To wonder why people don't buy travel insurance?

[EveningHare]

If you can afford a holiday then you should not look at travel insurance as an optional extra

It's vital that you have it, anything could happen and if you don't have lots of money in the bank, how would you pay for it? Go fund me?

The NHS will let you die if they think you are not entitled to treatment

The "Windrush generation", who came from British Caribbean colonies to the UK 1949-1960s as children, automatically received British citizenship.
However, at that time noone bothered about documentation,

so now in their sixties, some are finding that they can't pass the NHS eligibility checks, even if they have many years of payslips, council tax receipts etc.

e.g. This elderly British man was refused cancer treatment by the NHS because he couldn't prove he was entitled to be in Britain

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/10/denied-free-nhs-cancer-care-left-die-home-office-commonwealth

Even UK expats living in Europe are only entitled to free NHS care if they are in receipt of the UK state pension.

Otherwise, they have to get insurance for their treatment in Europe just like the citizens of that country - the NHS doesn't fund them until retirement age

I'm pretty sure NHS treatment is down to your nhs number which all official uk residents have?
Our insurance is Virgin for very good level of cover at reasonable price... Around 50 for annual cover including winter sports and including a pre existing condition. They also include a wide variety of activities as standard.
One thing you should also check is what altitude you will be at, as companies don't always cover 'walking on a footpath in non residential area above 1400m' or words to that effect. And if you are going somewhere which could potentially be difficult to reach by ambulance/ a long way from a proper hospital, check that you are covered for a helicopter rescue, which otherwise often costs upwards of 30k within Europe.

Amazing some people think you can get round not bring entitled to nhs treatment by making up a gp or giving someone else’s gp details, cos the reception at a&e won’t pick that up when they type your details into their computer they’re not writing your name down on a scrap bit of paper.

I once gave my old gp’s name to the out of hours doctor by mistake soon after I moved, they said no when it went into the system

Sprinkles

When we finally got spare money to go away we treated ourselves to a holiday. The idea that if you don’t get it you can’t afford a holiday is bizarre- sometimes you can only just afford the holiday!

This is one of the most stupid things I’ve ever read on here. You surely can’t be that STUPID! If you can’t afford a few pounds for insurance you CAN’T afford the holiday! Surely you could have just had a slightly cheaper holiday and got insurance?!?

You haven’t been on the Internet long if that’s one of the stupidest things you’ve ever read nice try though

So what would you have actually done Sprinkles if one of your party needed urgent medical treatment? No-one goes away expecting this but unfortunately it can and does happen.

One of my party? What does that mean?

Look it’s all a moot point. These holidays have been taken, without incident. As mentioned I’ve also had 2 holidays with (minor) incident which didn’t necessitate a claim anyway. How can you expect someone to tell you what they’d have done if they’d broken their leg when it didn’t happen?

I broke my arm on my first holiday in France as a 4yo. My parents were glad of their insurance

You can make up a name and get free treatment at A And E - all treatment there is free to anyone from anywhere - if you have to be admitted or need investigation then you have to pay

I honestly think you shouldn't be able to complete the booking of a holiday out of this country, without putting in insurance details.

I do laugh at those who keep saying but it was fine, but nothing happened, etc etc. Yes, that is fact. Nothing happened but it's like playing chicken on a road. You can get away with it but sometimes you can't.

I think it's a complete insult to the larger family of those who risk going abroad without insurance because they're the ones who will have to sell their car, find the money, pick up the pieces but hey... if it doesnt worry you... up to you

One of your party means one of your family or other people whom you travel with. It isn't a moot point because you posted on here with your opinion so it is not an unreasonable question to wonder what you would have done. I would not want anyone to be in some of the situations I encountered a few years ago because they are utterly terrifying

My grandfather died on holiday. He had no insurance. Repatriating a body is not cheap.

My ds learnt the value of travel insurance young. At 17 he was going on holiday with gf , 3 day before she got a clot on the lung so holiday was cancelled. He thankfully got full price of holiday back.

I honestly think you shouldn't be able to complete the booking of a holiday out of this country, without putting in insurance details.

most cruise holidays have this as their booking requirement already.

I honestly think you shouldn't be able to complete the booking of a holiday out of this country, without putting in insurance details

Sounds sensible, but the trouble with that is that, unless you always have annual travel insurance, people will be pressured/compelled to take the airline or tour operator's insurance at the time of booking, possibly not at the best price or being able to make sure it is suitable depending on any pre-existing conditions or planned activities.

When you're trying to book flights that could get more expensive if you don't book now the last thing you want to have to do is read through the small print in travel insurance policies.

I agree with the principle that travel insurance should be 'compulsory' and you should get it as soon as you book your trip though. We currently have an annual policy, as we go away usually 3 times a year and we're borderline as to it being cheaper. From the numbers I've seen, if you go away twice, it's probably cheaper to get two single trip policies, but for three trips then annual will be about the same or cheaper.

But we’ve always had to pay a bit more than the often bargain basement prices quoted on here or on the likes of Moneysaving expert, eg £10 a for single trip to Europe or £20 for annual policies.

