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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why people don't buy travel insurance?

622 replies

EveningHare · 09/04/2018 07:05

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?

OP posts:
Roussette · 10/04/2018 11:22

OK Repeal I didn't know that. But that of course won't apply to most on here.

Roussette · 10/04/2018 11:23

Maybe it's if you have dual citizenship

RepealMay25th · 10/04/2018 11:25

I'm not a UK citizen.

And there are plenty of reasons. If someone works in one country and regularly flies home to family in another EU country, why would they need insurance to go home? That's just one reason.

marchin1984 · 10/04/2018 11:27

All the horror stories are medical issues.

Are there reasons to get travel insurance? We usually book flight and accommodation separately, and we usually don't get package deals. So, if you have to cancel the whole trip it's only 1500 quid down the toilet.

I totally understand about medical reasons. You don't want to mess with that. Bills can get out of control fast.

user1486062886 · 10/04/2018 11:27

Sorry if it’s been mentioned before, what do the NHS do when people from other countries require medical treatment in this country, I can’t imagine that there is anybody checking their travel insurance

BarbarianMum · 10/04/2018 11:28

It's not just about dual citizenship. I have dual citizenship but that doesn't entitle me to free healthcare in the country I don't live in because I don't have an insurance plan there. And in lots of EU countries eveyone pays for the equivalent of GP appointments.

RepealMay25th · 10/04/2018 11:31

I have dual citizenship but that doesn't entitle me to free healthcare in the country I don't live in because I don't have an insurance plan there

In some countries there is the option to keep your insurance up to date even while living abroad, and in others it doesn't lapse for quite a while, and in still others you are entitled unless you permanently relocate elsewhere.
There are lots of different systems.

Point being, you couldn't make it compulsory to have insurance to book a flight.

Prisonhistory1 · 10/04/2018 11:33

I travel alot, I have travel insurance, why wouldn't you ??? I've seen stories in the news where people have been taken I'll on holiday with no insurance and hospitals asking for 50+k bills plus transport. Where families are asking people to crowd fund payments, absolute madness !

Roussette · 10/04/2018 11:33

I am Shock at the Bangor woman. The house was absolutely everything to he, it was her family home that she'd lovingly restored, and yet she didn't have insurance??? And surely it is illegal to Airbnb without insurance. Her crowdfunding doesn't appear to be working very well, I'm not surprised.

Insurance is something we all love to hate but unfortunately we don't have a lot of choice

UndomesticHousewife · 10/04/2018 11:35

Frogsoup you are so right, we will pay the expensive insurance because otherwise what do I say to my daughter we can’t go on holiday is your cancer is costing us too much?!

If anyone’s taking any medication or has asthma or any sort of condition however minor you think it is you should at least declare it. Most cases it will have no effect on the price of the policy or whether they’ll cover you but it might mean you’re not covered.

You think that you don’t need it but dd was diagnosed a week before I was going away and I had to cancel. Tests started a month before that, I didn’t have insurance yet and couldn’t then take some out because they wouldn’t have covered it so I lost the money. Not a massive amount as the whole family weren’t going but enough.
Now we’re insured the day I book anything and changed bank account so I’m covered.

UndomesticHousewife · 10/04/2018 11:36

Obviously I couldn’t have cared less about the money!! But just saying that you don’t know what’s going to happen.

MultiGrey · 10/04/2018 11:39

A distant relative went abroad with no insurance as he felt at £400 (he had cancer) that it was too expensive.

He fell ill from something totally unrelated and received the bare minimum to keep him alive whilst the family sorted out how they would pay for the already mounting bills.

He was in hospital for three weeks before he died. The family home had to be sold to pay the medical bills but didn't leave enough to pay for repatriation of the body, so the authorities there cremated him. His widow now has no home to go back to and massive amounts of debt.

Prisonhistory1 · 10/04/2018 11:40

I also take some emergency credit\money. Who remembers all the delays caused by the volcano ash clouds ? You can get volcano added onto your travel insurance. I also enjoy a couple of sports abroad and this is also covered on the travel insurance

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 10/04/2018 11:43

I’m struggling to believe some of these stories- maybe they’ve got a bit urban legandy? How could a business in a foreign country get a house here repossessed (that is even assuming the dead patient was the sole owner, half these people have partners who seem to have been made homeless who you’d usually expect to own half the property therefore sale couldn’t be forced)

You may want to pay these bills and choose to sell your house to pay them off (mad) but how could the dead persons family be forced to pay for anything that’s outside of the dead persons sole estate?

Plus, it’s very very very hard to enforce a court order for a debt in a foreign country.

Nicknacky · 10/04/2018 11:45

sprinkle Why are you struggling to believe it? I don’t think anyone said the houses were repossessed because that clearly can’t happen but families have had to sell them to raise the vast amounts of money needed.

FancyABrewOrTwo · 10/04/2018 11:47

I think a lot of people also get insurance and don't read the small print.

I am fortunate in that my insurance covers all preexisting illnesses except for a few cases such as terminal or drug abuse. However I still read the t&cs over and over just in case I have missed anything. As for sports they usually list those that they cover. I was investigating sea kayaking which most don't cover but then found a company where you could just insure yourself for those type of activities and it was really cheap as it was a 'bolt on' so you had to have normal travel insurance but then this covered all medical bills for anything that happened when you were participating in the actual sport.

UndomesticHousewife · 10/04/2018 11:48

I have dual citizenship but I’m not entitled to treatment in that country where I was born and have a birth certificate because I don’t live there!

If you work in or country and regularly fly home to another country you will get your health care in your home country. Fine if you can get on a plane and go to the doctor, maybe not so fine if you have an accident and are seriously injured in the non resident country.

An EHIC card entitled people to the same level of treatment as people who live in that country. If they pay for things then so do you. It’s not a free health care and medical treatment card.

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 10/04/2018 11:48

But why would you? If my father passed away in America I wouldn’t be selling my own home to pay his medical bills. They can’t be enforced so why would you?

Getting the body back is of course different and many people would try very hard to do that for obvious reasons. But that’s not exactly house selling homeless type cash. A quick google reveals between £2-£20k.

Nicknacky · 10/04/2018 11:49

Ok so you wouldn’t but many people would want their loved ones back to bury/cremate them. I wouldn’t want my husband buried overseas for the sake of my kids, not me.

I don’t think you can get an accurate figure by google!!

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 10/04/2018 11:51

Yes, I would want to get the body back. I wouldn’t pay the outstanding medical bills.

Source was a recent telegraph article, first return.

EenaMinaMoe · 10/04/2018 11:52

feistyfifties - yes, all of those. And some can make a very unpleasant major dent in your wallet as soon as you mention them.

FancyABrewOrTwo · 10/04/2018 11:52

Sprinkles I think the real issue is not if someone died (as you could decide to bury/cremate then there to save on cost) but if they were seriously ill such as needing HDU or ITU where there is no way to get them back home but equally the bills will be mounting up and people will be under pressure to find the money.

Nicknacky · 10/04/2018 11:52

I have no idea of the legal ins and outs as thankfully I always use insurance. But is it possible bodies might not be released to families without all bills being paid?

RepealMay25th · 10/04/2018 11:53

I have dual citizenship but I’m not entitled to treatment in that country where I was born and have a birth certificate because I don’t live there!

You have understood that not every country is the same though, yes?

brownelephant · 10/04/2018 11:59

But why would you? If my father passed away in America I wouldn’t be selling my own home to pay his medical bills. They can’t be enforced so why would you?

even if that would mean that you could never travel to a country again without settling the bill? what if that meant you coudn't travel there for work?

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