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?

For me its part of the holiday cost
A lot of people don't seem to understand what its for though, even on a previous thread on here some people said that if they died abroad it wouldn't matter or similar.
When DD booked her first solo holiday she said that she didn't see the need for it as she wasn't taking any valuables. I explained why she DID need it and she had no idea.
No way would I ever donate to one of those things though, there was one local to me who had gone to turkey for a bum lift and it had gone wrong. She was in her early 20's with a young child FFS!

Yes, that is true. I was specifically referencing those who are uninsurable. Despite going to specialist insurers, my DS was literally refused insurance by every single one of the (limited) number of insurers willing to cover those with cancer. DS was medically fine to travel, had approval from entire medical team etc., yet every insurer declined cover. He deserved and needed a break away. I couldn't get insurance for myself because I was told I had to be on the same policy as DS...which he couldn't get. We went on holiday anyway. He wasn't ill, and fortunately we had no accidents. But I did pick a place we knew very well, healthcare is excellent and affordable and I was happy to take the risk and pay for any treatment abroad, if necessary. I wouldn't go to somewhere like the US without insurance, which has notoriously expensive healthcare, but I can understand why others may want to.

As for Go Fund Me pages, people can ask for whatever they like. If others don't agree, they don't have to donate. It's not something I'd get worked up over. I also agree with what some other posters have said - yes, the lady made a poor choice, but what should her family do now? This option to ask for donations for care is legal and available to them, so I can see why they'd try it.

Why would the police be involved ? Travel agent could easily cover it, or better still the insurance could be compulsory and the cost included at the time of booking.

I think what she did was foolhardy and can't understand why people keep going on holiday without travel insurance when there are regularly stories in the press about people getting stuck in a hospital abroad with costs mounting up by the second and then the difficulties of bringing the person home.
If that was supposed to be her last trip to America with the family she should have forked out the money for the insurance or not gone. With her medical history it was quite likely that something might occur, especially with flying long-haul and all the people in close proximity at Disney World.

However, I can't get worked up about people starting gofundme pages. The family must be desperate. I wouldn't donate to it though because they brought it on themselves.
They are free to set up a page if they want and we are all free to decide whether we donate or not. It's not compulsory.

Surely the family could have paid for the dm's insurance between them.
If you can afford to go to Florida an extra £500 each towards insurance is not huge in the scheme of things.

Martin Lewis the money saving man always says sort out insurance as soon as you book a holiday.

I'm sorry but a lot of these posts are incredibly insensitive. Insurance companies are complete arseholes when it comes to illness. I'm a mother of two very young children and have had cancer this year. Despite finishing chemotherapy, I will now find it incredibly hard to get insured to take them on any holidays. What about those with incurable cancers? They are often actually feeling well as I'm sure most of you know, cancer can often be a slow, progressive illness. Should they not go on holiday with their family before they die? If a loved one decided to take this risk and something happened, I would wholly understand and donate what I could at what must be an incredibly difficult time. I really think people need to consider that everything can change for anyone at any time and you are incredibly lucky to be able to get suitable insurance to spend quality time with your loved ones.

I found the opposite when I was looking at insurance for my mum with terminal cancer. It wasn’t a “computer says no” type conversation and they took time to learn about mums condition and the circumstances of the holiday before coming to a decision.

And no, we wouldn’t have went on holiday without it and she died six months later.

‘suspect that poster meant a requirement of travel. Like a visa. You need to evidence your valid travel insurance before you fly. It would be difficult to set up and I don’t know if it’s a plausible option but I actually think it is something that could be explored at government level.’

years ago when you booked a package holiday it was essential to have travel insurance or they would not accept the booking. You could either buy theirs, or provide your own; if the latter, you had to enter your policy number.

I suppose they don’t do that any more, because it would be ‘unfair’ or something.

@Nicknacky I'm very sorry for your loss and I'm really glad you were able to spend that time with your mum. I do agree - some insurance companies take the time to go through everything but it is still an incredibly grey area that I believe they would try to worm out of if it came to a pay out (ie, if you broke a leg it would have 'nothing to do with cancer' but anything to do with immunity, heart etc, I guarantee it would be an incredibly drawn out and stressful process to try to claim). Of course insurance should be the first port of call, I'm just asking people to consider the position of others before judging so very quickly and harshly.

