Travel/Medical Insurance (1 Viewer)

[bigtwin]

Kids and credit cards would probably sort it - but It's not going to happen

Not forgetting that other popular option of appealing to the public for support via Just Giving, etc. for when it all goes Pete Tong!

Ian

 

[Minxy]

Wow you really are imagining the worst possible scenario but it's very unlikely to happen.

Kids and credit cards would probably sort it - but It's not going to happen

No, not imagining anything, just a response to what could happen if you 'bank' on one of your being able to drive ... the chances are slim BUT it can happen - I injured my back a few years ago but not sufficient to have to come home or seek medical treatment as I knew what I needed to do to let it heal, but it did limit what I could do.

 

[sedge]

The thing that people generally don't realise is that nearly all other European countries have a 'co-pay' public health system, therefore to consult a local doctor in the first instance for whatever you have wrong, you have to pay for, same as the local people do. Then although the prescription doesn't cost any extra, you do have to pay for the drugs, and that's the case when you are a hospital patient too.

I was quite impressed though when I 'did' my knee in Majorca once, cos I saw the local Doc, who couldn't help and said I needed to go to a hospital in Palma, which husband took me to next day cos we had a hire car. Seen by doc who sent me for X-ray, confirmed I'd bust a blood vessel so my enormous knee was basically, blood, so he got an enormous syringe (the size of an old fashioned icing set one) with an enormously long needle and whistling while he worked, withdrew the sanguinous matter - 2 litres of it! Then a giant sized roll of 3" elastic bandage was wrapped tightly round the length of the entire leg, foot to groin and fished out an elbow crutch that was suitable for my height. Prescription for painkillers and ABs.

Took 4 hours. Bill just over £100! - €17 of that was for the crutch.

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[138go]

My brother in law had three strokes whilst on holiday in Spain. He was flown home unconscious and very well cared for, all courtesy of his medical insurance. His EHIC card was useless in this situation. Anyone relying purely on an EHIC is taking a risk I would not dream of taking. If you know someone who this happened to, it makes you see what can actually happen.

When we go abroad, we always have insurance that includes repatriation of the vehicle and the dog, if necessary. Peace of mind is worth every penny.

 

[carolyn]

I drive our van just as much as Nick but there are lots of couples on here where the wives never drive. Lots are no longer on the insurance and quite a few really shouldn’t be if the only time they think they might drive the van is in an emergency to repatriate a sick husband. Obviously attitudes to risk vary but insurance is for those rare instances when bad things happen, medical insurance is no different in that way to car or house insurance. I am belt and braces.

 

[spitfire]

Don't you have one of these EHIC cards?

Applying for healthcare cover abroad (GHIC and EHIC)

Find out if you're eligible to apply for a new UK EHIC or UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC).

www.nhs.uk

Please remember this does not always cover 100% Depends on the cover for nationals of that country . In France as an example it only covers 70% . Also does not cover repatriation and as it stands is no longer valid after 31 December

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[Tony50]

That sounds very good. Pity I've just renewed my house insurance.
[/QUOTES w are with Barclays health and RAC cover about £16 a month, but have to have a Account open ,I tried NFU for house Insurance which seems very good , but the cost was more than twice the cost of others

 

[Peg Star]

Hi
This is my first post though been following you all for a long time, sorry sounds creepy I know but I'm really not, just a little shy!! Just a thought that if travel insurance has been running prior to Covid 19 you may still be covered if anything happens relating to this, (even if away in the UK, subject to your cover) if you accept their offer and take out a new one, from what I've seen, there is no cover in place for anything Covid related. I may be wrong but this is my take on the current insurance situation. We have travel insurance with our bank account which I rushed to take out as soon as the Covid raised its ugly head, 5 days later they were not covering anything relating to the virus. As this policy doesn't have a renewal date I'm 'presuming' we will always be covered unless they back track, not sure they can retrospectively change terms and conditions to existing policies but in reality nowadays, anything can happen. This was the first year we had booked early for our summer European trip paying deposits for campsites and the tunnel. Depending on government restrictions to travel we may be able to get some of this money back if the campsites are not forthcoming. We have previously booked once away and followed the weather - blooming typical ........

 

[Mr mrs tupcox]

I opened a nationwide bank account that had free 30 day go anywhere travel insurance .
Then I add Sylvia to it and increased cover to 180 days .total cost £118 .

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[Peg Star]

Yeah ours is Nationwide, worldwide travel cover, all the family mobile phones and breakdown cover, which also covers the motorhome in UK and EU.

