Travelling with no insurance?

lisyloo

Thrugelmir said:

What if personal posssessions get lost or stolen?  

Mine would be covered on house insurance (doesn’t work if you don’t have that either of course).

JGB1955

lisyloo said:

Mine would be covered on house insurance (doesn’t work if you don’t have that either of course).

Whilst I have house insurance, I DON'T have cover for items outside the house - so would have to rely upon travel insurance in my case.

f4phixeruk

Maybe this will help you convince them

https://www.admiral.com/travel-insurance/cost-of-getting-ill-abroad

zagfles

Just to take the contrary view (as usual). Personally, if travel insurance was prohitively expensive, eg due to pre-existing medical conditions, it wouldn't stop me travelling, I'd probably just restrict travel to where the GHIC was valid. Also if you're staying with friends/relatives etc, it's a different cost equation since you wouldn't need to budget for extra accomodation costs, and you could recover locally if you were out of hospital but unable to travel back by ordinary means.

It depends on which country you go to, whether the GHIC covers it and what the extra costs are likely to be (like in the UK there are costs you have to pay for some state treatment) and what the local medical facilities are like.

I've used the EHIC twice, in Sweden and Spain, and the costs were less that I'd have paid in the UK.

Other thing to remember is that everyone who gets drunk on holiday is effectively travelling without insurance, no insurance covers you when drunk, some don't even cover you when "under the influence". So anyone who's ever had "one too many" on holiday can't go round lecturing others on getting insured! Go to any major resort in Spain or Greece etc and you'll see plenty of uninsured Brits in the bars

zagfles

JGB1955 said:

lisyloo said:

Mine would be covered on house insurance (doesn’t work if you don’t have that either of course).

Whilst I have house insurance, I DON'T have cover for items outside the house - so would have to rely upon travel insurance in my case.

Are you covered when out of the house in the UK? Some travel insurance will cover UK trips but they usually have a requirement for a pre-booked overnight stay, so you wouldn't be covered on eg a day trip usually.

zagfles

Doshwaster said:

Worst case scenario is that you need to pay for a medical evacuation back to the UK (Just lookup the hourly cost of an air ambulance)  or your family has to pay to fly your dead body home. For the cost of a few pounds travelling without insurance is insane. 

Or have the funeral abroad. Probably a lot cheaper than in the UK (have you seen to costs of funerals here!), and your family can have a holiday at the same time!

JGB1955

My husband broke his elbow whilst snowboarding in France.  Luckily (!) he turned down the opportunity of a (payable) lift down the mountain and we were only stuck with the cost of an -XRay and me having to go to the local.pharmacy to pay for a plaster cast.. Still £300...all repaid by insurance after EHIC.

Bicycleman22

An important thing to remember with GHIC is that you could be taken to a private hospital without your knowledge. No local person is going to be weighing up private or state hospital if you are in need it will be the nearest place.

A big advantage of GHIC is being covered whatever the circumstances.... tipsy, riding in a speedboat, hiring an electric scooter etc etc

NoodleDoodleMan

Bicycleman22 said:

An important thing to remember with GHIC is that you could be taken to a private hospital without your knowledge. No local person is going to be weighing up private or state hospital if you are in need it will be the nearest place.

A big advantage of GHIC is being covered whatever the circumstances.... tipsy, riding in a speedboat, hiring an electric scooter etc etc

A private hospital will not accept you without travel insurance cover.

I'm not up to speed on Spain in detail - but I suspect if you went down with Covid during your stay you would be isolated in designated accommodation at your own expense - that would be significant personal additional cost ?

elsien

Relative taken ill on a cruise.
Cost of airlift from boat to hospital. 

3 weeks in a European intensive care unit.
Cost of wife getting from cruise liner next port to the city the hospital was in.
Hotel, food and transport costs for wife for the next 3 weeks. 
Medical repatriation flight home for him, plus any additional cost for wife to accompany him.