View Full Version : Travel Insurance
Just a reminder, after you have found and booked your dream holiday villa and found good prices for flights and car hire, dont forget to buy your travel insurance.
After five years of travelling to the US with absolutely no problems, we have made two claims on our annual travel insurance for our recent holiday in October.
Our 9 year old had an accident in Universal's Islands of Adventure and managed to gash his chin, and we finished the holiday with a 24 hour flight delay with Virgin.
The first-aiders in Universal were very helpful but decided that the cut was too deep and needed more medical attention than they could provide, and they laid on transport to and from the medi-care centre close to Universal. It cost $125 just to see a doctor, and after cleaning, gluing and dressing the wound, the total bill was $319. Goodness knows what the cost would have been if he had needed an x-ray or had broken any bones.
We can also claim for 12 hours of the delay period (Virgin managed to take off 23 hours and 50 minutes late, so we just missed out on the second 12 hour claim!).
Our annual travel insurance cost £80 for four of us, and is well worth the peace of mind that it brings.
Thats the only way of knowing how good an insurance policy is., when you have to make a claim.
Hi Lesley,
I would totally agree with you--Insurance is essential--also,it is worth considering getting insurance that covers all aspects of holiday insurance including cover for accomodation costs as well as flights etc in case your holiday needs to be cancelled for whatever reason.I always advise my guests to take out adequate insurance to cover those unforseen circumstances.
Shazbat
My eldest son broke his wrist in 1998 when we were out in california, the total bill for the emergency hospital, the specialist to set it, xrays, plaster of paris (yes they give you an itemised bill for everything) was in excess of $1500 (well over £100 at that time). Got all of it back apart from the excess. That is a good example of why to take out insurance.
A bad example is - we went out to our place in Oct half term (wife is a teacher) arriving Saturday evening. Sunday afternoon we get a phone call that my Dad has died. Rang USAirways and rearranged flights for the Monday. Lodged a claim when we got home but the insurance company said it is unlikely that we will get paid out as it was a pre-existing condition. Yes it was but the hospital gave no indication that they expected anything to happen in fact they were going to discharge hime the day before we went away. I have written to the specialist to ask him to put it in writing that it was unexpected so that we can claim. Don't know how much we would get back, if we are lucky, as the flights cost £700 plus £200 to rearrange them plus £160 car hire plus a lost booking on our property.
I intend to fight thisone though as my father in law (who is in the advanced stages of Alzhiemers) was given 3 months to live in Sept 02. So according to the insurers we shoul dnot go away until he dies or take the risk of not being able to claim if he dies and we are away.
Both the good and bad sides of insurance, you can't do without them but don't expect them to always pay up.
Paul
Check out an interesting site where one can compare and buy insurance http://www.garamchai.com/TravelInsurance.htm
Of course, as they say caveat emptor; buyer beware.
As already mentioned above, having spent a fortune on your dream holiday, do spend the extra and get Travel Insurance.
We have had to cliam twice in the last 2 years for damge to our suitcases and more recently my wife had to cancel her "Girls Only Holiday" to Florida, as her travelling partner suffered a slipped disc 2 weeks before their departure.
Had she not had Insurance the disappiontment of not going would have been out weighed by the fact that she had lost the cost of the holiday.
As it was, apart from the £35.00 excess she was refunded the full cost of the holiday, including flights and hotel etc.
One word of warning though, in the future, if she travels with her friend again, she has to declare that her friend has had a "back problem" as there is a risk that she won't be covered, should a similar issue arise.
Also insurance companies check back 6 months on medical history, so if at any time 6 months prior to your scheduled departure, you suffer somthing that may cause you not to travel, declare it immediately and get covered for it, otherwise the Insurnace Company might not pay out.
neilandkay
08-12-2003, 23:12
To give you an idea of how expensive even the smallest thing can be, our 3yr old son recently fell and gashed his hand which required a trip to the emergency room and finally surgery to properly close and clean the wound.
