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?

Should be a legal requirement as in other countries.

Part of me thinks they don't take it out because it costs money,it won't happen to them and if it does,there is always a gofundme to try to get the money

I never give to them-why should I pay for my own insurance and theirs too?

I don’t understand it as its so cheap generally too for travel insurance

I agree with this. I don't really get the annoyance on the thread. They've put themselves in a stupid situation, through informed choice, but it's their problem and the consequences are theirs.

If other people are willing to help them, that's also a free informed choice, and very kind of them.

None of it affects me and I don't much care!

DMil ended up in hospital in the US, ended up with a bill in excess of £70k. She had insurance but hadn't disclosed a preexisting medical issue so the insurance kicked off (reason she was in hospital had nothing to do with this condition).

She was treated, as she had insurance, but the insurance company hounded her for years for repayment. As she had pretty much the square root of bugger all financially it luckily came to nothing.

We had to claim this summer in Europe after our car ground to a halt due to the gearbox seizing. Between insurance and excellent breakdown cover we could hire a car to finish our holiday, come home by train and taxi, and spend a night in a hotel before travel. Car repatriated to our local mechanic. Cost us £100 excess but shudder to think what it would have cost us if we hadn't had the insurance.

Our travel insurance is rather expensive (or was for the holiday we took earlier this year). However, that is because my DH has a medical condition (extra); we are both retired (extra due to age); we went on a cruise (extra); we visited the US (extra).
Never ever lie on any insurance as if you you have anything undeclared that would invalidate the insurance.
We always hope it is never used (and so far we have been lucky). However, I have a young relative who broke her back on holiday, and after weeks in hospital, had an air ambulance to take her home. So accidents can happen; luggage can get lost or stolen; medical emergencies such as heart attacks can happen.
The point is that things happen when you least expect it.
I would ALWAYS have insurance.

Also remember that it covers you for much more than accidents abroad.
We’ve used it twice before we were due to go away. Once had to cancel due to illness and last year got all our costs back due to the air traffic control problems. My
friends hubby broke his foot and they had to cancel but got the money back and booked again. It’s just common sense!

Similar thing happened to a family near us. It was their first ever holiday abroad and they just had no awareness of travel insurance.

Thing is, every flight and package holiday prompts to add insurance or a box to tick to say you are arranging it elsewhere. So all those people travelling without have deliberately chosen to ignore it.

I feel for the poor girl. Her mum decided to take a risk that nothing would happen to her or her children.

Who do you use

I completely agree and it’s madness.
But that is grown up me talking. At just turned 18 I made the monumentally idiotic decision to go travel to NYC (the US of all places fgs) for a month without any insurance whatsoever. Nothing happened. It was only years later that I look back and want to give idiot teen me a good shake.

It’s not just for health though? It’s for cancellation too. Before you’ve left! Plus delays while away.

Also lots of people get taken to private hospital in Europe by ambulance because it’s the closest and it’s not covered by Ehic.

The parent is a fucking idiot who tried her luck and lost. Sadly her daughter is the victim in the this. She first said she had forgotten to take out a policy and then later said she assumed it was covered in the holiday cost. Most people know this is not the case.

It should be a legal requirement that you can prove you have travel insurance before you travel. Providing there were no pre existing medical conditions a family policy would be around £70. I personally could not relax on holiday if I had no insurance yet idiots like this risk it all the time

I hope her daughter makes a full recovery, doesn't suffer unnecessarily as a result of her mother's stupidity and that others learn from this

People are twats. It’s surprising how often this happens

I always have insurance I even have private medical insurance now after the way the NHS has gone But I feel so sorry for that poor girl I can't understand how any doctor can leave a minor in excruciating pain when she needs surgery. She has also had a stroke she is only 15. Her mum should have taken out insurance of course she should.
What I don't understand is why when she was just sat eating lunch and some idiot came flying down on her they are not at fault ? They should be paying or the company who allowed them to fly should be paying. She should also be paid compensation it's possible she will end up with life altering injuries from this.
If that was my daughter then I would do anything to raise that money tbh and I often look at go fund me pages and think 🙄.

There are a lot of very thick/naïve people.

