travel insurance worth it?

thebourke

is it worth getting travel insurance if you have private healt insurance?

The_Bot

thebourke wrote: »

is it worth getting travel insurance if you have private healt insurance?

Depends on the extent of your policy’s coverage for expenses incurred abroad. It might not be as extensive as your coverage in Ireland.

Also depends on where you are going. For example, if you are traveling to the US and your insurance will only cover you for say to a max of 100K, if you require hospital stay in the US even for a couple of days you will blow through that 100K no problem. The kind of coverage you want for US medical expenses would want to be at least 1M+ I’d say.

If you are traveling anywhere in the EU I think you still can get the EU health card (can’t remember what it is called) giving you access the EU member public health systems on the same basis of citizens of that country.

hanaimai

Travel insurance covers more than just health expenses incurred abroad - trip cancellation (part/full), lost/stolen luggage, missed/delayed flights, that sort of thing. I know someone whose travel was majorly disrupted recently by a weather event in the country they were visiting which resulted in them having to change hotel, rail and flight arrangements, all covered by travel insurance.

It's unlikely you'll need it, but it's a great peace of mind to have it in case you do. Travel insurance is fairly cheap so in my opinion it's worth it anyway, even with good health insurance.

Jim2007

thebourke wrote: »

is it worth getting travel insurance if you have private healt insurance?

It entirely depends on what your current insurance covers, where you are going and what you are doing.

For instance, if you were to go to an alpine region in Europe and you had an accident say outside your hotel, the evacuation costs to get you to a hospital are usually not covered and it can be very expensive. Also there is the question of repatriation costs, they are usually not covered either. And also repatriation of a body is not covered.

Another thing that is not covered is search and rescue. Over the years here in Switzerland, we've had several situations were tourists returning for nightclubs to their hotels have got lost and during winter this required an immediate SAR as with temperatures so low they were in real danger of death.... min cost of such operations is usually around 50k...

Like I said no one can give you a gernieric answer. You need to look at the types of risk you might encounter and see if they are covered in your current policy or not.

Jim2007

The_Bot wrote: »

If you are traveling anywhere in the EU I think you still can get the EU health card (can’t remember what it is called) giving you access the EU member public health systems on the same basis of citizens of that country.

Actually if you look at your policy I expect you'll find that this a requirement of the policy, it is not optional. If your bad fortune was covered by the EU card, then you can expect they will reduce your claim, especially if it is expensive.

Again, Switzerland since it is the one I know best, basically everything short of a private room is covered under basic care in Switzerland and thus the EU card. So if you ring up a bill of say 50k in a Swiss hospital because you did not have the card with you, you can expect the insurance company will not want to cough up either for the full amount.

GerardKeating

thebourke wrote: »

is it worth getting travel insurance if you have private healt insurance?

Private Health insurance does not cover you for missed or delayed flights, lost bagage etc.

thesimpsons

A trip to A&E in Canada for a suspected broken leg, xrays, consultant, etc cost in excess of 1,500euro. The 101euro family VHI travel insurance covered it all 100%. Before even waiting to confirm if the leg was broken or not, the travel insurance company was in the process of working out air transport home for the patient with the logistics of wheelchairs, spare seat on the plane, etc if needed to suspend the leg, etc. Definitely worth it imo

Bicyclette

Repatriation is an important consideration. And expensive if you were to pay for it personally.

Travel insurance should cover repatriation.

We have private health cover but take out an annual travel policy as well. And if we are bringing our car, we take out an AA car policy too - that will cover getting you back home without the car and allowing you travel back again to pick it up, if you have to leave it behind to be repaired.

Jim2007

thesimpsons wrote: »

A trip to A&E in Canada for a suspected broken leg, xrays, consultant, etc cost in excess of 1,500euro. The 101euro family VHI travel insurance covered it all 100%. Before even waiting to confirm if the leg was broken or not, the travel insurance company was in the process of working out air transport home for the patient with the logistics of wheelchairs, spare seat on the plane, etc if needed to suspend the leg, etc. Definitely worth it imo

It's always worth it when you need it or you are aware of someone who needed it

A friend of mine has his father-in-law visiting from Japan and the went to spend a few days in the Alps at a holiday home they had rented. On the first night, his father-in-law suddenly had a heart issue, the doctor decided he needed to be taken to hospital and as it would take almost 3 hours by road he needed to be air lifted. When the first helicopter arrived it was unable to land, so a second had to be dispatched with wenching equipment. After that he spent six weeks in hospital and another two months recovering before the doctors would give the OK for him to be flown back to Japan... Total costs were almost 200k in total....

Bikerman2019

Couple of years ago, BBC's Airport programs, they followed a chartered nurse flying out to switzerland / austria to bring a guy back.


First day of his skiing holiday, he hit the slopes and was whacked from behind by an out of control learner. Shattered his leg on the first day.


The travel insurance flew the nurse out - with equipment, and flew him home on 6 flattened seats at the back of a commercial jet. Then ambulance took him to his local hospital.


They guy cried with relief at being on home turf.


That was one great advert for travel insurance! Without it, the bill was estimated to be 30 thousand +

CelticRambler

For my European travel, I rarely bother with insurance as my arrangements usually fall outside the "disruption" part of any policy (or I can get a refund/alternative arrangements from the carrier), I rarely stay in hotels, I don't do winter sports (although do sometimes go hiking on my own), and my EHIC covers basic A&E. However, prior to a 2018 trip to the US, I took out a multi-risk annual policy and timed it to also cover a trip to Africa this year. It was a relatively modest £111.27 from Globelink, covering my two biggest concerns - the cost of any healthcare in the US and my repatriation from either America or Africa if things went badly wrong for me. As it happened, both trips passed off without (claimable) incident* so in hindsight it wasn't "worth it" - but I'll definitely take out a similar policy if/when I plan a similar long trip, especially to any region where costs are high or I wouldn't want to be dependent on local standards of treatment.

* rather ironically, I was pickpocketed on the very last leg of the African trip - crossing Paris to get a train home, so claimed for that, which did in fact make the policy "worth it".

Nigel Fairservice

I always get separate travel insurance even though I have health insurance. I don't want my family to have to set up a go fund me page to get me home.

Eggs For Dinner

Doesn't even cost as much as a round of drinks you'll be spending while on holidays. No brainer IMO

rainbowtrout

I've had travel insurance for years and never used it. It's about €50 a year for the multi trip policy I have. Then just under two years ago I was in Belgium for a few days. Broke my leg on the first morning. Rang the travel insurance from the hospital, they took the details and arranged for two extra seats for me on the flight home a couple of days later so I could put up my leg, they also arranged for a private ambulance to transport me to Brussels airport and when I got there, there was a wheelchair waiting to cart me around the airport and I was fast tracked through all the security when boarding my flight and wheeled on to the plane, same at other end, wheelchair waiting for me in Dublin. I had my brother collect me but transport would have been arranged to take me home otherwise. I was due to go to Greenland on holiday the following week and obviously didn't get to go, had spent about 3k on it and all of that was also refunded through my travel insurance.

I've more than gotten the value out of my €50 a year.