Drinking Holiday Insurance

wiltsguy_2

EHIC will get you basic medical cover. But lets say something worse happens....my cousin, on his stag weekend broke his leg, ok he was treated in hospital in spain but wanted to fly home! airlines don't accept passengers with casts on their legs, the fool didnt have insurance so his parents had to fork out thousands to have him flown home. For the price of a few pints get the insurance, it will also cover you should you lose your wallet/phone etc!

i travel the world with my job, luckily work provide insurance but i would never dream of not having it!

peachyprice

zaax wrote: »

You will get charged quite a bit for a non-medical patient transfer and £8.50 for each drug they use. So its not free in the UK.

You don't pay for in-patient drugs in the UK or emergency ambulances or in patient hospital transfers.

And none of that equates to 20% of your care plus a daily hospital charge does it.

JimmyTheWig

wiltsguy wrote: »

my cousin, on his stag weekend broke his leg, ok he was treated in hospital in spain but wanted to fly home! airlines don't accept passengers with casts on their legs, the fool didnt have insurance so his parents had to fork out thousands to have him flown home. For the price of a few pints get the insurance!

I may be wrong, but I would guess that your cousin was drunk at the time when he broke his leg on his stag weekend.
So he wouldn't have been covered by insurance. Which brings us full circle back to the OP.

wiltsguy_2

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I may be wrong, but I would guess that your cousin was drunk at the time when he broke his leg on his stag weekend.
So he wouldn't have been covered by insurance. Which brings us full circle back to the OP.

no he wasn't, slipped down a steep set of steps on his way out to get drunk but never made it

SandC

Take out insurance anyway, it's cheap enough. True you won't be covered for anything that happens whilst intoxicated but that would have to be proven anyway and you can fall ill at any time or have an accident at any time.

My friend on hol with us last year lost her bag and purse in a bar, unsure whether she had simply left it there or had it stolen. Her insurance was through her bank and she got a partial payment for the cash in her purse and full payment for the cost of her bag. Don't know if she blagged a bit but she had been drinking.

As for the EHIC and European cover well I can tell you for sure that it is necessary to have insurance in EU countries as well. 10 years ago my brother got sick in France on his honeymoon. So sick he was in intensive care. So sick he was put in an induced coma. His son went home with his aunt but his new wife stayed there, in touch with the insurance company all along. The treatment in hospital was free. He was there for around 8 weeks. In this time his wife and I communicated (I went over there for a week, not covered - his wife was still staying at the campsite they had been at - end of season so the rep sorted it) with insurance.

As soon as was considered well enough all parties communicated with our local hospital to get him a bed there on his return. A doctor accompanied him, they happened to fly back on a BA flight but business class so my bro could have a whole row. Ambulance waiting at the airport to take them the 50 miles to our nearest hospital.

All expenses by my sis in law (accomm and taxis to hospital etc.) refunded and all the above repatriation covered.

EHIC would not have covered this, he would not have been allowed on an ordinary flight for many more weeks which we would have had to pay for, never mind further accommodation in France after they had their hospital bed back.

NOT worth scrimping on.

duchy

zaax wrote: »

They were medical transfers from specialist units (ICU etc) to recuperation.

Which is actually the situation we are discussing.
If you are taken ill/injured in the UK whilst on holiday - Hospital will do all they can to transfer you back to your local health authority hospital as soon as is medically practical -it's a financial decision. There is no charge for it -they are happy to be seeing you go and freeing up their bed and resources. Patients are not as you claim charged for the transportation.

Thinking about it my Mum was transferred from the local hospital to a head injury unit in London then after her op and some rather tense weeks waiting to see if she'd survive she was then transferred from there back to the local hospital - and from there to rehab before coming home- None of the transfers were charged for so what you are claiming isn't my experience.

Once again I'll ask you to post a link to back up your claim.

zagfles

Pollycat wrote: »

If an articulated lorry hits you in York and breaks every bone and puts you in a coma, the NHS will look after you for free and provide after care.

If an articulated lorry hits you in Paris and breaks every bone and puts you in a coma, what will the French health service do for you? I honestly don't know the answer.

Well look on the EHIC website then.

The fact that you have a EHIC does not give you the same treatment as you would get in this country.

You get the same treatment in France as a Frenchman gets.

If a Frenchman has to pay for treatment or medication so will you.
Ditto for Greece and every other country covered by EHIC.

That's right. So anyone travelling to France without travel insurance is no more stupid than a French person who doesn't have private health insurance.

If you make an informed decision about not taking out travel insurance, thats's fine and nobody's business but your own.
But a lot of people believe that the EHIC is a free alternative to travel insurance.
It isn't.

If you got your teeth smashed in your accident in York, see how much you'd have to pay for a set of implants. You won't get them on the NHS. Usually about £2k+ per tooth, so maybe £10k. Do you have insurance that covers that? If not, better not travel to York Even private dental insurance doesn't usually cover implants.

I'm sure EU citizens visiting the UK get lectured about that in the same way as UK citizens visiting EU countries.

duchy

zagfles wrote: »

Well look on the EHIC website then. That's right. So anyone travelling to France without travel insurance is no more stupid than a French person who doesn't have private health insurance. If you got your teeth smashed in your accident in York, see how much you'd have to pay for a set of implants. You won't get them on the NHS. Usually about £2k+ per tooth, so maybe £10k. Do you have insurance that covers that? If not, better not travel to York Even private dental insurance doesn't usually cover implants.

I'm sure EU citizens visiting the UK get lectured about that in the same way as UK citizens visiting EU countries.

And I thought this thread was about how you get less cover abroad than in the UK not about never leaving your home at all just in case

zagfles

cat4772 wrote: »

If you die in France, I doubt your EHIC card would pay to repatriate your remains.

Who do you think would pay to get your remains home if you died in the UK 300 miles from home?

zagfles

duchy wrote: »

And I thought this thread was about how you get less cover abroad than in the UK not about never leaving your home at all just in case

No this thread is about someone who wants insurance which covers getting rat-a**ed. Nobody seems to have answered the OP's question and pointed out a suitable policy, just the usual stories about how insurance companies don't pay out if you're ratted yet still the lectures about getting insurance!