 

[Minxy]

Hi Peg Star, I suspect that many insurance policies may wish to put on more restrictions on what they cover now, however whether they can actually state no Covid cover is debatable as it would make it difficult for people to travel without some form of cover for it, especially since it's not just Covid that you could catch but many other things too such as SARS etc which I'm not aware is 'an exception' on current policies. It would also open up a whole host of issues for example could they then exclude malaria, ebola etc? It may instead be that they'll just do what they usually do and increase the premiums to offset the extra claims they may get due to it.

 

[Neodave]

Repatriation?, About 4 years ago a repatriation from Spain after heart attack £18, 000. Not me fortunately, therefore, private insurance for us.

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[Peg Star]

Yes I'm sure your right, though some travel insurers have actually stopped taking on new customers altogether at the moment. I took out the Nationwide account as Aviva's premium had increased from £30 something to £90 something for a single trip cover - "excluding coronavirus related claims" - that was early March, they are now one of the ones not taking on new customers. It's a difficult one for the insurance companies as some people are risk evasive so wouldn't be travelling anyway and others carry on regardless and I'm sure the costs involved in treating someone with Covid 19 complications would be extensive even before talking about repatriation. Only time will tell, hopefully if a vaccine is found we may get some normality back??
"We miss our van ?"

 

[Clipgate]

It will come as a shock when the EHIC card is withdrawn possibly next year, unless of course a reciprocal agreement is signed.
For me travel insurance will probably curtail my European wanderings eventually.

 

[Clickem]

Nationwide have made it very clear that they will not cover anything Coronavirus related, so that includes delays, cancellations etc, as well as actually falling ill with it. They sent out an Email fairly quickly at the start, and even my notification of bank statement has the following tagged on the bottom

(quote)If you have a FlexAccount or FlexPlus current account with access to travel insurance, we want you to be aware that for any new trips booked on or after 18 March 2020, you won’t be covered for events caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Insurance is there to help with unknown or unforeseeable events. As Coronavirus is now a known event no cover is available. This also applies to any new upgrades you may be buying for trips booked before 18 March 2020.

If you booked a trip before 18 March 2020, cover is available for claims relating to the Coronavirus pandemic. (end quote)

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[Peg Star]

Yes I opened our account on 10th March ........ subsequently got the same information.

 

[Peg Star]

I see what you're saying, sorry. Our trip this year will be covered as already booked in February but nothing going forward......

 

[Puddleduck]

Repatriation?, About 4 years ago a repatriation from Spain after heart attack £18, 000. Not me fortunately, therefore, private insurance for us.

On the last cruise we took a single lady fell and had to be flown off the ship for tests / treatment. She had relied on her bank for insurance not realising that "world wide" did not cover cruises. A friend she had made on board stayed in touch and told us the lady had broken her arm in two places and was being repatriated. She was having to foot the whole bill herself and it was tens of thousands of pounds. Every item used is catalogued and charged for.

Like carolyn I am very risk adverse so would never travel without adequate insurance. What I have doe after declaring medical conditions is ask that certain things are excluded from the cover as I know the risk of re-occurrence or issues from the condition is very unlikely.

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[StephandJohn]

A friend's wife died in Spain Unexpectedly (no health problems). He had to remortgage the house to get the £30,000 needed to get her body home because they didn't have insurance.
My mother fell over and broke her elbow; spent time in hospital and then had to be repatriated. Luckily their insurance paid.
When you think of the cost of running a motorhome it just doesn't seem worth it not to pay the extra for insurance, annoying thought their premiums are.

 

[peterc10]

The EHIC card worked for us when we needed it. As I understand it it gives you the right to have any medical treatment the locals can get and it will only cost you what the locals would be charged for that treatment.

My wife fell off her bike and broke her arm in Salamanca. It took two weeks to convince her that it wasn't just bruised (several funsters tried in vane to convince her to) by which time we were in Portugal. Dragged her into the small Hospital in Lagos. Saw a triage nurse, got an X-ray and the Doctor told us it was broken within a couple of hours at most. She insisted we go immediately to the main hospital in Portimao, where we had just come from, to get it set. Waited there for about an hour and saw the Doctor who reset it and put it in plaster and sling. Total cost 20 Euros because of our EHIC card, so we couldn't even claim on our travel insurance as the excess was £50.

We have free travel insurance with our Lloyds Bank Gold account and it will cover us both until we are 80. It doesn't cost anything because that was the agreement I made with the bank manager when we took it up in the 1980s. It is the only reason why I have put up with Lloyds for so long.

 

[Mike Warland]

I guess that's the truth. I'm 75, I've no medical conditions and I don't take any medications and have been travelling a lot with just the EHIC card every year around Europe by car, m/h and motorbike since retiring 25 years ago . Since I've never had to use the EHIC cover maybe I'm overconfident of its worth and have become too laissez-faire about getting private cover. (Un)fortunately I can put off making any purchase decision at present.
Later.: Just realised that for the past two years I've had breakdown and health cover with my FlexPlus a/c although I haven't studied the detail other than paying a nominal over-70 excess.

