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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
RepealMay25th · 10/04/2018 14:27

Authorisation from the government presumably? How do you know they wouldn’t give it with outstanding bills?

How do you know it would? You're the one claiming other peoples stories are not true, the onus is on you to provide something more than "cos I reckon so" to call them liars.

witchofzog · 10/04/2018 14:46

Thanks Vitamin. It's been quite a few years since I worked in travel insurance so I was wondering how mh and drinking would be dealt with now. I don't recall alcohol being a clause at all in the policies I used to deal with but there has a fair bit of media coverage on this issue over recent years.
What you say makes a lot of sense re alcohol but can and do insurers routinely check alcohol levels and if so how would this be done? I am genuinely curious as especially with the increased popularity of ai, many people will have consumed alcohol prior to something happening, and the alcohol may or may not always be a contributing factor. I bet it's a minefield!

UndomesticHousewife · 10/04/2018 14:47

Crunchy i didn’t have to answer yes to that (fortunately) but yes it’s likely they would have offered cover but excluded certain things. How terrible that someone who might have been well for a long long time gets penalised in such a way.
At least my daughter can get cover.

crunchymint · 10/04/2018 14:51

Yes I know insurers often cover depression if it is under control. That is low risk.
Relative got cover but had mental ill health excluded.

vitaminC · 10/04/2018 14:57

@witchofzog it's either mentioned on the medical report, or we often request a police report, depending on the circumstances of the accident.

I should point out that none of the doctors are directly employed by the insurers - we work for a third party are there to make an impartial decision, based on the patient's circumstances and condition. The insurers are not party to the patient's medical notes and are only given a basic outline of the patient's situation and the doctor's decision.

We apply the policy the patient signed up to, unless there is any ambiguity or doubt about whether or not the patient is covered.
99% of the time, we advocate on the patient's behalf and in their best interests. The only exceptions are when a patient has lied about the circumstances of the accident (and this emerges later through the medical reports), or about prior existence of the condition, or if the patient refuses to follow our recommendations (e.g. self-discharging from hospital against medical advice)!

thatmustbenigelwiththebrie · 10/04/2018 14:59

I have an annual travel insurance policy that also covers uk travel.

When I smashed my phone on a day out (not even when on holiday) I claimed it on the travel insurance. So it's worth having for stuff like that too.

vitaminC · 10/04/2018 14:59

Oh and deliberate self-injury (e.g. attempted suicide) is NEVER covered, under any policy I've seen!

HoppingPavlova · 10/04/2018 15:01

pavlova that headstrong young adult will need to be told the situation and accept it. They cannot bankrupt you for a holiday.

That's my ideal world but young adults are not known to be the best decision makers ............ That's why I strongly believe it should be a universal rule that you are not allowed into another country unless that country has a reciprocal health agreement with your country OR you have appropriate travel insurance. It would solve the issue of people not being able to make good decisions, especially young adults who I would suspect would be the greatest group of offenders.

It makes me angry when I see these saps begging for help to get sick relatives home when they don’t take out travel insurance. It’s a must for me.

Then you read someone wants others to dig deep to pay for there relative to get home because they can’t afford it! Well you could afford the flight to USA so you should have afforded the insurance. Maybe these relatives could sell stuff to raise the money and not go begging

Fuck me.
Yes, rationale people recognise that appropriate insurance is a must. In some circumstances 'rational' goes out the window though, especially when we are not talking about insurance premiums that can be considerably more than several thousand dollars.

At present I am lucky in that I can control my child, as I said above we can't afford the premium for them so we don't travel. Simple.
I can't control them forever and headstrong young adults are not known to be great decision makers. One day I may well be that sap begging for help. Not through any fault of my own or anything within my control but I dare you to find any normal parent who will do nothing in the event they need to pay for their adult child's medical costs in a foreign country when it goes arse up or to bring their body home. In that event I would ask for help and be grateful that anyone familiar with our situation would assist if they could. Would I expect anyone to, no of course not. But in that situation I imagine you would be desperate and pride goes out the window. I don't think selling a few things on eBay would cut it and if you don't think people in that situation are willing to sell their house etc you are deluded. I imagine most of the initial desperation, what you term begging, is due to emergency time constraints.

