robbing Bastards. How does that work if you've committed for the year? Since then we fly cheaply to Europe and stay somewhere that we can cancel so if something stops us going....hey ho, we've saved our spending money. Also, we're lucky enough to have savings that would cover anything dreadful. We're of an age that one of us always has something minor going on at the docs and the Robbing Bastards just don't want to take the risk of having to pay out.

Thats selfish of them, because if it had all gone pear shaped you would have had a very expensive situation to sort out!