• They think the embassy/consulate will sort things out - they won't, it's not their job.
• They don't understand the expense of having to change plans whilst on holiday. If your fortnight in the sun turns into 4 weeks in hospital the knock-on effects for anyone you're travelling with can range from minor inconvenience to major disruption. How do they get to/from the airport without you if they have to leave you behind? How do they extend their stay if they don't?
• Your EHIC/GHIC may only get you basic emergency treatment and you could be expected to cover bed and board whilst you recover well enough to travel.
• Repatriation doesn't just mean a change of flight, it might mean being accompanied by a medical professional, a medical charter flight, or coming home freight in a box.
• They've seen so many GoFundMe campaigns for similar situations that they think this is normal - they don't realise that what's really normal is that medical emergencies and accidents abroad are expensive. Crowd-funding used to be a good thing, but now it's so abused it's a negative influence on behaviour.

Travel insurance isn't expensive. Even with three pre-existing conditions and no spring chicken, I pay less than £50 for unlimited trip annual European cover. If you enjoy risky sports, or like to go on a cruise, or visit more far-fling destinations, then you can expect to pay more.

I don’t travel until next summer but I’ve just taken out travel insurance. I do normally take it out but usually wait until I would lose more than the deposit if I need to cancel.

I know at one time Saga used to have a travel insurance that didn’t need you to declare pre existing conditions.

Madness not to have cover it I’ve known people who do think they are covered but they’ve failed to disclose their medical history. Another is winter sports and cruise cover. Often not seen as extras. Example, if you go to New York and go ice skating at rockerfeller, fall and break something you could find your isntuacne difficult as it’s classed as a winter sport.

@Jessie1259 "We don't get it for Europe as apart from repatriation anything that can't wait till you get home is covered by GHIC card."

This is a very risky approach. There are a number of things that could arise that are not covered by the GHIC card (which only covers healthcare in certain countries) and which would prove very costly if you did not have insurance cover, which for the vast majority of people can be purchased reasonably cheaply.

Some people are happy to take the risk of not being able to take a trip should they fall ill - all that's lost is the cost of travel and the accommodation.

The most important, and potentially most costly, is liability insurance. For example, if you rented an e-bike and had an accident, you would be responsible for any damage caused to any third party. This might be a paint re-spray of someone's nice Mercedes that you dented and scratched (a few thousand pounds), but it might also be the bill you receive for loss of earnings, hospital treatment and physio treatment for someone you ran over (which could run into many thousands plus the legal costs) or even worse, the compensation that you might have to pay if the person you hit were to lose a limb, an eye, suffer constant blackouts etc. in which case you might be facing a bill for hundreds of thousands.

Any accident or incident in which you might be deemed to have been at fault could result in a costly legal bill and/or a demand for compensation - all of which is covered by most travel policies.

Declaring menopause (screening didn’t even ask about HRT) on my worldwide annual policy whacked the cost up by 25%. I don’t have any other health conditions - and I was massively pissed off that an inescapable part of life for women is determined to be a ‘condition’.

It just depends on the provider and what their algorithms determine.

You can often get insurance which excludes the medical condition you declare so it’s worth a check. I totally agree though it’s two separate things and I know some places will just say no, but some will cover you. For example when my mum had cancer they wouldn’t cover any complications arising from that but meant they’d know they were covered for everything else.

Years ago when everyone booked package holidays through a travel agent, you either took insurance out with the said travel agent, or else you had to state the name of the insurer you had used.
Maybe now people book through air b & b etc it’s not anyone’s specific responsibility to check. Or it’s hidden way down at the bottom of the terms and conditions.

Well it's the responsibility of the person booking the holiday. Just like car insurance if you drive or insuring your house.

If you declare a medical condition or that you take a medication with known if rare side effects like HRT, would you still be covered ? So if you declare you take HRT and have a stroke, won't the insurance company have removed that scenario from what it would cover ? So does everyone with travel insurance check what isn't included in their policies before travelling or do people believe insured = OK ?

YANBU read this the other day and the mum said she didn’t realise it didn’t come with insurance or something to the effect! Utter nonsense, how many times throughout the booking process are you prompted to get insurance. A tragic and unexpected accident however anything can happen when away from home and it is not worth the risk.