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.

That's what I thought from reading the article.

Yeah sounds like she did this before she actually checked with her insurance company as to whether she was actually covered or not. A complete non story really. But then it is the daily mail.

This thread made me check my travel insurance, repatriation is covered thankfully. And don't have to report any pre-existing conditions as its group insurance via my Union (but if I have chronic conditions that might need treatment while travelling I really need better insurance)

You would be covered in a state hospital. Even now with GHIC card the cost is under £100 Why did you go to a private one?

Why does a body have to be buried within 24 hours?

I strongly suspect she didn’t have insurance. Most people would call the insurance company when illness struck. She didn’t seem to.

Apparently 25% of people go abroad without insurance m. I think she was one of them. Which insurance company was she with that didn’t cover repatriation back to UK.

Used to handle claims for a living. Frankly, I wanted the claim out of the way so I could get on with the next 200 by 5pm. If I could pay something, I paid it, as there was no way on earth my salary was high enough to make it worth having 189 people phoning back to complain when we'd only end up paying the majority of them in any case, as it was cheaper than paying for the work/time/hassle involved to deal with the complaints or the fees for an Ombudsman case.

Where it came to deaths abroad, that was different. They weren't people whingeing about how dishonest I was to 'try and wriggle out of paying' a claim where they'd apparently decided to take somewhere in the region of 5 years' salary in chunks of gold, spend five grand on a camera and then stick them under a towel on the beach whilst they went off snorkelling for 2 hours, they were people experiencing the worst time of their lives.

Most policies cover either funeral costs in the country or repatriation of a body to a UK airport, at which point it responsibility is passed to the next of kin/estate to arrange for further transportation. But the important thing is for the Insured to contact the emergency assistance line, as they can talk to hospitals, arrange for guarantees, make initial payments, sort out burial or repatriation (including a special lined coffin for infectious diseases if public health or airline rules do not preclude transportation of human remains following such an illness) and simply be there for them. Somebody having dysentery and dying of it would absolutely come under their remit. But if nobody tells them, they can't help and they can't stop somebody getting absolutely rinsed for money when they are at their most vulnerable - which is why it's a policy condition to contact them.

Unfortunately, another thing that is seen is people making very high value claims where either a condition is not as reported or there are other reasons why had it been notified, cover would not have been provided, the explanation being 'I didn't know to call' rather than 'We thought we knew better/we gambled on her terminal illness prognosis of 5 months not meaning necessary end of life treatment 4.5 months in after six hours on a plane and then into 100F heat/we thought you'd just believe us if I put the claim in later instead of following the process'.

Glad I'm not doing that job anymore, as I got called everything from a lovely lady and a saint (complete with thank you cards and gifts to the office) to an evil fucking cunt who they were going to track down to cut my throat (the latter over a china figurine of a Guardian Angel shoved into soft shell hold luggage).

But surely the insured is the dead person so how on earth are you expecting them to call the emergency assistance line??

Depends how long ago. EHIC/ghic has only been valid in Switzerland since 2004. I made the same mistake in 2001 as the previous poster, had no insurance thinking my ehic card would cover me. I was only young then and that was the last time I went abroad without insurance. My parents used to take me to France as a teenager with no insurance and said it wasn’t necessary and I think I blindly believed them.

The spouse doesn't usually die at the same time - and if they do or the Insured is travelling alone, the hospital (or Police, etc) would look for insurance details in their effects/booking details - with a package holiday, the first port of call would be the operator to see whether they took out insurance with them, for example.

I am a travel insurer by trade. Firstly in terms of claims paid, the FCA publish figures. Across our industry as a whole, for the last available year (2024), 79% of all claims were paid. Individual company data is also available, so this worth a look. Good insurers do pay claims and quickly. They also manage medical care and repatriation really well. The bulk of declines relate to non-disclosure of pre-existing medical conditions and delays or cancellations which are not covered by the policy. go to www.fca.gov.uk and put in GI value measures into the search at the top

Please buy a good policy from a reputable company if at all possible. Never ever travel to the US without travel costs. The costs are very high and will be life changing if you fall ill. I recently dealt with a claim for someone who felt unwell and who was admitted to hospital for a week, just for tests and observation. the cost is in excess $100k.

