[londonite]

Anyone here risk it or is that just stupidity?

[trphil]

Never bother when going away in this country.

[londonite]

what about in the USA

[ubanjod]

I have never bought travel insurance, but do have an Amex platinum charge card, which covers us all. Never had to use it.

[roland rat]

Originally Posted by londonite

Anyone here risk it or is that just stupidity?

I went last on holiday with out travel insurance

I have had some problems with my heart, and have been to see the doctor, and been to hospital, now for my inurance, I had to declare this, and quotes I was getting for my 2 weeks holiday in Italy was £60-£80, I even asked them for normal insurance, they refused

I thought that cost was to much, took advice from my doctor, he checked me over, and couldnt see any issues with me, going abroad without insurance

so of I went, and had a wonderfull time, and no problems at all, and I had saved my self £80, due to go away in July, and will go once agin and speak to my doctor

[woodbush]

I wouldn't risk it for the USA. Medical charges can be horrendous. For the sake of a few pounds and peace of mind just get some.

[davidmcn]

Originally Posted by londonite

what about in the USA

If you've got enough money in the bank to cover potential medical bills, why not.

[TRIPS]

Not having insurance outside the EU is madness.
I prefer to have travel insurance inside the EU.
also no point in taking out insurance if your not honest about your medical history, declare any medical problems in the past before you pay.

[Gooby]

Originally Posted by roland rat

I went last on holiday with out travel insurance

I have had some problems with my heart, and have been to see the doctor, and been to hospital, now for my inurance, I had to declare this, and quotes I was getting for my 2 weeks holiday in Italy was £60-£80, I even asked them for normal insurance, they refused

I thought that cost was to much, took advice from my doctor, he checked me over, and couldnt see any issues with me, going abroad without insurance

so of I went, and had a wonderfull time, and no problems at all, and I had saved my self £80, due to go away in July, and will go once agin and speak to my doctor

Your doctor may be able to let you know you are unlikely to suffer heart problems on holiday but he has no way of knowing that you will get run over by hit and run and break your leg. If you have no travel insurance you will have to pay all your medical costs yourself which can easily run to 10K. To my mind it ain't work travelling without insurance.

You could see if you can get a policy which specifically excludes heart problems. It will probably be more like £15 for your holiday and will cover you for accidents but not if you have heart problems.

[Punkchick]

I hurt my knee while in Colorado and was extremely happy to have insurance as my treatment came to £2.5k+. I also broke my shoulder badly in Austria and the bill came to nearly £10k so no I won't go abroad without insurance. We have a couples worldwide annual policy which is about £100 a year but we do go abroad about 6 times a year so it is worth it for peace of mind. I would also hate to lose my luggage and not have any insurance to recover some of the costs of replacing it. Luckily that has never happened but they have mis-laid my luggage before for a few days so they gave me money to go and buy some clothes etc. so I had something yo wear for those few days.

[Georgiecats]

It's foolish to go abroad without insurance.

If anything happens - either medical or legal - you will have to pay your own expenses, and probably another flight home because if anything happens you will undoubtedly miss your booked flight.

You also wouldn't be allowed home until you have paid! Which means you would probably have to ask relatives/friends to send you money! That is irresponsible.

Insurance is there for a reason. Remember other countries do not have our much aligned NHS. Any medical treatment will not be free. And if anything else happens legal-wise say you got into something you had no control over and got arrested (it does happen) then you need help with lawyers and funding.

I wouldn't dream of going abroad without these safeguards. Nor should you expect other people to bail you out of any problems.

[Georgiecats]

Originally Posted by roland rat

I went last on holiday with out travel insurance

I have had some problems with my heart, and have been to see the doctor, and been to hospital, now for my inurance, I had to declare this, and quotes I was getting for my 2 weeks holiday in Italy was £60-£80, I even asked them for normal insurance, they refused

I thought that cost was to much, took advice from my doctor, he checked me over, and couldnt see any issues with me, going abroad without insurance

so of I went, and had a wonderfull time, and no problems at all, and I had saved my self £80, due to go away in July, and will go once agin and speak to my doctor

Your Doctor will not be able to speak for you if you have an accident or an unexpected heart problem! YOU and you alone will get landed with the hospital bills.

[Nilrem]

Originally Posted by davidmcn

If you've got enough money in the bank to cover potential medical bills, why not.

Given the sort of costs that you can easily run up in the U.S in regards to medical access, I would never chance not having cover.
Even things like blood tests, or a simple broken leg can cost a small fortune over there. and if you're unlucky enough to get hurt in a way that requires hospital treatment it can easily come to several thousands of pounds (IIRC a night in an American hospital can easily cost £300+ before any meds, treatment or doctors fees).
IIRC medical costs are one of the main causes of bankruptcy in the states.

