Health Insurance on EU Travel

Voyager2002

zagfles said:

sheramber said:

If you ended up unable to fly normally- you may need extra room  or to lie down, your medical insurance would cover the extra costs involved.
If you had  prolonged medical needs would you want to be stuck in hospital abroad for months?
If you died travel insurance would repatriate your body.

Why not? If I was stuck in hospital I wouldn't really care which one as long as the medical facilities were good.

If I died abroad I'd have the funeral abroad! Most countries are a lot cheaper than the UK for a funeral. People have weddings abroad, why not funerals?

Absolutely my thinking: in other words you would not want to be repatriated.

Pennywise

zagfles said:

maman said:

I agree with OP that we'll be worse off travelling in Europe without the EHIC. Even with travel insurance, it gave the option of using local services and potentially not making a claim. That option is now gone (from 31st December). Making a claim on any insurance policy results in increased premiums, in my experience. 

I doubt it'll make a massive difference in policy prices, it'll probably put European cover up to Worldwide cover prices.

The people who'll get hit hard are those with pre-existing conditions for whom travel insurance to cover those conditions is unaffordable, or those who like to indulge in activities on holiday which no travel insurance will cover, like getting drunk.

Even pre-existing conditions don't usually make it prohibitively expensive. For our family group, a Europe holiday insurance (before we declare the p/e conditions) is around £50 on average.  Once declared, it's typically up to may be £100.  That's to include a 80 year old, OH with  cancer and me with diabetes and high blood pressure.  So, not really much of an issue.  Last year we did a baltic cruise and even that was only £150 or so for the 4 of us, quoted around £100 before we declared.  So considering the cost of a holiday/cruise, the extra cost of insurance due to p/e conditions was trivial.

zagfles

Pennywise said:

zagfles said:

maman said:

I agree with OP that we'll be worse off travelling in Europe without the EHIC. Even with travel insurance, it gave the option of using local services and potentially not making a claim. That option is now gone (from 31st December). Making a claim on any insurance policy results in increased premiums, in my experience. 

I doubt it'll make a massive difference in policy prices, it'll probably put European cover up to Worldwide cover prices.

The people who'll get hit hard are those with pre-existing conditions for whom travel insurance to cover those conditions is unaffordable, or those who like to indulge in activities on holiday which no travel insurance will cover, like getting drunk.

Even pre-existing conditions don't usually make it prohibitively expensive. For our family group, a Europe holiday insurance (before we declare the p/e conditions) is around £50 on average.  Once declared, it's typically up to may be £100.  That's to include a 80 year old, OH with  cancer and me with diabetes and high blood pressure.  So, not really much of an issue.  Last year we did a baltic cruise and even that was only £150 or so for the 4 of us, quoted around £100 before we declared.  So considering the cost of a holiday/cruise, the extra cost of insurance due to p/e conditions was trivial.

I've heard of some astronomical quotes to cover PECs, I think it depends on the specific condition and the likelyhood of it causing a medical emergency. Cancer is progressive and often not an immediate medical emergency risk over a week or 2, and conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes are often well controlled by drugs.

Also some people risk taking out insurance excluding cover for their PEC, that's likely to be a far bigger risk than someone without a PEC not taking out travel insurance at all!