Why would you take you family on holiday without travel insurance?!

[IsitaHatOrACat]

AIBU to think that this is part of the cost of the holiday.

Yet again there's a family raising funds to pay for medical care abroad. This time for a 15 year old old. This must be a terribly distressing situation to be in however why take the risk?

I honestly don’t understand it. It’s ridiculous to take such a risk.

There are some very stupid people out there!

It's utterly reckless- it's an annoying but completely necessary part of every holiday, and expecting strangers to find your treatment and repatriation when you could have guaranteed it yourself for a couple of hundred quid is stupidly shortsighted

Because they think that nothing will ever happen.. as you "never" need it.

Until you do.

My mother used to pay for their flights with AmEx which included travel insurance. Then once she didn't and didn't think of it. Sure enough my father had a stroke and while care there (such as it was - not impressed at all) was covered we had to pay £12,500 to get him on a medical plane back to the UK. Fortunately they could afford it. But big lesson learned. And always be sure it covers winter and water sports.

People lack imagination.

Is this about that poor girl who got hit by a paraglider? It sounds horrendous but my first thought was exactly the same as yours.

To save money I guess, because different people have different assessments and evaluations of risk, and because if the worst comes to the worst there are people who will chip in!

I cannot fathom why people do this. The cost of an annual insurance plan (worldwide cover inc USA) for myself, wife & two children is less than £400 (it would be cheaper were it not for a medical condition I have). It's just not worth the risk.

I know! Also check your policy exclusions, tell them about every minor medical issue you saw a dr for in last 2 years (or whatever that provider requires). Ours is really good to be honest and doesn't charge extra for our collection of minor stuff you pick up as you age but it's important to disclose everything!

Our annual insurance comes with the bank account I should add

Yes. Poor girl. An awful accident. I Hope they raise the money needed as she cannot be held responsible for the lack of insurance

We hear of go fund me appeals like this all too often. Does nobody learn from them?

PIL used to travel to Europe with no insurance on the basis that they had EHIC. I pointed out that their EHIC would only cover them for the equivalent of the NHS provision in the country they were visiting and that if they needed repatriated after an accident they wouldn't be covered for it.

I just don't understand why people travel abroad without insurance. Unless you have medical conditions, insurance isn't expensive.

Some risky activities might be excluded even if they had insurance.

Hopefully not off topic but I was just alerted to having to let my insurance know I was on HRT. Not something they all ask for but thought I'd share.

Not in a million years .. and I tell them everything, including my HRT. I’ve never had to claim, thankfully.

In the case the OP is referring to, the girl was having lunch.

We've done it before and it ended up being a very expensive nightmare.

DH and I, first trip away together. Went on a city break without any travel insurance and ended up stranded. Fortunately flights weren't too expensive, but we had to travel to a different city to get a flight out of the country, stay over in a very expensive hotel and land in a different city in the UK, then taxi back to where we originally flew from to collect the car.

We both couldn't believe that we didn't take out insurance. We just completely forgot to do it.
Now it's the first thing I do when booking the holiday.

I have insurance through my bank account but there's no way I could sleep at night on holiday if I wasn't covered.

I CANNOT emphasise enough the importance of insurance. My partner had to most freakish accident while in Greece and he ended up having emergency surgery and being flown home via air ambulance back to the UK. This all would have cost us around £45,000 had we not been fully insured. Please people do not take the risk!

There was something from Martin Lewis on morning TV about this.
Basically anything we’ve seen our doctor or other healthcare practitioner about, say in the last 2 years, or any medication we are on should be disclosed when taking out travel insurance. We should also check any travel insurance that eg comes with a bank account for what is actually covered.
This is regardless of whether disclosing this affects the premium or not (which HRT doesn’t generally do)

I have no idea. I even get it for uk breaks just in case something happens.

People are thick! Honestly the flight companies are missing a trick. Instead of boring us with the same 30% off duty free aftershave mid flight and cardboard sandwiches they should be flogging travel insurance to those who’ve forgotten it. They’d have to process pronto on landing to make it valid but there are the forgetful and the never thought about it’s out there who could benefit

Never. I am not even irresponsible enough to not do it for myself let alone child.

I also don’t donate to any appeals in principle.

Problem is, I'm pretty sure travel insurance needs to be purchased before you begin your trip. But, most of the time I'm offered additional travel insurance when I book my tickets.