[ubanjod]

Here are a couple of links to help make your mind up

Shows a breakdown of what medical help is available under the NHS agreement.

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthc...countries.aspx

http://www.abi.org.uk/Media/Releases...ll_abroad.aspx

ABI figures reveal that last year travel insurers:


Paid out £275 million in meeting the cost of emergency medical treatments for UK travellers who fell ill abroad – or £5.3 million every week. The cost of medical expenses claims has leapt by over 270% in the last six years.
·******** Dealt with 337,000 claims for overseas emergency medical treatment –** almost 6,500 cases a week. This number rose threefold over the last six years.

[What name??]

I don't think most of us have any idea how expensive medical treatments can be because it is free at the point of use in the UK so we don't have to think about cost. It's nutty not to have medial insurance outside of the EU and countries where we have reciprocal agreements, but it is a good idea to have coverage even in the EU as a lot of countries also have co-pay systems or charges or involve payments for prescriptions.

[Iphigenia]

Sheer stupidity not to have it, even for EU travel.

The EU reciprocal card - in Germany anyway - only covers emergency treatment. Any ongoing treatment, even that resulting from the emergency, is payable.

[Lizzy11268]

Medical bills in the US can be astronomical, I would never travel there without full comprehensive insurance. Its just asking for trouble.

[Tech Lover]

I buy travel insurance whenever I need to fly on a plane.

[Teddybear99]

I have never travelled without it, thankfully I have never had to use it, but if something happened to me or my OH on holiday the last thing I would want to worry about is whether we can afford treatment etc.

Last year we went on a trek over the Carpathian mountains in Romania, and we got a really good policy from Sainsbury that not only covered trekking up to 2,500 metres but added pre-existing conditions for just an extra few pounds.

[Voynich]

I suppose you can always appear in a Daily Mail begging story with your sadface on if something does go wrong.

[barneyboy]

Oh my lord, what a crazy question.

Everyone knows you need insurance and if people dont get it why should others pick up the pieces?

My mum had a heart attack in Tenerife, She and my dad ended up there for over 6 weeks. Not only did the insurance pay for my dads apartment they flew them home, hired a translator and put her into a private hospital.

Ive had another friend Kerry who in Turkey a group of English lads at night thought it was funny to chuck her in the pool. Little did they realise the pool had been drained for cleaning. She nearly died.

[Voynich]

Originally Posted by barneyboy

Oh my lord, what a crazy question.

Everyone knows you need insurance and if people dont get it why should others pick up the pieces?

My mum had a heart attack in Tenerife, She and my dad ended up there for over 6 weeks. Not only did the insurance pay for my dads apartment they flew them home, hired a translator and put her into a private hospital.

Ive had another friend Kerry who in Turkey a group of English lads at night thought it was funny to chuck her in the pool. Little did they realise the pool had been drained for cleaning. She nearly died.

You'd think so. Unfortunately we're not short of daft people who go abroad.

[roland rat]

Originally Posted by Gooby

Your doctor may be able to let you know you are unlikely to suffer heart problems on holiday but he has no way of knowing that you will get run over by hit and run and break your leg. If you have no travel insurance you will have to pay all your medical costs yourself which can easily run to 10K. To my mind it ain't work travelling without insurance.

You could see if you can get a policy which specifically excludes heart problems. It will probably be more like £15 for your holiday and will cover you for accidents but not if you have heart problems.

Originally Posted by Georgiecats

Your Doctor will not be able to speak for you if you have an accident or an unexpected heart problem! YOU and you alone will get landed with the hospital bills.

That was made cler to me by the doctor, if involvd in an accident, what do I do, no insurance

Now I had considered this, and as the resort is very safe, and in the 6 years I have been going, have had no accidents

Now thats not to say, my holiday this july, I have an accident, as for asking for exclusion this is something I will check on

[RobinOfLoxley]

Some friends of ours (visiting Canada) and my Aunt and Uncle (visiting South of France) both caught out and £10K+ each time.

France wouldn't have been too bad. They were staying with son and wife and most of the charges were covered by reciprocal agreement. But still some significant charges from the local hospital that were not covered.
Their main cost was repatriation by air ambulance to a UK hospital. Uncle was too ill to travel any other way.

[Miles_T]

Originally Posted by roland rat

That was made cler to me by the doctor, if involvd in an accident, what do I do, no insurance

Now I had considered this, and as the resort is very safe, and in the 6 years I have been going, have had no accidents

Now thats not to say, my holiday this july, I have an accident, as for asking for exclusion this is something I will check on

My street is 'safe' but I could still get hit by a Bus tomorrow. You are mental if you go abroad without Insurance.