I think like mortgages it was a case of being forced to purchase the company's own insurance if you wanted the deal and this was rightly deemed uncompetitive, but the downside is people end up with no insurance or unsuitable insurance.

But in that circumstance you have done your best to get insurance even if the company did try and “worm out of it”

These people haven’t. And why shouldn’t they be held to account and judged? They didn’t want to spend their own money now they want others to spend theirs.

Exactly.. why are people begging for money to help relatives who are too senseless and ignorant to take out insurance.
I feel like saying..' listen love..she's your relation..sort it out between you. '

Agree. Fools with more money than sense, that’s for sure.

Donating just encourages more of this reckless type of behaviour.

TBH £3k to insure a chronically sick 76 year old to go to Florida for a month sounds approrpriately risk priced to me.

By contrast we, two healthy adults in our 40s, were charged £56 for 7 days in the USA earlier this year.

If course it could have been a "fuck off quote". Sometimes insurers don't want to insure you at all but rather than saying that they quote a very high price in the hope you will go elsewhere. As people have said specialist brokers are the answer to high risk travel situations.

perhaps you could view the pictures of her in a hospital bed - she isn’t sitting up smiling - a reckless uninsured ill, hardly mobile tourist now out of it, that’s why

I can't see this woman on the GoFundMe page..can you send the link op ?

Don't go to the US if you can't afford the insurance. Take personal responsibility. To be honest, I wouldn't contribute to GFM for this kind of thing.

but ! she is still in this awful condition anyway, collapsed in the toilet,
why take such a monumental risk, now look what has happened to her,
her grandchildren seeing her like this must be frightening for them, with
the possibility she won’t be leaving that bed anyway - even with insurance
she is still in this parlous state, will her family stay with her or fly home,
a terrible state of affairs, bearing in mindinsurance does not protect you
whether you have it or not

My late parents both had conditions which killed them (cancer and heart disease) and insisted on taking holidays without declaring the full conditions to insurers.
I tried and failed to get them to see sense but, knowing they were in borrowed time, the thought of one last holiday in the sun trumped everything in their eyes.
Luckily they came home as intact as they went, but it certainly added to my worry.

Raised four children as a widow. claims no benefits even disability allowance in spite of having COPD and Atrial Fibrillation, needing 3 inhalers and a wheelchair. yet this was her 21st holiday to the USA.

This what I think too. Holiday insurance shouldn't be seen as some sort of add on. It's part of the cost. Maybe she should have set up a Go Fund Me page for the cost of the insurance. A sad face and a list of her medical conditions might have elicited a few donations. I feel sorry for her because she is unwell abroad and that must be very stressful. But she's still a plonker.

I know it's not health related, but many years ago DP and I had our apartment broken into on holiday in Spain. I had pretty much all of my stuff stolen. I'm not sure why they didn't take DP's threadbare socks and ancient shorts, but hey ho😆 We were able to claim for all the stolen things, which was at least some compensation for a totally ruined holiday. We had only been there 2 days when it happened. Also DP's dad slipped and fell coming out of a shop while on holiday in New York. There was a trip to the hospital, a couple of scans, a prescription for painkillers and it added up to thousands, even though there was, thankfully, nothing broken and no hospital stay. The holiday was ruined as he was in too much pain to do the sight seeing they had planned. Again, at least insurance covered the expenses. Shit happens. Never assume it won't.

It’s ridiculous.

I go on holiday with my elderly father who has multiple health conditions. His insurance often costs more than the holiday but no way would we go without as the cost of treatment would be far higher.

I see it as part of the cost of the holiday and if you can’t afford it then you don’t book the holiday.

I've just been reading about this. My husband has AF which is one of the conditions this woman has, and we've decided we won't be going away until he's had the surgery that he's on the waiting list for. Even with insurance I wouldn't want to risk it in case they found a way of getting out of paying

I can't even imagine just going anyway without any insurance

Makes you wonder doesn't it