You might be thinking its only a week and if my suitcase gets stolen then I’ll just upgrade my holiday wardrobe but in one circumstance you will be kicking yourself if you haven’t got any cover.

If you become unwell or involved in an accident and are injured you will receive basic medical treatment in a public holiday in Europe (correct at the time of writing), some other countries have reciprocal arrangements with the UK but others don’t. In some countries, the level of medical care is of a much more basic standard than that in the UK. If you are outside Europe and not in a country with a reciprocal arrangement you will have to pay for your treatment. We have had patients with medical bills running into hundreds of thousands of pounds and in most cases payment is required before even life-saving treatment is carried out.

Furthermore, if you think, well I’ll just come home and get the treatment in the UK then here’s the catch. You might be too unwell to travel, but also you might think you are well however the airline will not accept you without a valid fitness to fly letter issued from a local hospital. If you aren’t fit you won’t be flying home.

We have had families contact us where their loved one is in intensive care and they are being charged 3,000 dollars a day. If they stop paying the life support machine is turned off. In that specific case, the individual was a passenger in a vehicle that had an accident. The family wanted to fly the patient back to the NHS but they had no idea the cost of the flight would be £180,000.

These kind of costs are likely to ruin most families if they can even find the funds in time. All of this to save £10 or £20 for a travel insurance policy that covers medical costs and repatriation.

Another thing to look out for once you have insurance is that you do not invalidate it. Having cocktails on the beach until the early hours and then driving the hire car the next morning would be a good example, but many winter sports policies have similar clauses in relation to apres ski. If your blood results show alcohol from the night before you could be in for a big bill. The same goes for pre-existing medical conditions, if you haven’t told the insurer in advance the chances are if that problem occurs you won’t be covered.

The moral of the story is - Yes you need travel insurance and as someone who has been repatriated myself I was glad I had it when I was injured in Turkey 7 years ago. The bill for medical flight and emergency surgery was around 180,000 Euros in total. Had I not been insured I certainly wouldn’t be walking today.

Author:

Dave Hawkins FOUNDER, MET Medical