To be sick of people starting to fund me pages when they go on holiday without travel insurance and can’t afford medical bills when they end up in hospital?

[AngeloMysterioso]

A woman with chronic pulmonary disease and mobility issues couldn’t afford the travel insurance she needed for her four week holiday to Disney World in Florida with her sons and grandson. So she went anyway, without any travel insurance, and you can guess what happens next… she caught covid and flu, then developed pneumonia, and is now in a critical condition in hospital.

And of course, her family has set up a go fund me to go begging to the public to cover the considerable financial cost of this woman’s utter foolishness.

AIBU to think if you can’t afford the travel insurance, you don’t go on the fucking holiday?? Especially if you have pre-existing conditions which make you particularly susceptible to falling seriously ill?

Why do you care ?
People set up go fund ,me for all kinds of things nobody has to to contribute.

We took my mum to Florida when she had cancer, insurance was £2.8k and excess was 4k. I joked with mum that if she needed hospital I would put her on a plane with a first class ticket home as it would be cheaper than the excess.

But it was non-negotiable, if she sidnt have insurance we didn’t go. The risks are too high. So I have zero sympathy for the situation they find themselves in. Fuck about and find out!

I honestly don't see how anyone can argue with this @AngeloMysterioso

100% agree with you. If you can afford a holiday abroad, you can afford the insurance. Both myself AND my DH have certain medical conditions that we had meds for, and the insurance to go to America still only cost around £75 between the two of us. It was just over a decade ago, sure, but even now I doubt if it would cost more than £100-£125.

I can't help but feel bad for people who are stranded abroad with expensive medical bills, but not enough to give to their GoFundMe page. Basically, they only have themselves to blame.

I do agree that it is foolish and reckless to travel without insurance, but insurance could be made more affordable. The lady in question was quoted £3,000 for cover, if I recall, and that's ridiculous

So tell me of these other possibilities. Because what we are talking about is making it illegal for UK citizens to travel abroad without travel insurance. Just how (other than somehow making the whole world police us instead)?

Her medical bills will be astronomical

She shouldn't have gone

How ridiculously irresponsible because she will have to pay that

Not that ridiculous if you think about what they'd now be paying out for her treatment if she'd taken it.

Did you not realise that you're on a public discussion forum?

Shall we all just stop talking, because you don't think people should 'care' about things that don't affect them directly? (or God forbid, 'discuss' it?!) It's called 'conversation.' Maybe you should try it.

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Well with her underlying conditions abs the fact she has fallen ill and ended up in hospital I'm not surprised they quoted £3K

COPD is what heavy smokers get so I'm guessing she was or still is a smoker

Meaning her condition self inflicted in the first place

This comes up fairly regularly on MN. But quite often it's not people travelling without insurance, but people unwittingly travelling with inadequate insurance. We were caught out with the travel insurance included with our bank account, eventually they relented and the bill wasn't huge, but it was a salutary lesson.

If you have travel insurance included with your bank account, have you trawled through the smallprint (and all the updates) and have you informed them of any health conditions?

Ultimately I don't understand why people are bothered by this. If people want to contribute to a fundraiser it's up to them. If you don't, then don't.

@Moveoverdarlin Sorry but I don’t agree with that. Age is no indicator of travel insurance requirements. A former colleague lost his daughter in a car crash while she was on holiday. Only 22 years old. The insurance company flew the family out almost immediately and had her body repatriated. Her boyfriend suffered life changing injuries and his medical costs were covered plus his return flights. Can you imagine how awful it would be losing your child abroad and not having the means to bring them home.

It’s not nasty, it’s just what life is. Sometimes you can’t have everything you want if you can’t afford it.

I have a condition that could suddenly kill me. If I don’t have adequate insurance my whole family is going to suffer - like the woman in questions family. Think of the stress they’re now all going through because she’s made the decision to go on an extravagant break without insurance. It’s selfish. I’m sorry but it is.

If you need to make memories then do so but everyone has to live within their means. I’d love to go to the Maldives (for example) for 4 weeks but the insurance would put it out of my league- it’s just something you have to accept.

I can't get my head around the woman that the OP is talking about, being able to fork out for a month long holiday to Florida (that must have cost near enough 5 figures!) But apparently she couldn't afford the insurance ...

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I have travel insurance rolled into the fees for a bank account. I know this is subject to eligibility so probably wouldn’t have worked for the woman in the example quoted by the OP, but just thought I’d mention it as often for someone in reasonable health under 70 it’s often quite a good option and then you don’t need a separate policy each time.

I think people need to bake the cost into the price of the holiday - I’ve been doing this since I was a teen though as I used to go away kayaking and the notion of being trapped in a gorge with no insurance to pay for helicopter evac was absolutely terrifying!

What sort of insurance puts the premium up for a filling? That's bonkers!

This….i don’t contribute….but they don’t bother me when I see them….good luck to them

£3000? Is that real? My last cover was £90 for me and DH for a week in Portugal. £3000? Why?!

If you have conditions that are THAT bad that your insurance for a holiday abroad is £3000, stay home FFS!

I may have had a shred of sympathy had she never been before and this was the only way she could have afford a 'one-in-a-lifetime' short trip. However, she's been 20 times before and was away for a month. Nope, zero sympathy here.

I had a (lovely) holiday in the UK because I had an outstanding referral and couldn’t insurance easily. You just don’t take the risk.

Insist on seeing cover at the airport, like a visa? You have to have insurance to go on a cruise ship and they can (and often do) ask for proof at boarding.

As mentioned in my post above, treat the insurance rolled into bank accounts with caution. We were caught out by one of those. It's not something you can just sign up to and then never think about it again. You need to keep on top of the small print and inform them of every last thing.

Then go to Disneyland Paris, or Legoland at Windsor. You don’t need to go to Florida!

People are talking about travel insurance for medical expenses but the fact is that most claims on travel insurance are made pre-holiday - kids come down with chicken pox days before you fly; husband breaks his leg the week before you go; unexpected family bereavement, etc

You should take out insurance as soon as you book the holiday and yes always get as much medical cover as you can - especially for the US. Our last 3 holidays DD has been sick on 2 of them requiring antibiotics (very annoying, she’s not a sickly child at home!), each time we had to pay for a Dr consultation and the medication totalling about €150 each time but as soon as we got home we claimed on the insurance and got the costs back, less excess.