Please always disclose any medical conditions or hospital visits you have made. For a significant medical claim, we will obtain and review your medical records.

Check what cancellation cover you have and how it works. Check cover for travelling against Foreign Office advice, i.e. if the FO designate that UK citizens should not travel, are you covered?

But the spouse isn't the " insured " in that case .

It did make funny reading

Interesting to know what they'd do if you died while travelling alone. Like to know how they would access my emails to get the details though. ( Wouldn't take a package holiday ever)

Just to add on relying on EHIC. There is a case for doing so if your destination is in a well developed European destination. So France, Germany or Belgium perhaps. However, you might then spend a long period in a foreign hospital which is distressing for you and your relatives.

Do not rely on EHIC outside of very developed European countries. For example, on Greek islands, the number of intensive care beds can be very small in public hospitals. You could be very ill and moved out of intensive care, if a more urgent case arrives. Also on Greek islands, there is an expectation that relatives will provide some nursing care, which could necessitate someone stopping with you.

It’s a local rule. There isn’t much cold storsge for bodies and it being a hot country then there could be fairly rapid putrification. So they like to get them in the ground quickly. If your going to repatriate then the body needs to be embalmed.

Not Europe but I came down with appendicitis a couple of days after returning from Singapore. I do so bloody wish it had happened while I was still there. I'd likely have actually been seen and got the appendix removed before it turned into sepsis and had a 6 week spell in a UK hospital. A few days in one in Singapore would've been far preferable

Thanks for info.

They are when they also need to be accommodated whilst the patient is in hospital past the original return date, have a replacement flight booked, be able to make a claim for the portion of the holiday that was curtailed due to flying home five days early (as it would be inhumane to expect them to wait to fly back on their original flight, even if a coffin space could be arranged) - and then there's the question of liability for costs; you don't think that Valerie Bloggs is told 'Oh, the hospital says your Frank's died, guess you can sort yourself out, you'll be able to pick up his mortal remains at baggage reclaim when you get there next Tuesday', do you?

Insurers and Assistance Companies don't just help the one person who is ill/has died when there are two people on the policy (or more, they don't abandon a six year old and a newborn if something happens to a parent, either, as they are also insured). It just doesn't work like that.

Even if they spouse wasn't on the policy?

Yes, if you are going to fall ill anywhere I think Singapore would be a good place to do so. Excellent healthcare facilities, very efficient administration and the costs though not cheap, are not extortionate.

I think there can be an issue if you just add the bog standard holiday insurance to your booking. It just asks DOB and no medical details. I suspect that there are so many things that this doesn’t cover but people don’t read the small print and think they are insured.

Come on, you really need to ask this? Don’t be obtuse.

Good post. I’m an insurance lawyer (not travel insurance though) and the amount of misinformation and cynicism on this thread about how insurance works is staggering.

Would I be right in thinking that repatriation of the deceased is covered as standard in pretty much all travel insurance policies?

Well, to be fair it’s not the menopause you are declaring- it’s that you are taking medication (I doubt you need to declare menopause if you aren’t take medication). You need to declare any prescribed medication.

Some conditions carry additional risks of needing treatment abroad. Some medications carry additional risks that could affect the under-writing of the policy. HRT carries a risk of bloods clots (as does the combined pill, for instance)- though lower with transdermal oestrogen than oral.

Bloods clots can be triggered by periods of immobility (more of a risk with long haul flights), especially if combined with other contributory factors such as dehydration (slightly more common on flights or with travel to warm places), raised BMI, or being a smoker. So, being honest I can see why being on HRT might impact on your insurance premium (though I don’t think should massively increase your premium).

Additionally, whilst it does seem perverse that insurer would not pay out when the undeclared medical condition is clearly unrelated, the premium is based on all relevant factors. And, to be fair, every insurer i have ever used have been very clear that failure to declare anything invalidates the policy. So, if you don’t agree then don’t take the insurance (as you are wasting money).

I could not give a categoric assurance that repatriation is covered in all policies, but it would be covered as standard in the vast majority. As opposed to medical costs, repatriation is a much more definite cost. Arguably in a policy where it is not covered, a customer could argue that the exclusion is unusual and therefore should have been covered in the sales script and the policy summary.

I had Insurance with a £50 excess so lid have gladly paid that