There is actually have a sad case in the news at the moment. It would appear a young guy went overseas, had an accident on a bike and was critically injured. He had travel insurance so it was initially assumed everything was in order but he was riding without an international drivers license thus the policy was voided due to fine print in that regard. Again, young people don't always think and it probably never occurred to him. There was crowd funding for huge initial medical costs and to have him medically evacuated home for continuing medical care. Unfortunately he did not end up making it. I would certainly never judge his family/friends as begging saps as you so kindly put it.

witchofzog · 10/04/2018 15:09

Sorry vitamin . I might be being stupid here but I imagine the police would only be involved in the event of a serious accident like the balcony example you gave. So if someone was intoxicated and fell and broke their ankle and it was a while before they could get to a hospital, it might not be able to be proven as the alcohol limits may have been reduced to a legal level by this time (providing they were not extremely extremely drunk that is). You might also get insurance savvy people who brave the pain and don't seek medical help for injuries until the alcohol has left their system (my silly ex dp did this in the UK after an injury because he was worried health professionals would judge him Hmm) I imagine these sorts of factors could also affect claims too?

vitaminC · 10/04/2018 15:11

In a case like the broken ankle, we generally don't have proof and don't pursue it. The costs are negligible anyway, compared with the balcony fall which can result in several weeks in intensive care and a Medevac flight home!

witchofzog · 10/04/2018 15:17

That makes sense vitamin. Thank you for explaining it to me 😊

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 10/04/2018 15:34

Interesting, if occasionally bad-tempered thread!

We followed the very clear and comprehensive advice on Moneysaving Expert to get cheap but comprehensive travel insurance for our last few foreign holidays. My husband has a pre-existing condition (perfectly well now, but it was not a trivial thing) so that had to be declared and I also declared a few things of my own (none current, but in for a penny, in for a pound) and the cost was nothing like as bad we'd feared. Last two policies were from getgoinginsurance.co.uk. We haven't had to claim on it so no idea how that would have panned out.

As for the wider point, this may be wishful thinking, but would it help if the Passport Office included in the application a plain English section titled something like 'THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE TRAVELLING ABROAD' which would point out:

  1. Once you leave the UK you are abroad and the laws are different - you are responsible for finding out what you can and can't do in the country you are visiting
  1. Don't drive anything including a scooter if you don't have a valid licence and insurance
  1. You are responsible for all your own health care costs abroad and the UK government won't pay for you. The best way to cover this risk is to get travel insurance. Examples given of what it costs to get treatment, repatriation etc etc. (It would do no harm to sneak in a sentence here pointing out how lucky we are in the UK to get all this funded by the taxpayer, free at the point of need.)
  1. If you get very drunk and/or take illegal drugs your insurance is likely to be invalid and you could end up in prison or barred from a flight. The UK government can't do anything about this.
  1. Explain what the consul/embassy staff can and can't do to help UK nationals in difficulty abroad.

And so on. Applicant would have to sign and say they understood this when they make the passport application.

I also think it's extremely unfair on those with serious conditions to have to pay such a huge premium for insurance cover. I'd be happy if the insurance industry had a levy on all other travel policies (it would probably only take a few pence from each policy) to subsidise the hard-to-insure a bit so they can get affordable adequate cover. (I feel the same way about those who end up needing social care - I want the state to intervene there and fund it from taxes or a special insurance arrangement - but that's a whole other thread.)

Puzzledandpissedoff · 10/04/2018 15:51

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

And yet a quick google shows reports of it happening all the time Sad

Whether the countries who tried this got anywhere is another matter of course, but as a PP said, who needs to deal with something like that when it's avoidable?

