To go on holiday without travel insurance

[purplesalad]

My mum is elderly and we’re planning on going on holiday within the EU( 2weeks).
Mum is a citizen of that country and has dual passports for uk and over there.

As she has pre existing medical conditions, her travel insurance premium is pretty high and she has said she would be entitled to free medical treatment should anything happen over there.

Despite her pre existing conditions, she keeps well and is independent, lives alone and never been admitted to hospital here.

She wants to risk it but I’m worried. At the same time I feel that travel insurance companies would look for excuses not to cover in the event and it would be not worth the paper it’s printed on.

What are your thoughts and experiences please, mumsnetters ?

Have you tried a specialist broker? My DS was seeing CAMHS for an issue which had absolutely no bearing on his risk of needing hospital treatment abroad. Hadn't occurred to me that it might prevent hugely expensive trip we had already paid for. Various places refused to cover and others ridiculous price but eventually found a broker and got a great deal. It was Just Travel and I 100% recommend. I would feel uncomfortable travelling without insurance and hopefully you can find a good deal

If you mother travels often it might be worth looking at the nationwide bank account. My parents and in laws have literally saved £1000’s (lots of underlying conditions) opening one of their pay monthly accounts with travel insurance which accepts a wide variety of existing conditions as standard.

Mine was also private as it was the nearest hospital and they thought I wouldn’t still be alive by the time we got to the state hospital. They took me straight from the ambulance to x ray, then literally ran through the corridor pushing me in a wheelchair from xray to OR. Can’t have been more than 10 minutes from arrival to putting me under. You can’t decide to go to the free hospital in a life or death emergency.

There are so many things that can go wrong, from lost luggage to being hospitalised and requiring transport back home, having to cancel, etc,
that I would always get travel insurance for my peace of mind.
Make sure you declare all pre existing medical conditions.

Honestly - I would get travel insurance. A Colleague at work had a scenario where his elderly mother had to be repatriated from Spain due to a fall. That was £15K to get a private ambulance back to the UK. We also had a young person in the company that went trecking in Tibet bet who had a fatal accident with no travel insurance and it was down to crowd funding and the company that the body was repatriated.

My thoughts and experience?

£25,000 for an aircraft with doctor on board to repatriate back to UK - that was the cost 7 years ago

I thought they were invalid now we've left the EU.

This

They're not "wriggling" out of anything. They don't pay if haven't told them.

It's now the GHIC card. It's valid in the EU and a couple of other places where we have reciprocal agreements (like Australia). I'm actually surprised travel insurance companies don't insist on a GHIC for Aus, they do for European travel.

Get travel insurance. Other half and I were away in EU several years ago, unexpected life changing illness befallen him. No warning. Put us in an absolute spin. Emergency surgery, only solution to get him back to UK was a medical aircraft with full medical team. We went on a regular holiday WITHOUT a care in the world. We came back thanking he was STILL ALIVE. This is how in an instant life can change. This can still happen on holiday so do not be blasé. Complete life changing catastrophic illness whilst he was away we never saw it coming. At least we were covered. I cannot emphasise the value of travel insurance more than this.

i’m a nurse who has worked in the travel industry. Get the insurance!! If she was to become ill she would potentially be stuck in the country indefinitely as she wouldn’t be repatriated. So unless you were to leave her there and return home you would end up paying out of pocket for accommodation, food and then alternative flights home for yourself. If she had insurance you would be covered as travel companion for accommodation etc whilst you’re there. And god forbid, what if she was to die out there? Is she/you happy to have the funeral/be buried there as the cost of repatriating her body would be massive too.

I guess if she was content to be treated there potentially long term, and potentially buried there should anything happen then go without insurance. Repatriation costs tens of thousand and so does anything involving flying sick people home. I always advocate for insurance but if she’s got entitlement in her own country of birth then I’d consider taking a risk. But I’d get more basic insurance for other things, such as baggage going missing / cancelled flights etc.

But this is not true. There is NO incentive for claims teams to not pay out. They apply the insurance agreement exactly as written. Where wording is ambiguous they will decide in a customers favour. 81% of travel claims are paid out across the market and Insurers monitor levels of claim denials and flag any products where claim denials are high as something to be rectified. If a pre existing condition is declared the policy will be very clear what is covered or not covered in relation to it and you have 14 days after purchasing to review the agreement and cancel without penalty if you are unhappy with the cover.

Most times I'd say don't be daft get travel insurance; but as your Mum is going to her 'home' country, where she's said she'd be happy to be buried in her village: if she happened to "pop her clogs" nearby, then as that wise-woman Doris Day did sing Que sera sera.....

My MIL did not take out insurance. She broke her back and was unable to fly home (medical advice) so was stuck where she was. Fortunately she was staying with her brother who eventually took her on holiday during her holiday 😂

My mum was only late 30s fit and healthy all her life and thank goodness we've always opted for travel insurance as our last holiday she ended up needing emergency surgery and then flown back home. They were great top drs and surgeons and first class service back home to UK and any costs incurred were also refunded. I was one always thought what a waste and now I've seen first hand never take the chance you will be well forever

Opposite question—does travel insurance cover her in the country where she’s a citizen? It often doesn’t.

Thanks again everyone. We’ve found a considerably cheaper comprehensive cover but will still have to give them a call due to ambiguous wording about “ travelling against medical advice”

She’s had no reason to go to the GP for the past 18 months so hasn’t discussed it with them at all.

Good question. Hadn’t thought of it that way. But she’s not resident there so I’d think it probably does.

Thanks for the tip. I did not know about the GHIC card and my family will be applying for one.

Do check. When I lived in London I always bought travel insurance, and I was most definitely not covered in the US (my nationality) when I traveled home. It’s been a while but I don’t think the rule was US-specific.

OK. What I should have explained is if you don’t declare that you broke your wrist falling off a horse last year they will try to claim that you are not covered for appendicitis this year. This is “wriggling out” in my book. Maybe not yours.

I dont know what kind of holiday you've booked but this is on my tui booking email.

HOLIDAY INSURANCE
Holiday insurance is there to protect you while you’re away and should you have to cancel due to circumstances covered by your policy. Make sure you arrange it, as it’s a condition of your booking.

Entirely your call, but personally I wouldn’t travel without ins. And I pay an uplift as I have MS. What you need to consider is the worst case scenario, and whilst none of us like to think about it, if your mum died whilst you were away, or became seriously ill and needed medical repatriation or repatriation of her remains, this will cost ££££’s, if you have ins. This would all be organised for you by professionals who know what to do etc. I hope you and your mum have a great trip.