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

It’s definitely necessary but also just as important to be aware of the terms. I’ve seen crowd-funders where travel insurance was in place but the person has injured themselves doing something that invalidated their insurance (like getting on a motorbike).

Only a complete prat would go abroad without insurance
no way would I give money to a ‘go fund me’ page if it all went tits up and had an accident or something

I think it should be compulsory.

It's an absolute necessity as without it, it could be financially devastating. I have a number of pre-existing conditions so going through medical screening is a pain but I would never go without it.

However, I do on the whole think the insurance industry needs tougher regulation as there are far too many instances of travel insurance companies doing their upmost to get out of paying out for the most tenuous of reasons.

If you can't afford to tip, you can still afford a meal out.
If you can't afford to buy holiday insurance, you can't afford a holiday.
If you're not organised enough to organise holiday insurance, you're too disorganised to travel.

I do feel very sorry for the go fund mes, but I also think they are incredibly stupid and I wouldn't contribute.

Literally facing the entire family going bankrupt.

Something like half of people going bankrupt in USA do so due to medical bills.

Whenever I see those gofundmes I'm afraid my response is "that's on you". Annual travel insurance is peanuts, frankly. Yes, you may need to pay extra if you're doing certain activities but even then it's not huge sums.

Once we've persuaded everyone to get insurance the next battle is to get them to read the policy to make sure it covers the things they intent to do whilst travelling, or not do. Accidents when intoxicated can be excluded, particularly in USA. They do mandatory alcohol testing when admitted to AE and their definition of 'intoxicated' might not be the same as the British or Irish definition.

Yes, or being denied a claim for consuming alcohol when it wasn't a factor in the accident and the person was totally sensible eg a glass of wine; or people who didn't say they had asthma and then they break an arm and the company doesn't pay out.

YANBU. I hope you told her how bloody rude she was with the boomer mentality comment!

I feel it depends a lot on the location.

Europe - I don’t normally take one
USA - first thing I’d do before even looking at flights 🤣🤣

Also depends on how healthy you are etc…

But I have to say, seing how good insurances are at not paying if they can find any loophole, it’s making me think twice before taking one. Basically, if you have a chronic health condition, even if it’s minor, they will find something you haven’t told them about iyswim. That’s why I dint bother with europe.

I've always considered insurance an absolute necessity and I've never traveled without it.

In terms of age being a factor, possibly younger people might not think to get insurance and tend to be more reckless, but I'd expect a 32 year old with small children to be past that.

Some of the people I know who do travel (only within Europe) without insurance are actually older and have medical conditions that either make them uninsurable or make it much less valuable vs the costs of just paying for any medical needed whilst they are out there. But they are making a deliberate choice with their eyes open.

I see it as a necessity but we have several conditions we have to declare and we are already over £600 for an annual policy which will be higher next year as we had to add on a few more mid policy. We are going on holiday a lot at the moment knowing in a couple of years it will probably be too expensive to travel long haul as our policy is currently worldwide including USA.

Depends on if you have pre existing conditions though. I was quoted nearly 3k on an annual policy a few years ago because id HAD a stage 1 cervical cancer

Never mind the fact they'd removed it all and I had regular check ups showing clear. And if it did return it wasn't going to cause sudden immediate problems.

If a younger colleague had said that to me I’d be putting her straight on her ageism! What an awful woman.

Like 3k is peanuts?

It's insane, because if you're not planning on doing anything particularly risky, and don't have any pre-existing conditions, it costs peanuts. I don't think I've ever paid more than about £25 for covering a single trip.

She sounds thick as shit. My DC are in their mid/late twenties and have annual travel insurance policies.

Blimey! I’ve had cancer, got high blood pressure and cholesterol plus knee problems and pay £15 a month for worldwide cover.

If you have a Platinum American Express card, travel insurance is included.
It's not cheap, but it probably would be cheaper for people with preexisting conditions.
It also gives the highest level of insurance for care rentals, which can also be a lot more on top of the hire charge.

I always used to get travel insurance for holidays abroad. Never claimed, luckily, because it's only in recent years that I realised they probably wouldn't have paid out anyway due to things I never declared which were minor in my mind (hence not declaring them) but would have given them an excuse not to pay out. So really I wasted my money.

I have given different advice to my adult DC and told them it's not optional but they absolutely must declare every single little thing! Like when my DS saw the GP as he had piles! Seems ridiculous, but it's worthless without declaring.

I now have an ongoing medical issue with no diagnosis. It's not life threatening, nor would it lead to me needing a hospital stay so, at some point, I'll probably take the chance. I'd still get insurance just for the sake of having cover for luggage, cancellation etc but the chances of it paying out in a medical emergency are low. But then I had a huge amount of health checks re my issue and I am otherwise very healthy. I don't want to go the the US again anyway, that's one place I would not risk! But anywhere else then yes I'll probably risk it. I don't undertake any "risky" activities so I'd have to be quite unlucky for it to be an issue. Also I don't own a house, nor does anyone close to me, so no one would be needing to sell a home if I was caught out.

I buy an annual policy every year , but does tend to be the cheapest one , touch wood never had to claim on it , but wonder what, if anything would be covered !
No way I would travel without it though

It does indeed - at public/state health facilities only. Not, as a lot of people believe, at the numerous private clinics you typically see in popular resorts.

Also as a PP mentioned - cost of repatriation or air ambulance is definitely not covered by the GHIC and can run into multi-thousands of pounds.

Also worth mentioning - Turkey is NOT part of the scheme, as many seem to believe.

When I was younger I never used to bother, as I only travelled within Europe, and assumed the EHIC would cover anything I needed. (And I did use it about 3 or 4 times, and was present with friends when they used theirs too). Being young, of course I assumed that nothing that bad would happen to me where I'd need to be repatriated or anything like that.

Now in my 30s and with kids, we have started getting travel insurance.

I have adult children who are 42. They have never travelled out of the UK without insurance. It is irresponsible to do so.