Can I get travel insurance without medical cover

Garth75

I need to sort very basic travel insurance now I am turned 71 and the Halifax has stopped their free travel insurance for me.
I am a resident of Spain with S1 registered under the Withdrawal agreement so I am entitled to free medical care in both countries (NHS & Spanish equivalent). 
As we have a permanent place at my daughters, for trips to UK and repatriation is not required, there is, as far as I can see, no need for medical insurance. This appears ro be a compulsory part of travel insurance and one that is used to bump up premiums as you get older.
I only need cover for cancellations, theft, laptop and mobile phone etc and that is fairly basic as we travel small hand luggage only.
When I contacted a few brokers just before Covid, their stance was just take the medical cover as it's all part of the basic policy. If so why try to up the premiums because of age!!
Does anyone know where I can get such Travel Insurance or even a quote?

Aretnap

If your home insurance covers personal possessions outside the home then you don't need your laptop phone etc to be covered by your travel insurance; they will already be covered by your home insurance.

You can "insure" against cancellation to an extent by getting flexible tickets which allow you to cancel or rearrange at short notice with minimal penalty.

In most cases medical cover is the most important part of travel insurance - and certainly the part which accounts for the lions share of the risk that insurers are taking on. Cancellation is second and luggage is a distant third. So travel insurance that excluded medical cover would be an obscure specialist product - and the admin costs of administering a policy that few people wanted might make the cost of it disproportionate to the risks that it was covering. So I think you will probably struggle to find cancellation and luggage only travel insurance for international trips - though a few companies do seem to offer it for UK only holidays.

Garth75

Yes just find it maddening that they up the premium significantly for a risk that doen't apply to me. I guess it will have to be a case of risking it. As you say the expensive stuff is covered on contents. I am only really starting to look at insurance again due to the way flights have rocketed in price after Easter next year. Looks like no more sub €100 return flights any more, from the Canaries!!

DullGreyGuy

What risks are you actually wanted covered the? 

Contents insurance will cover your possessions
ECH1 and equiv witll cover state medical to the same level of a citizen
EU rules will cover flights cancelled by the airline within their control (which is very broadly defined)
You dont have non-cancellable accommodation expenses that you'd be stuck with if an airline cancelled

Your main risk is ill health stopping you travelling but you say you dont want any health related coverage

Frankmyway

I sympathise with Garth.  I have full worldwide medical cover from my former employer.  For holidays I only want cancellation/lost baggage insurance.  I cannot find this anywhere.

Has anyone ever found this??

DullGreyGuy

Frankmyway said:

I sympathise with Garth.  I have full worldwide medical cover from my former employer.  For holidays I only want cancellation/lost baggage insurance.  I cannot find this anywhere.

Has anyone ever found this??

Average price of travel insurance, single trip, is £22. Take off insurance premium tax and you are just under £20. £10 of that is the cost of sale which isnt going to change if you cut down the product or not. 

So the actual cost of the insurance is £10. Claims is 34.5% of total premium less tax so £6.78, Medical is 1/3 of claims so £2.26. 

How much more is it going to cost to operate a non-medical policy? Will the aggregators be willing to change their technology to identify non-medical travel? How big is the market? How many are going to accidentally buy non-medical and then got to the Financial Ombudsman at a cost of £650 when their medical claim is declined as not covered on this policy type?

Personally, think it's a total non-flyer. The market is tiny and most the £2 cost savings will be replaced with other costs so you end up with a product thats almost the same price so you're not going to corner the market. 

Megavolt14

I'm 73 and my wifeis 78, both in v good general health although she has mild asthma. Travel insurance with medical cover is over £2000 for a single trip.
Can anyone suggest a reputable insurer who will cover cancellation, delay and baggage only?

mgfvvc

Megavolt14 said:

I'm 73 and my wifeis 78, both in v good general health although she has mild asthma. Travel insurance with medical cover is over £2000 for a single trip.
Can anyone suggest a reputable insurer who will cover cancellation, delay and baggage only?

I wouldn't suggest travelling without medical cover and I would be surprised if anyone offered it. Foreign medical bills can bankrupt you, especially if you are travelling in the US. If one of you were to die on holiday how would the other feel if they couldn't afford to repatriate the body? 

£2000 seems very high for 2 people in good general health, even in their 70s. I would expect there to be cheaper options for a regular holiday, but I don't have specific knowledge. How have you arrived at that figure. Is it from a specific insurer, a general comparison site or a more specialist comparison site? Where are you going and how long for?

Aretnap

Whether it's a good idea or not, travel insurance which doesn't include medical cover isn't really a thing, for reasons already discussed on this thread. 

If you're determined to do without medical cover, you can insure your baggage by making sure it's covered on your home insurance policy, and you can "insure" against cancellation by choosing flexible booking options which air you to cancel at short notice with little it no penalty.

MyRealNameToo

Megavolt14 said:

I'm 73 and my wifeis 78, both in v good general health although she has mild asthma. Travel insurance with medical cover is over £2000 for a single trip.
Can anyone suggest a reputable insurer who will cover cancellation, delay and baggage only?

Have you done quotes for annual cover? May seem counterintuitive but it can be cheaper at times 

Doing world wide travel inc the US for a couple with your ages and only mild asthma declared for one of you comes out at £891 and excluding North America its £658