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.

And those people are usually right. I think it's reasonable to make one's own decision to accept certain risks (eg you accept that if you die abroad you won't be brought back to the UK). And it's reasonable to "self-insure" - you accept that in the unlikely event of a serious injury in an accident, or an unexpected health crisis, you will pay for repatriation to the UK out of your own pocket. After all, for some people travel insurance is extremely expensive and self-insuring may well make financial sense.
An obvious tactic is to stay within Europe, where you are protected to some degree by the European health card, and where you are closer to the UK, which presumably makes repatriation cheaper. You also have the option of train or bus if you have a problem with flying.

I think people imagine Cape Verde to have similar infrastructure to Madeira or the Canaries.

I doesn't.

And some insurers don't even tell you to declare pre-existing conditions. We have annual travel insurance with our home insurance policy and I had to ask the insurers whether we should declare medical conditions as it didn't say anywhere in the documents that you had to. They agreed it might be a good idea!

Well, for most people it doesn't, as that's how insurance works and for a lot of people it's cheap as anything happening is fairly unlikely.

I can't see any reason to criticise the poor woman. The couple had insurance; he unexpectedly died. She must have been in shock and perhaps made a quick decision that meant she could go home without the time and hassle likely to be needed to arrange repatriation.
It's a sad story.

It is interesting as I have been trying to get travel insurance today. How far do you go with declaring as it suggests you need to tell them about every Dr visit in the last 2 years? Fine for me but seems excessive for the kids! None of us have any medical conditions.

I’ve never understood people who don’t buy adequate travel insurance. My brother, who as far as anyone knew, was fit and healthy when he went on his last trip, suffered a ruptured aneurysm in a rural area of Bolivia. His insurance company paid for a private transfer to a major city, where he was in hospital for three days before he was moved by a chartered private plane to Lima. He was in hospital for over two weeks, in a coma, while the insurance company made arrangements to transfer him back to Australia where he lived. The flight home was in a small air ambulance, with a full medical team, and it took nearly two days to get him back. He was pronounced brain dead when he arrived back in Australia and his life support equipment was turned off the next day. The total cost of the claim was around £120,000, which would have been near impossible to have paid if he hadn’t had proper insurance. When he left home, the last thing he or his wife ever expected was to be coming back in an air ambulance.

We went with travelinsurance4medical. co. uk

It was all online, they ask a question up front along the lines of 'Is anyone on the policy waiting for test results/ investigations/procedures' and we ticked yes. A pop-up box appeared which just said that any such condition would be excluded for cancellation or curtailment of the holiday. Then we declared all our conditions in the normal way - for my 'lesion on arm' the only follow-up question was 'has the lesion been diagnosed as cancer' which I could answer honestly as 'no' since I was awaiting the investigations.

So while cancellation/curtailment was excluded, had I needed emergency treatment for my mole whilst on holiday I would have been covered. A mole is obviously a poor example as it would never require emergency treatment; had I been waiting tests for a cardiac condition instead, I expect this would have increased the premium by £££ once I declared the condition and answered the (presumably many) questions about it.

Did I say I did care? On a personal level no, I a cold hearted bitch and I couldn’t give a shit to be honest 🤔😁

This is a chat forum, people talk about stuff they see, hear about….its like 80% of posts!

I do think it’s worth raising awareness though especially at this time of year that people do need to make sure they have adequate cover. I just wouldn’t like anyone else to be in such a situation. Like I and others have mentioned on this thread there’s often stories about insurance not paying out due to not disclosing pre existing conditions, etc. not saying that’s what happened here but you have to be so careful. And don’t chance it thinking you’ll be ok.

I've never considered this. When I'm booking travel insurance I just check we're covered for all the activities we plan to do and have all health conditions declared. It just never occurred to me that someone might die and I'd need to check the insurance covered bringing them home.

This.

I have complex medical needs - long term, indefinite ongoing PIP, under 5 different consultants etc etc. We considered going to CV one year and did some research into it and decided it definitely isn’t the holiday for someone with health issues - even on the largest island there’s one Doctor, no hospitals. Medical care is absolutely basic at best. For anything more complex than basic food poisoning (of which there is a lot!) you’d need to be airlifted off. People just don’t realise what it’s like in a bad situation, they’re too focused on the sun and the beaches.

My dad got banned from CV by his travel insurance! They said it wasn’t worth it. His cardiologist agreed.

That was my point. No one ever thinks it will happen to them. Until it does.

Declare it all! Otherwise they may wriggle out. It's not worth the risk. My favourite one for DS was a visit for a boil (in his ear). Couldn't find that in the drop down list so had to select 'Carbuncle' instead!

Received our annual travel insurance policy renewal and realised a number of Mrs B's conditions, which include Chronic Kidney Disease, had not been previously declared. Added them but now LV won't cover them.

Shopping around.

Because most people can't afford that much. Yet often feel that after what they've been through, they deserve to take that dream holiday. IT doesn't make them a bad person-they might have worked harder/done more in their lives than another person who can afford to buy the insurance.
There are some people who spend all their money on unnecessary things, then say they don't have enough left to feed themselves/pay for their kid's school trip, and happily take other people's money to pay for it. Some of us wouldn't buy the unnecessary stuff and save so we can pay it ourselves.

What about where undiagnosed? For example we took her to hospital at Xmas as bad stomach pain but no diagnosis?

I always insure me and my family well when we travel. We declare all relevant issues and cover ourselves for any excursions / activities. Some say I’m OTT, I say I’m saving my family from the pain of having to start a Go Fund Me should the worst happen….

The devil really is in the detail but it’s all there to read over when you buy an insurance policy.

They are but if they are suddenly dealt an awful hand, they have to pay up.

See if I dies abroad id not want to have my body carted back to the UK and wouldn't be bothered about ashes either.

Both my partner and adult kids are well aware of this

However my travel insurance does include it ( renewal quote time)

The answer to your question is very simple, and I'm not sure why you're even confused. Most people simply don't have hundreds of pounds going spare, and the risk of something very serious happening on holiday is realistically so tiny, that a lot of people think it's a gamble worth taking in order to have a bit of fun in life.

Insurers hate that

I have no means of inputting that one though.

Why would it be excessive for the kids? How often do they go to the doctor? I know 18mth old dgc has never been apart from 6 week check and jabs and his siblings been twice in 8 years

You are guided by the questions. Select the closest option e.g. 'Stomach pain' and then it will ask questions (were you hospitalised, did you have operation) etc. As long as you answer truthfully you will be ok. If in doubt, call them up and ask how it should be declared.

It's REALLY important this episode is declared, as it could be e.g. a grumbling appendix. If she gets appendicitis on holiday and needs an operation they won't cover it if you have an undeclared hospital visit for stomach pain in previous 2 years! They'll say it was pre-existing.