Taytocrisps · 10/04/2018 15:51

I went on a few holidays in Europe without travel insurance in my 20s. I was a bit clueless and honestly didn't realize there was such a thing as travel insurance. Thankfully there were no incidents and I came home unscathed. I don't live in the UK so I'm used to paying for medical costs but of course, my experience of paying for medical costs is paying €50 to see a GP and then something like €15 for a prescription. I had no idea that medical costs could amount to thousands (or even tens of thousands) of euros. It never occurred to me that I could die in an accident and that there might be huge costs involved in flying my body home. It simply never entered my head.

I'm older and wiser now and wouldn't dream of travelling without travel insurance. I'm aware that it can work out quite expensive for some people due to their age and/or medical conditions. But I still wouldn't travel abroad without it.

AmeliaLexi · 10/04/2018 17:27

I never buy travel insurance. Much prefer to spend it on something enjoyable on holiday.

OrlandoTheMarmaladeCat · 10/04/2018 17:38

My (late) cousin refused to have travel insurance, fell and injured himself abroad, was unconscious and without any means of paying the bills. His family in the UK had to pick up the tab including Medivac back to the UK where he went to a hospice and eventually died. The whole affair cost well over £100k. Frankly I think it is selfish to NOT have insurance, thereby passing the burden on to your nearest and dearest.

witchofzog · 10/04/2018 17:51

Really sorry about your cousin Orlando. His poor family. Amelia take note. No-one enjoys buying insurance but it is very bloody necessary

Booboo66 · 10/04/2018 17:52

Because I buy budget flights, because I can access healthcare and have somewhere to stay at no additional cost if I needed to stay longer in the country we visit. If I lose luggage it would be annoying but not the end of the world.

VladmirsPoutine · 10/04/2018 17:57

Sorry to hear that Orlando But what would have happened if the family couldn't raise 100k?

One of my parents is from another continent and whenever they visit there they never take out insurance because in their words "If anything happens to me then I'm home."

amusedbush · 10/04/2018 18:13

I never buy travel insurance. Much prefer to spend it on something enjoyable on holiday.

What a ridiculous attitude.

Tron30 · 10/04/2018 18:14

The price is not always just a few pounds. If you have had an illness before and don't suffer from it anymore the price can (and sometimes does) add up to double the price you paid for your ticket. Similarly if you are elderly.

vitaminC · 10/04/2018 18:17

Vladimir that world appear to make sense, wouldn't it, but I've had several cases where the patient had a heart attack or stroke mid-flight and the plane has made an emergency landing in a third country, offloaded the patient into the hands of the local ambulance service, then continued on!

The patient then finds themself alone in a strange country they had no intention of visiting, running up medical bills by the minute until their insurance steps in (and sometimes the embassy, if they need an emergency visa!).

It can be a nightmare for the patient and their family and much, much much worse if they don't have insurance to help them handle it all!

OrlandoTheMarmaladeCat · 10/04/2018 18:18

If the family hadn't been able to afford it, he would have been moved to a cheaper hospital in the country he was in rather than the expat friendly hospital, and he would have died out there. He was never going to recover. It was horrendous for all concerned not least his 80+ year old mother and as I say, in my opinion it is utterly selfish to put your family at risk just to save a bit of money.

VladmirsPoutine · 10/04/2018 18:19

This thread has been incredibly eye-opening. I will keep this in mind. There but for the grace of God. I've travelled extensively without insurance and the thought of bankrupting my entire (extended) family fills me with dread.

Roussette · 10/04/2018 18:27

I've had several cases where the patient had a heart attack or stroke mid-flight and the plane has made an emergency landing in a third country, offloaded the patient into the hands of the local ambulance service, then continued on!

That's happened to me twice in the last year I'm jinxed

Once was a diverted plane to another airport when a diabetic who hadn't eaten for 14 hours but only drunk alcohol (his admission) meant we had a nightmare of a journey. The second time was a ferry crossing with someone helicoptered off to another country.

Interestingly, the first case, the guy went into a long faint/unconscious but came round after two chocolate bars and insisted he was fine to carry on to the destination airport. We were at this point at least 500 miles north. The medics on board insisted he and his whole party got off the plane and it then took another 2 hours to check who owned every single cabin bag. Nightmare.