Our ‘standard’ holiday is a week in Europe for a 40 something couple and it’s always been more like £15 for a single trip or £35 for an annual policy and I do shop around, but I’m wary of taking the cheapest policy on the comparison site from a company I’ve never heard of.

And now that we scuba dive to depths that are slightly deeper than standard I'm extra cautious about making sure we're covered (most policies that include scuba diving allow to 30 metres and we can go to 35) and seeing as we all wear depth gauges, the insurance company will always be at liberty to ask for the data from the dive where any accident happened. Deeper than the limit on the policy = no payout.

The costs if we required a helicopter trip to a decompression chamber could be tens of thousands in certain countries and might not be covered on basic policies. Similar for ski-ing or other high risk winter sports. Always make sure it covers the exact sort of sport you will be doing and it covers things like helicopter rescue if needed.

So what exactly counts as a pre-existing medical condition? I can see why chronic terminal illnesses are but what about the following?

Asthma
Hay fever
Isotretin for acne
antibiotics for acne
Depression
Kidney stones
Injured back in the last 6 months

Are these all supposed to be declared then?

It has historically been pretty easy for visiting expats to use the NHS despite not being entitled to it, especially if they're obviously White British. The NHS is now trying to crack down on this, but it's not exactly happening across the board. I would imagine some areas are much more used to checking people's eligibility for treatment than others.

It's true that insurance for Europe wouldn't be quite at the same level as Australia for my dm, but as she goes for longer, it would still be prohibitive. As for an annual policy, not a snowballs chance in hell she'd get one. Tbh I was pretty shocked, my first thought when she told me was don't be silly, there'll be specialist insurers you haven't contacted, and have you seen the Macmillan advice, etc. Well, there weren't, and she had. The reality is that having had certain cancers just make you virtually untouchable from an insurers perspective. After Brexit there will be people stuck in this country unable to travel, that's the reality of it if ehic disappears. Ehic isn't ideal but it is at least a safety net, in most European countries it will get you emergency care without bankrupting you.

“Today 08:11 witchofzog

One of your party means one of your family or other people whom you travel with. It isn't a moot point because you posted on here with your opinion so it is not an unreasonable question to wonder what you would have done. I would not want anyone to be in some of the situations I encountered a few years ago because they are utterly terrifying”

I thought thats what you meant. If I were traveling with a friend I don’t have any responsibility for their medical care. Why would my insurance pay out for them anyway? I didn’t have a family of my own back then.

As for what I would’ve done it totally depends on the situation- either paid for treatment, put it on a credit card, taken out a loan or die from my injuries I guess. Certainly not go fund me- posters here don’t quite seem to realise that isn’t a normal way of paying holiday related bills.

@feistyfifties yes, all of those.
Anything you've been treated for by a doctor or hospitalised for (in recent years - no need to mention things you had as a child, for example).

And you won't necessarily be penalised for what you do declare, but it may not be covered if there's a reoccurrence while you're away, so best to be honest.

Yes please Roussette, it might well be worth looking into. Thanks

In EU you don’t really need it if you’re healthy

Health has nothing to do with it! I have travel insurance - we get annual cover as go away more than once a year and it works out cheaper, even though I have ore existing medical conditions.

A few years back I fell in holiday - slipped by the pool just walking into the house. Complete accident. I dislocated my elbow and sprained my fingers, with a slight chance of a fracture of one finger too.

The nearest hospitals wouldn't accept EHIC cards - I'd have had to travel an hour to the centre to access that. As it was as soon as they had my insurance details I was treated wit my excellent care and the full range of x-rays, cast and splint applied, medication, etc as well as them checking against my pre existing condition and medication. Would have been over £1000 just for that - a relatively short A&E trip.

Years ago my sister fell on holiday as a teen. Needed an operation on her leg, treatment before and after, an early flight home with a full tow to herself, medical assistance at both airports, etc. The old E111 wouldn't have covered her and without travel insurance it would have been several thousand. For the sake of a few pounds added to her holiday it saved her (or my parents) a lot of money!

You wouldn't be responsible for friends no Sprinkles but in an emergency claim situation you would probably be in no fit state to apply for a loan. Your credit card may cover some or all of it, or alternatively it may not even begin to make a dent in the cost of your treatment. It is not usually the injured party with the go fund me account. It is normally the family or friends back home who do this out of desperation. As per a previous poster, I also came across a family with a teenager who hadn't taken out insurance long enough for a backpacking holiday and he had a nasty road accident in Asia. This was in the days before go fund me was a thing. His family also had to try to sell their home to get their son back to the UK. They were beside themselves. They had probably worked hard all of their lives just to lose their home because their son didn't think he should extend his cover when he decided to stay for longer. It often doesn't just affect the person travelling.

Well my risk paid off and I’m still so glad I took those holidays. In 7 years of absolute hell, those couple of breaks were probbaly the only thing that kept me from a complete nervous breakdown. So nice as it has been to get an lecture from a bossy total stranger, it’s really not helpful to the discussion about why people don’t take out insurance