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?

No it’s not likely at all.

sprinkles what’s not likely?

We always get it. It makes sense.

Surely a body wouldn't be released if you'd decided not to pay the medical bills?

Sorry nicknacy just read you said that!

I wouldn’t think it would be becuase otherwise why would people bother to not have medical insurance if there were no consequences? They get treated and the decade is released back to them? I could be wrong though.

How could a hospital with hold a body for payment, when there is no debtor? The debtor is dead. Family aren’t legally obliged to settle medical bills for adults. I would be stunned if any country officially did this (not saying there aren’t plenty of corrupt nations who say one thing and practise another)

he debtor is dead. Family aren’t legally obliged to settle medical bills for adults. I would be stunned if any country officially did this

The family may be legally obliged to pay the debt in other countries.

A body can not be repatriated without payment. The body would simply I assume be buried in a pauper or mass grave abroad if no payment was forthcoming.

“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?”

Oh ok brownelephant you’re right. I’d sell my house and pay hundreds of thousands of pounds I have no obligation to pay to a US hospital for a patient who is dead just in case I need to travel to New York for work. Of course. I’ll let my children know that’s why they didn’t have a home 🤣

The debtor may be dead but there are next of kin. And quite frankly who wants the stress of having to deal with unpaid bills when insurance will deal with it all?

I also wish that people wouldn’t say “it’s madness – if you can afford a holiday, you can afford £20 travel insurance”. That isn’t how it works. I have a MH condition I’ve been hospitalised for in the past. I am now stable, on medication, and haven’t had a full blown episode in some time. That doesn’t matter. For the rest of my life, if I never have another bout of mental illness again, I will be unable to get cheap travel insurance. A weekend abroad will cost me £200+ - often more than the whole cost of the holiday.

I know I don’t have a right to travel blah blah blah but it’s still very frustrating to mentally double the cost of a long weekend in Paris, for example, just because I was once unwell. I can’t even get travel insurance to cover the cost of a broken leg! I totally get why some people would want to take the risk and skip it sometimes. It’s shit, being often effectively priced out of something as simple as a holiday abroad for the rest of your life because you’ve been unwell. And it’s extra frustrating when people pontificate about how cheap travel insurance is.

I think ultimately the people who don't bother to get insurance generally, whether that's home or travel insurance, are those that think 'it won't happen to them'.

Some people are lucky and it doesn't happen to them so continue to go through life without insurance. Whilst others find out to their cost that they should have got it and then expect others to bail them out. I guess where friends and family can't or won't help they would have to resort to the crowd funding approach.

But that can’t be enforced in the U.K. repeal. Which is presumably, where said family are.

sprinkles You might not care if the patient remains where they are if you can’t pay the bills but you can understand if it was someone’s child. Would you go home and leave the body of your child to be buried or cremated in another country?

Well you don’t want the stress niknacky but the whole point of the discussion is that the dead person didn’t have any insurance.

But that can’t be enforced in the U.K. repeal. Which is presumably, where said family are

But they can be forced in the country, which is where the body is! that's the point.

Eena I’m well aware not all insurance is cheap. We had to put aside £5.8k for my mums. £1800 for the policy and the rest as an excess. We still wouldn’t have travelled without it.

No, repatriation is different to paying the outstanding medical bills. They aren’t the same thing. You pay a company to handle the repatriation for you (let’s say £20k, China, the most expensive country according to the telegraph)

You’re suggesting the hospital would refuse to release the body until the medical bills were settled. I think that’s highly unlikely.

I also wish that people wouldn’t say “it’s madness – if you can afford a holiday, you can afford £20 travel insurance”.

I would rephrase it as it's madness to think you can afford a holiday abroad if you can't afford the insurance.

I also think that part of it is because in the UK many people do not understand the true cost of medical care.

I’ve suggested it’s a possibility which a google states it also is, but thankfully I’ve never been in that position but I think you are wrong for saying the examples people have given must me exaggerated.

Every country will be different.

With all due respect Eena, have you shopped around? I am over 60, (DH 70 soon), he had a heart problem, we have a worldwide excluding US yearly policy for less than you are saying, and I bet you're a lot younger than me.

Yes google also states it’s illegal in the countries you mention come up- Uruguay and the Philippines. Doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try it of course.

I will say I spend hours researching policies. Because we love to travel, we won't go without insurance, and I don't want to pay ridiculous amounts.

Whoever is suggesting just don't pay the medical bills is potty. You would never be able to travel to that country again, why would you let that happen?