Another day, another person with inadequate travel insurance

[JulietteHasAGun]

So very sadly a British man has died in Cape Verde while on an all inclusive Tui holiday with his wife.

She believes his travel insurance wouldn’t cover repatriation of his body so has buried him in an unmarked grave over there and had to come home without him. Which must be very distressing for her. I do sympathise but also think why on earth don’t people get adequate travel insurance. I know it’s expensive as you get older and have pre existing conditions, etc.

friend of mine it cost 5k in travel insurance for her mum to go to Florida for 2 weeks when terminally ill but they paid it. I pay £hundreds for Dd due to her medical issues.

If i couldn’t afford it I wouldn’t go. They could have gone to Spain and had a cheaper holiday, then afforded holiday insurance as well plus being covered by ghic…..though obviously that wouldn’t cover repatriation.

Have to say I’m surprised Tui didn’t help out as they have their own planes especially because there’s lots of rumblings about Brits dying in their hotels over there due to Norovirus, stomach bugs being rampant in their hotels and this guy died after a severe episode of d&v.

You obviously didn't really the later comment I made on it ffs. I found it funny.

Bit like if someone dies and you ring sky TV ( amongst others) to cancel it and they make a big fuss about only speaking to the names customer.

Yes but when you’re talking about a couple or family travelling abroad they're generally all insured if they have insurance.

The number of people who go abroad and only insure part of the party and something happens to the insured person meaning they cannot deal with the insurance company themselves must be varnishingly small.

In the minority of cases where only part of the group have insurance, its more likely that the bad thing will happen to the uninsured because the only reason I can think of to do this is if they have an illness that would make them too expensive to insure.

Some people, generally young fairly well folks are just going to get the cheapest without properly reading it and maybe missing the odd minor GP appointments they had. Unfortunately my adult DS probably falls into this category

If the spouse has decided to travel uninsured (which would be stupid because their suitcase is just as likely to get lost in transit, they might need to come home as well because the house has burned down, etc), then they'd be treated as the patient's representative and would be assisted in terms of what the patient needed, but would not be able to claim any expenses themselves. Like how a lone traveller's adult son or daughter would be able to liaise with them to sort out Dad's treatment or repatriation and the resulting claim submission (and on occasion when specifically necessary - and cheaper than paying for a professional to accompany where it was necessary but a nurse was not), could be flown out to accompany them on the return flight and the cost covered as something the Insured person needed.

Seriously, with the number of claims that come in every day in the summer season, the focus was get the bulk of them sorted and out of the way so that honest people with awful things happening to them that weren't their fault could have terrible times not made any worse than they already were; I didnt want to be wasting my time being sworn at about a split bottle of shampoo ruining three loaves of white sliced and a packet of ham when I could be talking an elderly lady through what happened next or calling a US hospital and telling them to stop contacting the deceased's wife at 3am as I'd already made payment of that bill direct.

I got travel insurance for decades without it ever occurring to me that I needed to declare things. I didn't have any major medical issues, and have always assumed that it's only major issues that might need to be discussed upfront. I think that that is the case for some insurance policies. The one I've taken out recently says you don't need to declare anything unless you have beyond a certain number of conditions, and those conditions are set out. This means that very many people won't need to declare anything.

Not necessarily with the same policy though. For example if someone has to go the USA regularly insurance is more expensive. Why would their partner be buying the more expensive insurance for a trip to Europe. ?

No if the spouse had a separate policy of their own. Where did I say anything about the spouse being uninsured?

Are these annual policies or one-holiday policies? We've always had annual and have had to declare 2 years' worth of conditions and update the insurer with any new health changes, but it might be that the 'risk' to the insurer of not collecting this for the one-off policies is adequately covered by the higher per-day premiums paid when you cover one trip (e.g. £40 for a week), vs unlimited travel over 365 days (£150 annual).

See the above answer but substitute in 'and would work together with the assistance company attached to the spouse's insurance policy' (could easily be the same assistance co anyhow) at the beginning.

i wouldn’t be surprised if osteoarthritis bumps the price up.

My current policy is with Aviva via Nationwide bank. They ask for details of anything you've seen a doctor for in the last year plus anything you've taken ongoing prescription for. I declared a long list of medical conditions including osteoarthritis. It's just occurred to me that while it's an ongoing painful condition, I haven't actually seen a doctor about it or had any prescriptions for it so I'll delete that on renewal.

@Sunnnyday I've seen those policies which have a list of minor conditions that are automatically included. None of the conditions are likely to result in cancelled holidays or expensive medical treatment. Probably a good idea for most people who might forget to declare hay fever or the like.

When I travel I keep a small zip-lock bag on me at all times. It contains a few printouts/scans including my passport, my accommodation details, my flight details, the contact details of the people I am travelling with (if relevant), and my travel insurance details.

In all these years that little bag has sat forgotten in the bottom of my coat pocket or day bag, but if there ever comes a day when someone is dealing with my unconscious or dead body, I would like these things to go smoothly.

Very sensible.

For those thinking of multiple ways to avoid being easily identified when incapacitated, there would be bank cards, passports, bus passes, airport parking, hire car agreements, phones to get into via following smudges on the lock screen, thumbprints or face ID, ICE details on phones, records of entry including biometrics, reports from hotel or apartment owners, etc, that somebody hasn't returned but their stuff is still in the room, medication in bags, records of no shows at airports, police appeals for information, relatives, friends or employers reporting that somebody hasn't returned as expected, somebody calling or texting to ask where they'd got to - and then if somebody were to turn up deceased, there would also be information obtained through post mortem examinations.

There will always be some cases where somebody can't be easily identified - but if they're not in a position to give their details, they'll just stay in hospital until either they can be or given an anonymous funeral. And once they are identified, the insurance company can be traced if there is one. If not, debt collection companies start calling the next of kin to get their money. Which is not very pleasant for the person on the other end of the phone at 3am, to find out one day that their relative has died and the next thing they hear is 'you have to pay $135,000 immediately, when will you pay, we have to be paid, we can enforce the debt, did the deceased own any property' etc, etc, etc.

It seems a whole lot less painful for relatives to not have to deal with that on top of a bereavement or serious illness/injury to somebody they care about. So your decision to carry the details with you would be both sensible and thoughtful.

This is so rampant. Insurance companies will do ANYTHING to get out of paying.

Anyone remember AXA trying to force Jane Rubens to fly home when she was severely ill?

I once lost a holiday because I had emergency surgery on the day I was due to fly. You'd have thought it was a straightforward claim. Nope. First they wanted a letter from hospital admissions, then my consultant. Then they wanted proof we had cancelled the flights. My DH had managed to so that, but only because I had read that they will try to screw you over if you don't. Then the proof had to be by letter not email. Then they came back again and said my GP needed to provide my entire medical history so they could see it was actually an emergency. In the end I gave up. I was in so much pain from the slow healing wound and they made it such a nightmare. So the money for the flights and villa were never returned. The insurance was through a Lloyd's Premier account. I don't recommend it!

Sometimes people are insured but get caught out anyway

Relatives are not responsible for a dead persons debts

Huh?

So that the person can be buried in their home country, allowing their surviving family to visit their grave? What an odd post

Also Islamic I think which burial within 24 hours and preferably on the same day is the norm.

If the family are that worried about grave visiting then they can bloody pay for it The dead don't care