Why you should have travel insurance

[Ellmau]

Sorry this link is from the DFail, but it is a salutary tale about what could happen if you either don't have travel insurance, or as in this case, don't declare your pre existing conditions to save a little money in the short term: Family of British grandmother, 52, who was found covered in blood in a luxury Turkish hotel claim she is being 'held hostage by a prison camp private hospital' who won't let her fly home until she pays tens of thousands of pounds in medical bills | Daily Mail Online

(I do feel sorry for the family, and if we could avoid being too judgmental that would be nice, but I hope it might make people think about their own decisions.)

Interestingly, my insurance insisted that my GP should say whether a referral he had made at the time (last October) resulted in me being fit to fly or unfit to fly

My GP told me that they wont make comments or answer that question. I was nearly in tears, the woman I phoned back almost didnt believe me, she sounded like I'd made it up and kept repeating that the GP just needs to say whether they think you're fit to fly or not and I was telling her that teh GP wouldnt answer that question. So stressful

It is so important to declare all medical for the last 3 years. I was with Staysure until I notified them I was under referral & they refused to cover my travel. Even when I was diagnosed, they wouldn't cover it (or refund me)! I have since declared all to All Clear & they have covered everything (obviously, at a price).

My dd is currently awaiting hospital tests after a referral and I got single trip insurance today from Staysure. Her current symptoms are excluded and the premium is higher (than an annual policy for all 4 of us last year).

Still not worth the risk of not getting insurance.

I really do feel for those with multiple health conditions who get quotes into the ££££ for a single trip policy.

What I will never understand is healthy, young people not willing to spend a few dozen pounds on insurance - then something happens and they can’t comprehend why the hospital / airline / service provider want to charge them full rate.

I pay less than £100 for annual, worldwide travel insurance which includes unlimited health coverage (USA included), a 30k repatriation budget should the worst happen, and £0 excess on all claims. I am not risking my family having to plan my funeral while also trying to figure out how to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills.

It does sound as if this poor lady was taking a big risk traveling abroad alone. The article says that she’s suffering from gastrointestinal hemorrhaging, liver cirrhosis and sepsis. She was probably already unwell. 🙁

Ds & drill have just been interailing in Europe. When they arrived in Prague dsil started with a horrendous headache, he has hydrocephalus & has a shunt, they went to hospital where he had a CT scan & Xray & was given enough pain relief so they could travel home early, they had travel insurance & GHIC cards so didn't have to pay anything while they were there. It ended up costing over £300 for them to get seats on Eurostar to come home early. Dsil is now in hospital here & it is looking like he will have to have his shunt replaced, I dread to think what that would have cost while they were away, it cost over €100 just for a prescription for the pain relief to get them home.

This ^.

A friend did a round the world trip with a working holiday in Australia. I looked at insurance for him and read the exclusions.

Considering this was insurance for a working holiday lots of insurers would not insure him for manual labour or agricultural work. I thought that was a bit 'off' considering picking fruit is quite a common job.

Australia has a reciprocal health agreement with the UK, so will be covered for all urgent treatment in public hospitals. Wont cover repatriation etc, so might still be worth thinking about insuring for this reason.

Also workers compensation cover if injured while at work, paid for by annual employer compulsory insurance premiums. So tell them to jump in to fruit picking if that is what they want.

I'm on the NHS waiting list for an MRI on my hips. I've been on it since November last year with no end in sight. One of the questions on my travel insurance was "are you waiting for any scans?" If you tick yes they won't insure you. So I ticked no.

@crumpet Would you mind saying who you were insured with? They sound excellent.

Then there's no point in you taking out insurance then. Any insurer will look at your medical records in the event of a claim and if you've lied on the application you will likely have the policy cancelled.

My dd is undergoing investigations and is scheduled for an MRI - we have a trip booked soon and (after some significant research) got her insured yesterday. I can't afford hundreds of thousands of pounds in medical bills if something else goes wrong whilst we're away, it's just not worth it.

You will get insurance if you look hard enough - it'll be expensive and there will be exclusions - but as the article in the op proves, when things go wrong it's a very costly lesson.

I use AllClear as we now have, between us, a few health issues.

cost £300 for a whole year to travel in Europe, for both of us.

I would never travel without insurance, although it's only in recent years that I've started getting it as soon as we book rather than a couple of weeks before.
I'm in my early 60s, husband in his late 60s, and we have an ever increasing list of pre-existing conditions, including cancer, which do bump the cost up, but as another poster said, if you can't afford insurance you can't afford to go on holiday.
I also always remember a colleague where I worked as a student who had a moped crash in Greece. He was uninsured and the bill was about £40k over 40 years ago.

You will get insurance if you look hard enough - it'll be expensive and there will be exclusions

That seems to be the problem with the poor woman in the article though -- pre-existing conditions being excluded.

If you needed to make a claim and they take a look at your medical records they'll reject the claim on the basis of you lying though. It's technically fraud.

If you refuse access to your medical records, they would also refuse the claim as it'll be in the terms and conditions that you give them whatever they need to process the claim.

Is it worth it?

Insurers do regularly refuse claims for unrelated pre-existing conditions though and fail to make it clear when you take out insurance what level of medical history needs to be declared.

Then she shouldn't have risked going on holiday if her health is that precarious. It really is that simple.

They said that the chance of her insurers paying out is slim to none due to pre-existing medical conditions. Which could mean they were either excluded from her policy or undeclared rendering her policy invalid. If she was too sick to travel then she shouldn't have gone (cirrhosis isn't a quick-onset condition and gastro haemorrhage is a risk of later stages of disease). if she had this diagnosis and chose to risk a solo holiday that's her choice.

But that's the point of getting holiday insurance? You won't be insured.

Tick yes and they will exclude the hip problem. Not ideal but at least every other eventuality would be covered

It was crystal clear on the policy I took out yesterday - any pre-existing conditions, any gp visits, hospital visits or admissions, any investigations. Then a declaration to say everything you've written is accurate or it may invalidate your policy.

What was the insurance company?

You cant get insurance if you're awaiting results or scans/tests.

You can, I have had to a few times, as has my husband when he was going through investigations to see if he had testicular cancer (thankfully he didn’t).

You can, I did yesterday for my dd.

It is also REALLY important to make sure before you do certain activities on holiday that you're insured, should anything happen. So before you do a trial scuba dive, get onto a banana boat, hire a moped, go off-roading or zip-lining or bungee jumping, read the small print of your insurance policy. If you or your loved one is badly injured or, god forbid, killed, if you're not insured you will have to pay for all your hospital treatment and your repatriation home - and that can easily run to tens of thousands of pounds. Don't risk it!

What company?

I ask this every time this comes up on threads and when I then go and look (even if I get a reply) its not true

And there are a few differences in what is considered an investigation, if you're having scans and awaiting appointments for something thats already been diagnosed, thats different. I have GERD and am awaiting a test (cant remember the name of it) to check if there is damage to my oseophegous. I dont expect that to be a problem
Im also waiting for an appointment with a consultant after it being seen i have gallstones,

But Im also waiting for a scan for my bowels and that is open ended, whats wrong? Dont know, so I dont know if I can get insurance on this basis

As I said, Im with Staysure and they expected my GP to be able to say that following a referral he made (for the gallstone scan) I was fit to fly and my GP surgery outright refused, not just one doctor, all of them.