Only 30 days max.

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[chaser]

Not taking anything away from the posts on here and as I said we have insurance with nfu, but if your only holidays are taken in your motor home you are much less in need of a big insurance as I presume your car insurance would get your motor home , home if in an acident, and you are much less susceptible to any disease than if being on a cruise or in a hotel.

 

[EMS]

I was on a cycling Holiday with my
wife's sister and husband in Poland and I broke my arm in a bicycle fall, the EHIC card covered all the hospital costs and the Travel Insurance that I had covered the flight back to Hamburg where we had left our motorhome. My wife then drove us back as we share the driving it was no problem but she had to learn to empty the loo!
So good to have EHIC and travel Insurance and very important that both can drive your van.
I was also under he impression that in France it was a requirement to have a spare pair of glasses in your motor vehicle if you are the driver.

 

[Minxy]

I was on a cycling Holiday with my
wife's sister and husband in Poland and I broke my arm in a bicycle fall, the EHIC card covered all the hospital costs and the Travel Insurance that I had covered the flight back to Hamburg where we had left our motorhome. My wife then drove us back as we share the driving it was no problem but she had to learn to empty the loo!
So good to have EHIC and travel Insurance and very important that both can drive your van.
I was also under he impression that in France it was a requirement to have a spare pair of glasses in your motor vehicle if you are the driver.

One IMPORTANT thing to be aware of ... if you are in anyway 'limited' due to an injury, such as having a broken arm, you may in effect NOT have any insurance for your vehicle if you drive it, or even a 'valid' driving licence, as both are issued based on you being 'uninjured'. If you have an injury no matter how well you think you are able to drive it is likely to affect your ability.

I found this out when I had my second carpal tunnel op (left hand) - when I had the first one (right hand) whilst I was recovering I went to pick up a Smart ForTwo (fully auto) which hubby put a 'knob' onto the steering wheel of so I could turn it easily with one hand and I just used my poorly one by resting it on the wheel to steady it. It was only when I went for my second op that the nurse told me I wasn't supposed to drive due to being partly incapacitated!

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[138go]

Not taking anything away from the posts on here and as I said we have insurance with nfu, but if your only holidays are taken in your motor home you are much less in need of a big insurance as I presume your car insurance would get your motor home , home if in an acident, and you are much less susceptible to any disease than if being on a cruise or in a hotel.

You are probably more likely to catch something infectious on a cruise or a hotel but most things that are really serious tend to be accidents, strokes, heart attacks, complications from Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVTs) and infections. These are just as likely if you are motorhoming and in fact accidents and DVTs are probably more likely.

 

[motorhomer]

I met a bloke last year, can't remember where, but Europe somewhere, and the ehic card is all he's ever bothered with for twenty years.
I said ah yes but you've been lucky not to need a medic. He assured me quite the contrary, both he and his wife have had quite considerable medical assistance, broken leg, cut foot, sprained ankle, he even had a heart scare and got excellent care all for free with the ehic. I think this was mostly in Spain.
It made me wonder why I bother with travel insurance at all especially with premiums rising with age.
I may consider self insuring when we can next cross the moat again.

Yes thats fine and I too have relied on EHIC.
But it doesn't include repatriation of you or the van and that could cost thousands. Also it is doubtful whether it will exist at all next year after Brexit.

 

[Rodneyplonker]

Yes, if you are unfortunate enough to have an accident while driving your Motorhome In Europe And both of you are injured..... Your bank balance and much more could be seriously depleted!

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[gwyntaxi]

that's all I use & usually as i have to physically go & get it each time I wish to travel, 2 trips at least, I don't bother since learning that anyone entitled to the provison of one that doesn't actually have it can get one from their provider over the phone & with the hospital/doctor/medical person being required to actually obtaining it. Not that you'll find many that even know that is what the rules are.

No it is worse than car insurance & basically not worth the paper it's written on.

The EHIC is for emergency treatment only I also have only carried this but after 31/12/20 I do believe it will no longer be valid, depends on what conditions are agreed when we actually leave the EU.

 

[gus-lopez]

The EHIC is for emergency treatment only I also have only carried this but after 31/12/20 I do believe it will no longer be valid, depends on what conditions are agreed when we actually leave the EU.

No it is for exactly what a national is entitled to receive, not just A&E.. I'm fortunate ,at the moment, in having both full Spanish & UK health entitlement as does my wife.

 

[Garfields]

A few people happy to go without travel insurance
Personally I find this madness but its up to them
Yes I have needed to make one claim in thirty years which came to a lot more than I have had to pay in premiums in that time.
My question is do they just insure their vans third party as using similar thinking its unlikely they will ever need to make a claim and third party is all that's required?

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