Tell me why I should bother with travel insurance?

[PeaGreene]

Bit late for cancellation insurance - nothing much going to stop us now!

Medical? We're only going to italy. Don't we just take a E111 form?

Luggage? Is there that much chance of loosing the lot? So long as we keep all valuables in the hand luggage...

Well?

E111 only gives you a discount on medical expenses.

In fact some insurance companies don't pay out the full amount if you don't present your E111 form.

Someone near us slipped in a fountain, no insurance, his family needed to raise thousands of pounds to get him home, he still in wheelchai may never walk again.
Not worth the risk.

So when one of you is injured /falls seriously ill you don't have to wait till they are fully fit to fly (insurance would pay for air ambulance to repatriate to a UK hospital once stable), pay for hotel bills for extra nights whilst waiting for recovery, new air tickets if you missed your flight due to accident/illness.

And thats just for starters - it really is worth it. You wouldn't know that till something went wrong, but if that happens you don't want to be on your own.

So you need insurance and an E111 form? Never had one before. is that bad???

Where do I get one anyway?

Don't mean to be grim but if you had a serious accident and needed helicoptering somewhere or a major operation the E111 (you need a EU health card now).

See this link for how it works - gov still reccommends travel insurance.

Thanks for link. Oh shit - need to get my skates on...

They're pretty quick!

Sooo, better get EHIC and insurance online first thing in the morning...

I was grateful for us having taken out medical insurance when we were on holiday and I had to have my appendix taken out

you can get it pretty cheap really.
I don't bother for holidays in the UK, but do abroad.

You would be mad not to have insurance, I have lost count of the people I had to deal with who didnt bother with insurance, only to find themselves

• in hospital
• robbed

-repatriating a dead body.

lots of cheap deals on net.

Stop already! I will, I PROMISE, get insurance online in the morning.

And now I've said that on MN, it has to be done! Or "threads I'm on" will haunt me...

Message withdrawn

You may have travel insurance under the terms of your credit card. It's a reasonably common perk. Check how good it is, though. We bought extra because we go to lovely countries with completely shit health care systems

Insurance. Done.

EHIC. Done.