The medical bills totalled well over $10,000 for a small-ish wound. (Luckily the health insurance kicked in and a great proportion of that was written off as the hospital had contracted rates with our health insurer, and the insurance picked up most of it.)
The prescriptions for follow up antibiotics would have cost $160 without our presciption coverage.
So please don't skimp on health insurance when travelling to the US, all you need is a small incident like we had and you are faced with heafty bills. It is not worth it.
WOW
What a shock to read how much things cost, I suppose we are just used to taking the kids
or ourselves to the hospital and all is done for us. Luckily we have never had much go
wrong apart from the odd cut
I did know someone who was unfortunate enough to be taken seriously ill in the US and spent a week in the intensive care unit - that cost $1 million.
I had some pain tablets prescribed for me in Florida and they cost $86 for a 7 day supply!
Don't underestimate how much medical treatment costs there and please take out travel insurance.
Think about it - how would you pay $1 million in medical fees without insurance? Even selling your house in the UK and everything you own probably wouldn't cover it...
well my house would cover it :D[}:)]
but seriously insurance is needed, the only advice I could give and it may sound boring
but check the small print, check the small print. You can never have too much insurance
Bigblue33
13-02-2004, 18:16
After having a check up at my local dentist before we went to Canada 2 years ago,I got an all clear! 3 days into the holiday I got tooth ache [msncry] Found a really good dentist near by my sister-in-laws and had to get a "root treatment"...[msnsad]
3 good things came from it....I met,possibly,the best dentist in the world,he took my pain away [msnsmile2] and shockingly the insurance covered it!
so yeah its worth every penny.
Don.
p.s If thats the case Chris, you are on the beers come july!
Nostromo
13-02-2004, 18:53
quote:Originally posted by LesleyB
My wife and I regularly renew out annual travelling insurance policy irrespective of the holiday situation. We never leave the shores of the UK without insurance, even to India where we originally come from. Particularly with medical insurance, a lot of people don't know how lucky they are to have a health system like the NHS.
We always renew our annual one, it means we are covered if we travel in the uk as well., Also
the kids are covered for school trips
Nostromo
13-02-2004, 21:02
quote:Originally posted by blott
I did know someone who was unfortunate enough to be taken seriously ill in the US and spent a week in the intensive care unit - that cost $1 million.
Don't underestimate how much medical treatment costs there and please take out travel insurance.
In 1992, I was working in the Intensive Care Unit in Peterborough where we were treating a 35 year-old woman with multiple injuries following an accident. She spent almost 3 months in the ICU and made a full recovery. Of course, the treatment cost her nothing. At about that time, my wife's doctor cousin, who has a practice near Chicago, was visiting us. I discussed my patient's case (not mentioning her name, of course) with him. He almost fainted when I told him about all the treatment that she had had for free, for a simple matter of saving her life. According to him, similar treatment in America would have cost several millions of dollars and very unlikely to have been covered entirely by the usual (and exhorbitantly expensive) insurance packages that most ordinary American people have.
It really makes sense to get at least $5 million cover per person before setting foot on US soil.
Have had two experiences of claiming on travel insurance. The first was several years ago we paid for my in-laws to go to Paris for their 40th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately a few months before they were due to go my mother-in-law suffered a nervous breakdown. Her doctor supplied a letter stating that she was unfit to travel but the insurance company refused to pay out because they were not covered for mental illness. Had she broken her leg she would have been covered!!
The second occassion was two years ago when we were in New England and I found a lump in my breast. I was seen by a doctor, sent to hospital and had a mammogram and a scan and given the all clear within 7 hours! I had to pay for the doctor immediately but the hospital billed me when I got home. The insurance company agreed to cover the cost, only problem was they were so incompetent that they failed to pay the bill. After many conversations they did pay the bill and reimbursed me for the excess I had paid.
Shirley