Fundraisers for people who have gone on holiday without travel insurance.

[Sharksbees]

Prepared to get flamed but Aibu to think not paying for travel insurance and expecting people to pick up the bill if you are ill is cheeky?

I might be a total bitch but our local media and Facebook groups seems to always have at least one of these fundraisers to bring people home because they've taken ill and have no travel insurance.

I know I don't have to contribute but surely if you can afford a 2K holiday you can afford travel insurance? Ours costs a fortune because we all have medical issues but I wouldn't dream of going without it. If I can't afford it (and this has been the case) we have travelled in the UK instead and if you don't have issues it's as little as £13!

I'm not talking about those where they have taken insurance and it won't pay out BTW but more those who put their pictures up drinking pints of beer but have no insurance.

“Sick to death” @DollyWilde? You’re totally over invested

Total morons.

I contributed to a crowdfunder for a woman who doesn't make a lot of money whose idiot (adult) son did something incredibly stupid abroad and had to be airlifted back.

I actually can't even bear to look at him anymore, he's caused his lovely, considerate mother such angst.

I do realise that insurance is a bit dull, but it's also non-negotiable.

Totally agree. Travel insurance is a no brainer. While the EHIC is great, and I do have one, it only provides you will the sa,e access to health care as locals. It won’t cover costs to get home if you are injured or killed.

If people want to take this risk then that is their business. They shouldn’t ask people to cover their costs when it goes wrong

Often these people do have travel insurance but they don't have the right cover for an activity they were doing. I had to take out hazardous activity insurance because we were going riding on holiday and there were loads of things that weren't covered by our normal insurance. It's so easy when you get somewhere just to do something without realising you are not covered.

Or sometimes the company get out of paying out. I read about one young man who was badly injured abroad but he'd had a drink. He wasn't drunk but the insurance company refused to pay out because he had been drinking.

It isn’t always that they don’t have insurance but in the case of family member, they lied/omitted serious medical condition on the insurance to save money. Then it needed to be investigated which took ages. So in the interim, until pay out you may need to find the money for repat/accommodation/flights/etc etc and HOPE it may pay out

It didn’t and neither did life insurance (same omission) and now having to sell their house

All to save money short term was very foolish and makes me very annoyed

@Lockheart

Free in this country

But if you were American, would you then have a problem with it?

Someone I know has a teenage daughter with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She took her to the Dominican Republic without travel insurance because the premiums were too high.

She forked out about £10k or more for an AI holiday for herself and 4 kids, but wouldn't pay for insurance for the child that has fairly frequent emergency treatment for spontaneous dislocations.

We were just in Austria 1400 metres up a mountain in a series of 3 villages. The healthcare system up there was a system of 3 private clinics - the EHIC card was not accepted.

DS got viral tonsillitis and had a febrile convulsion. The level of care he received at the private clinics was outstanding. Including return appointments to check on him. All in all it cost £420. I have travel insurance as part of my bank account. When I got home I rang them and without seeing documentation all but the £50 excess was back in my account a week later. The whole medical system for the area relied on everyone having insurance (be it travel or private due to living there). Not once was it questioned and all the paperwork handed over was to ensure it was paid back.

When I claimed it back I was surprised on paperwork was needed. He said unless it was a 4 figure plus claim or you had made or were making multiple claims (so looked suspicious) they put it through without question.

If you're getting medical coverage for a visit to the US it's preferable to get it from a US based company. Your insurance card will go through much easier. When it's from a UK based insurer patient accounting has to get involved and approve everything.

Don’t forget if you have annual insurance through your bank you need to keep them updated about any health concerns throughout the year,

My parents went on holiday in EU with insurance but didn’t declare an illness my dad had had. He was unwell there and went to a doctors clinic who called an ambulance which went to a private hospital not a state one where he could have used his EHIC. He was in hospital for 3 nights having various tests and discharged. It was unrelated to any previous medical history. He came home to a bill of £3500, the insurance refused to pay so he coughed up.

Our parents have now told us that if either of them die abroad to have them cremated there and scatter their ashes in the sea. I don’t know if that’s even allowed.

@glintandglide

Hyperbole, meet Glint and Glide. Glint and Glide, meet hyperbole. But reading the same thread every week during the summer is somewhat tedious, and I don’t know why so many people seem to think insurance isn’t necessary until the day before they travel.

I completely agree with you OP. Also, it’s not just the money. Our car broke down in mainland Europe a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t be fixed quickly. We needed it towed to the garage, 3 hire cars in 3 different countries, taxis, new crossing tickets etc etc. Then there’s the job of having the car repatriated. We wouldn’t have had a clue where to start organising all that but one call and everything was arranged for us.

"Wriggling out of paying" = discovering that there wasn't full disclosure which would have adjusted the premiums if it had been disclosed.

Insurance IS crowd funding. Organised in advance, with a contribution proportional to the probability of needing to be on the receiving end, and with a cut taken off to pay for those who administer it and compensate for the risk.

Therefore anyone who doesn't pay the premium to join the official and well-organised version properly - instead trying to either pay in less by not declaring full circumstances or not paying in at all and wanting a full payout anyway. ie Cheating.

You didn’t read those threads every week. What rubbish. And you’re accusing me of hyperbole? 🤣

I agree that it’s sensible to get insurance and also agree I wouldn’t bother funding any of these go fund me pages, but I disagree that it should be compulsory. As soon as you make it compulsory you will raise the cost as you have created an artificially high demand.

Insurance is essentially a way of socialising the cost of risk, but by keeping it voluntary you allow competition to keep the cost suppressed. By making it compulsory the cost will rise, significantly.

I wonder how many of these people did actually have insurance, but it only covered X,Y&Z situations (unbeknownst to them because they didn’t read the lengthy small print)

Also, a lot of people think that travel within the EU will all be covered by the EHIC card - nope! Different countries offer varying cover, and as far as I know none of them covers repatriation of the person (alive or deceased).

I went to an insurance broker to get cover when we were going on holiday when I was pregnant. Even that cover only lasted until I was 34 weeks (we returned when I was 34+1, was rather relieved not to need the cover at all, never mind the last two days!)

Years ago, a bouncer at our local nightclub went abroad, jumped in a pool, caused himself years of pain and physio. He hadn’t taken out travel insurance because it was a last minute deal and he was tagging along with his mages. They were refusing people entry at the club if they didn’t contribute to the fundraiser to get him home (this was in 2000, pre crowdfunding etc). A friend and I refused, left the club and didn’t go back 🤷🏻‍♀️ I disagree with it. One of my children has a health condition and her insurance costs up almost £200. We just class it as part of the cost of the holiday. There is no way we would go without travel insurance for any of us.

*mates

And now this...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-45512812

Luckily they did have insurance.

Totally agree, in fact I said the same thing to DH only last week.

I hate it when everyone is expected to 'have a whip round' for someone who has been irresponsible in the first place.

I was once on a FB group where one member claimed to keep having break ins, but they had no contents insurance and all of this apparently pricey stuff. Not one but TWICE lots of other group members rallied round to have a whip round to replace the stuff for her and her husband. It was things like a camera, some cash, a games console.

I can understand though for some people. A friend is terminally ill and no insurance company will cover her travel abroad. So does she risk it? Or accept at 30 that she can never go abroad again?
Also our insurance costs are very high. And even then we have exclusions. So I can understand people risking it.

Tony Bulimore......cost Australian taxpayers more than $1M