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 ?

They were if they held a valid S1.
I am a French resident and as a UK state pensioner the UK now pays France for my healthcare and I’m also entitled to use the NHS as the UK are paying either way.

There are specialists in pre existing condition insurance, have a look at it.

Also insurance isn't just for medical issues it's for things like theft and loss of passport.

Even if she is fully covered for health in this EU country insurance is still useful. If she were to eg break a bone or be in hospital insurance would normally cover things like a hotel stay for you and if necessary a medical escort back to the UK.

I declare absolutely everything. The question is often something like have you attended hospital etc. Why would you put no if you have attended.
I've been in the situation needing to claim and i cannot imagine how much more stressful it would have been if we'd not been insured.
Insurance is black and white. If you are insured they pay. If you are not they don't and "wriggling out" is a phrase often used when people haven't checked what they're insured for and just assume they'll be OK.

She would be covered for emergency treatment but what about all the costs related to an illness: accommodation during recovery for you and her, extra flights, days missed off work (for you), taxis, medication, repatriation in case of death....

I've lived in the UK for 34 years I am not (yet -working on it) a Uk citizen. I'm nolonger entitled to free care in my birth country (EU) We get travel insurance every time we go and also ensure we have a ehic card with us.

There is a lt of ambiguity in the application forms and small print.
Many state a medical condition needs to be declared if you’ve experienced symptoms or seen a dr in past 2 years, yet the small print often says you must declare everything !

Which is it !?

Well, they are not supposed to reject a claim in the circumstances described because the broken arm has no bearing at all on the appendicitis, and had the arm been declared, insurance would still have been offered at the same price.

But sometimes they do.

However I completely agree with you. Declare absolutely everything for total peace of mind. It’s madness not to. The likelihood of needing to claim is low, but the consequences of being uninsured are horrendous. Even if you successfully fight a wrongly rejected claim.

Yes, I dig around in the policy wording of the actual insurer rather than relying on a comparison site. There’s usually some kind of table or flow chart showing exactly what you need to declare. If in doubt, declare it.

Please don't go away without insurance. We're in our 70s and went to Majorca a couple of years ago. The day we arrived my husband had a nose bleed which eventually stopped, the following day when it started again we ended up going to the local private hospital (we were told that these days British people have to go private). It was eventually stopped, but had to go back four days later to have something removed from his nose. That night he developed diarrhea, two days later he was so poorly that he was admitted by ambulance to the same hospital.

He then spent four days in hospital with what turned out to be gastritis. The insurance company eventually paid for both incidents, but had to have access to his GP notes to check that he had never had gastritis before. It was all extremely stressful. My daughter liaised with the insurance company, my son actually flew out to help us get home. This all cost thousands of pounds and we would not have got my DH's passport back if the insurance company hadn't paid.

But why? Why repatriate a body?

The body was repatriated for his funeral, for his children to say goodbye and so he could be buried in his home country. Not everyone / not every religion likes cremation either. And having a body cremated and bringing the ashes home is not as easy as you might think : I know from family friends this was complicated paperwork (but cheaper than repatriation of a casket and the deceased).

Fair enough. But personally I would be perfectly happy with being cremated ( or chucked in sea) And can't see why a cremation would be complicated. Maybe moving ashes overseas ( which I wouldn't care about either)

I'm not sure but i think you sign to say you've declared everything so I'm not sure it matters if it's connected.

Gastritis is a tummy bug. Who’s never had that before ?!

These insurance companies are such a minefield.

As a pp pointed out, it’s not easy to work out what “everything” is. Do you have to declare a prescription for hayfever? Tonsillitis 18 months ago? A tooth abcess?

And what I have said is correct. Insurance companies are not supposed to refuse to pay out if a completely unrelated condition which, if declared, would have made no difference to the cover offered, was not declared. Regardless of the small print. But they try to.

I’ve been all over the world and never once had insurance. But then I am a chronic under-worrier, it’s just in my nature.

ultimately it’s up to your Mum - if she’s not worried then that’s her call! If you’ll all spend your holiday worrying that something bad will happen then just get it.

Exactly this - but do also make sure she knows there'd be no chance of you staying over there with her if the worst happened

People are entitled to make whatever choices they want for themselves, no matter how ridiculous others think those choices are, but they're not entitled to load them onto others

Personally I would be perfectly happy with being cremated (or chucked in sea) And can't see why a cremation would be complicated

Well, it can get pretty complicated if you're visiting an area where cremation isn't common or even allowed

I've just got back from Kos and apparently Greece has just one crematorium in the entire place. Don't get me wrong I wasn't planning on using it (!!), but for anyone wanting to that'll involve one heck of a lot of transportation, which won't be cheap either

Also what if she needed air ambulance or medivac back to uk
That's VERY expensive

No it's not because if her mum is ill it will be OP dealing with the situation with regards to repatriation or extra hotels etc not her mum.

That's no different then to what the people living there have to do

I think there's an age limit on that (might be 75?)

It's also worth noting that if you or a close relative (who isn't travelling) are on a waiting list for an op on the NHS and it comes up, they won't cover your cancellation. So, for example, my mother was waiting for an operation and had it come up when we planned to go away, we would not have been covered. Given the numbers waiting for operations, and the length of time people are waiting, that seems like a very unfair exclusion to me. We just ended up booking things at really short notice. Fortunately she's had the op now so I don't need to worry about having to cancel a trip so I can look after her.

It depends on how the question is worded i suppose. I'm really not being arsey but if they ask what prescriptions you have had then you need to say what it is. It is a minefield but they price your policy on the answers you give. They assess the risk on the answers you give

Yes, I understand that. All I have said is that insurance companies will try to refuse to settle on a technicality that they aren’t allowed to use. So, knowing that, it’s best to declare absolutely everything.

What exactly is your problem with that?

Nothing
I think in a round about way we're actually agreeing