To think that it should be illegal to go abroad without travel insurance

[AusBoundDD]

A friend has just put a plea for GoFundMe donations on our WhatsApp group as one of her cousins was involved in a car crash whilst on holiday in Spain, ending up in hospital with multiple bad fractures. He was uninsured so the family have been left unable to pay for his hefty ambulance fees, surgery, hospital stay etc. To make matters worse he isn’t fit to fly commercially and instead needs to be medically evacuated home to the UK via private air ambulance.

It feels like a yearly occurrence - someone begging for help to get their relative home after they’ve been stupid/naive enough to leave the country without adequate travel insurance. Surely it should be like having your passport - you can’t board a plane or gain entry to a country abroad without it?!

Have you tried Brokersure? They have a special route for under investigation.

I had to claim due to the volcanic ash cloud. We were stranded for 3 extra days. Travel insurance paid for everything. Hotels, meals, drinks. No quibbles?

Coming from post-comunist country I find constitutionally wrong for any country to limit it's citizens right to leave with artificial barriers, even more so artificial barriers depending on commercial sector.

We see having a passport as a basic right.
And our travel insurance works differently, you can easily get a cheap one covering health care related to accidents and random emergencies not related to your long term conditions. If you want your conditions covered, you need to disclose them and get personal add-on package (and that can be expensive)

I don’t think it should be illegal but it is stupid. I’ve always taken it out and never used it…. Until now. Currently sat in a hospital in SEA having had my appendix removed. Insurance covering the surgery, the ambulance speedboat from the island I was on, says in a hospital suite.

Made a shit situation much easier.

Thanks. We have just paid our annual premium, but will look at it for the future.

The one that gets me is that they charge more for medical conditions even if the medical condition actually makes you less likely to claim.

I have arthritis so I'm not going to be doing anything sporty, I'm not going to hire a moped or climb up a mountain.

I was charged extra for having my gallbladder out! I pointed out it wasn't going to cause me any problems but it didn't make any difference. It wasn't as though I was going to be travelling immediately after having surgery either, the holiday was nearly a year later!

Similar with my appendix. Obviously zero chance of getting appendicitis again

No- but should they need medical assistance while abroad they need to be able to fund it.