Do you buy travel insurance when travelling overseas?
Travel insurance can be costly and a challenge to arrange, especially if you have a pre-exisitng medical condition.
When you arrange a holiday do you also arrange travel insurance? Or would you risk travelling abroad uninsured and be prepared to pay for any issues, if and when they cropped up?
What are your views on this?
We'd love to hear your comments
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Within Europe medical treatment (basic) is covered by your EHIC card, but commonly things like ambulances may not be! I know this from my experience in France.
Insurance also generally covers other factors such as delayed, cancelled or missed flights, and if you are skiing then loss of equipment, piste closure or avalanche.
The most annoying thing about these companies is that they will not allow you to exclude certain conditions...you either have to exclude all or none of them.
My hubby was treated for Prostate Cancer 2 years ago and has been in remission ever since. He would have quite happily excluded that condition (which we think is the one that boosted the cost), as it is not the type of illness that would require emergency treatment. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced policy (is there such a thing for our age group?!) that allows you to pick and choose what you exclude? This £400 really spoiled the excitement of booking our first holiday in 8 years.
We used AllClearOptions.co.uk 🙂
Only last week my partner was involved in a robbery in Marbella. A gang of Moroccans went into a bar and stole handbags, wallets etc and when he and his friend confronted them they were attacked. He ended up with a semi-detached retina, his friend with kidney damage and a burst ear drum ... You never know what might happen to you when you're travelling.
The first (in her late sixties) was in Spain when on the second day suffered a TIA. She was hospitalized for a whole month, undergoing many different tests and was not allowed to travel for six weeks. Thankfully her insurance company covered everything (and her husband's extra expenses of staying on to be with her) until she was fit to travel.
My second friend was not so lucky - she had insurance but was in the USA when she broke her leg. She had not disclosed the fact that she had treatment for breast cancer four years previously and this invalidated her policy. Somehow they managed to pay for minimum treatment (which was very expensive) but the cost of getting home was horrendous as she needed so much space.
There doesn't seem to be an option to remove my reply!
Broken knee in Nepal and being told they cant fly me home for 2 weeks! Refused to pay for my mobile phone calls caused by them phoning me!
Had to get myself home on a scheduled flight with a broken knee (all be it placed in a crocket bat splint by Kathmandu hospital supported with crutches) to my local hospital! Not good service.
Check and don't go for the easy option of a tour operators suggestion.