Do you think holiday insurance is a necessity or a luxury?

[faithfultoGeorgeMichael]

Where I live there are an increasing number of crowd funders every year for people who have an accident on holiday and have no insurance. I have always thought this was a minority of people willing to accept this risk but yesterday I spoke to a younger colleague (I am 51, she is 32) who said that no one she knows ever buys insurance and it is seen as a foolish waste of money to her and her friends.

She is off to Indonesia for a month in August with her children - with no insurance!

YABU: I would go abroad without insurance
YANBU I would only go abroad if I had insurance

I nannied for a family who went on a snowboarding trip without insurance (each thought the other parent had done it) and the dad had an horrific accident with life changing injures. 3 months in a foreign hospital and a private jet home (due to injuries he had to lay completely flat) and the cost was hundreds of thousands, IIRC it was approx £850,000 before the flight and that didn’t include the extra costs of hotels and flights for the other family members going back and forth.

It financially ruined them, they ended up selling and downsizing their home. It was horrific.

Based on that I will never ever go on holiday without insurance. If I can’t afford it then I can afford to go

My youngest son has various disabilities, I'm ex cabin crew and wouldn't dream of travelling without insurance.

Last year we took him to Florida and while I was arranging his insurance (well over £1000 for him alone) I got talking to the advisor about vaccinations. It turns out that if you haven't had all your childhood vaccinations, anything vaccinations that are offered to you and those that are recommended by FO for the country you are visiting and for your age, the insurance company can refuse to pay out- it's in the fine print. We had to get a paediatrician letter for DS to say he was advised against certain vaccines/ couldn't have them to ensure the insurance was valid. I didn't realise this and he's been away many times before- he could have had any claim refused.

Well worth checking if you or your kids aren't up to date with vaccines.

It’s not just about what happens to you. We had to cancel a holiday due to a family death a couple of days before travel. Got our money back except the excess.

Another idiot, and of course the obligatory Go fund me plea. Also, please get extra cover for any potentially dangerous activities , sports etc or the insurers won’t pay out, plus if accidents happen when the alcohol level in the body is high they won’t pay out in those cases either.
https://mol.im/a/15906943

Who did you use?

Depends on pre existing conditions.

PIL used to travel in Europe with just EHIC cards. At the time we discovered this, I was working for a funeral director and we had recently had to repatriate someone from Spain so I knew the costs involved in that (it was a young person who had travelled without insurance and who had had an accident).
That cost though is nothing compared to a medical repatriation and I pointed out that if they broke a leg on holiday the cost of getting them home could be massive. I believe that they took my advice after that and MIL now won't travel without insurance even though her medical history means it costs a lot.
I have no sympathy for anyone who chooses to travel without insurance. There are so many Go Fund Me appeals that people can't be ignorant of the consequences of travelling without insurance.

We have ours through our packaged bank accounts. We’re youngish, healthy and don’t do anything adventurous on holidays so it works fine when I’ve claimed.

This always worries me with travel insurance. The one we use asks for anything we have been investigated for/treated within the last 2 years except for certain conditions such as high blood pressure where you have to declare no matter how long ago.