When I first started traveling internationally more than 2 decades ago not many people jumped on the travel insurance bandwagon. Most people just presumed it was a scam or something that they would never use. In all actuality, most people actually DONT use it and that is the only reason why the industry actually works. The insurance companies wouldn't be able to exist for such a low price if most of their customers made claims that ended up costing more than the policy costs. Generally speaking, I don't think people actually will ever need travel insurance but for those that do have something terrible happen to them, they are either massively relieved that they bought the insurance, or they are in a world of hurt financially and logistically when something bad does happen.
I recently was reunited with someone that had one of the worst cases of a medical emergency that I have ever heard of while he and his wife were on a round-the-world trip.
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My friend Steve is in his early 60's and is retired. He and his wife are wonderful people that started feeling the travel bug in their 40's and now it is something that they do almost full time but still hold down a residence in the U.K. I met Steve and his wife June in Guatemala at some random tourist attraction. They were funny people and we had a lot in common so we hung out quite frequently for the month or so that I was there.
One day, Steve was acting out of sorts and was complaining about how his back was killing him and he had scheduled an appointment at one of the better hospitals in the area. Going to an "international" hospital just about anywhere in the world is not as inexpensive as travelers might hope but if you want a correct diagnosis and quality care you kind of need to go to one of these places. If you just go to a regular government hospital and whatever is wrong with you isn't evident such as a broken bone, there is a really good chance you are going to leave there without a diagnosis at all and just bags of pills that you could easily acquire simply by going to a pharmacist and getting them yourself.
When I didn't see Steve for several days I got a bit concerned. I think it was about 3 days later when I saw June on her own in the same coffee shop that I had seen the couple in on many occasions in the past. She informed me that they got some really bad news at the hospital and that while Steve needed back surgery the doctors had also discovered that he has a very serious and life-threatening heart condition. The specialists required for the procedure do not exist in Guatemala so arrangements were being made to transport him back to the United Kingdom for the surgery that he required to save his life. Obviously, June was very concerned and when I went to the hospital to see Steve he was barely conscious and had all sort of plugs and tubes going into his body.
In order to get Steve to his destination, it wasn't as simple as just booking an economy class ticket and flying him back where he would immediately get a taxi to the hospital: There was going to be a lot more to it than that. In order to safely transport Steve a doctor with experience in this specific heart condition had to be flown from the UK in order to accompany him on the plane along with various devices that assist with keeping him alive and comfortable on the flight. It also required booking an entire section of the plane and making other arrangements to leave space for all that had to be done on him during the rather long flight. Accommodations for connecting flights had to be made because there aren't exactly a bunch of flights going from Guatemala City direct to London.
Now just imagine for a second how much just this portion of the needs would cost out of pocket? I don't know where to begin but before he even has any sort of surgery we are probably looking at tens of thousands of dollars. This is before we even start to talk about the very expensive and specialized surgery that he needed on both his heart and back to get him back in working order. Although the UK does have nationalized health care, it was necessary to go the private hospital route because the waiting list for this sort of surgery is quite long and if Steve didn't have insurance or the cash to dole out for the procedure to be done right away, there is a chance that he would perish while waiting for his turn a year from then. However, because he had purchased travel insurance, every penny of this was being covered by the health insurance company.
I didn't see Steve for a very long time but recently met him face-to-face in Mexico where we had planned to meet. He was noticeably smaller than the last time I had seen him but he was upright, and extremely spry for a guy who had undergone multiple extremely complicated surgeries.
Steve never received a bill for anything that was done for him but he had made inquiries as to how much it "would have cost" if it had been necessary for him to pay for it all. The total was nearly $300,000.
Medical care is quite expensive anywhere in the world if it is quality and even more so if it is done through a for-profit private hospital, which is exactly what Steve received. Now travel insurance isn't super cheap for people in their 60's but Steve informed me that his and June's travel insurance was purchased as a combo and it had cost them something like $250 for the duration of what at the time was a 4 month trip they were on when disaster struck.
Without this insurance Steve and June would have been facing financial ruin to keep him alive or even worse, he could have died in a Guatemalan hospital trying to figure out some other affordable way to pay for something that was in his price range.
I always travel with travel insurance and I have only once made a claim on it when I crashed a motorbike and had extremely minor care done for road rash and various X-rays to make certain that there was no internal damage. I was also reimbursed for the money I had to spend repairing the motorbike.
It has been my experience both in my own life and through the stories told by other people that travel insurance companies are "no nonsense" sorts of affairs and unlike the horrible stories you hear about localized insurance companies they don't appear to be attempting to get out of paying for anything that goes wrong. In my situation, they accepted hand-written receipts that I could have actually made myself to the tune of whatever amount I wanted them to be. The receipts had to be verified by a police station but in a lot of the world, these receipts could easily be doctored if the police officer in question was given a bit of money under the table. I of course ** did not do this** but I could have and the insurance company didn't even ask me any additional questions. They simply took the receipts and a few weeks later the check was literally in the mail.
In Steve's situation, the insurance company, which is a global entity, took control of everything and Steve rarely even had to sign anything.
So the moral of the story here is that you really should get travel insurance when you go on a prolonged vacation overseas, especially if you don't exactly know everything that you are going to be doing on that trip. A vast majority of people don't have disaster strike, but it can happen. We all hope that we aren't going to be one of the unfortunate few, but if you are, I think spending a couple hundred dollars on preparing for the worst case scenario is an extremely wise idea. Chances are you aren't going to need it, but if you ever do need it you are going to be very happy that you chose to get it.
There are a wide variety of packages available through many different insurance companies and the one that you decide to use should be based on what country you hail from. They are very easy to find and honestly, I think it is very foolish to travel without it. A vacation, as well as the rest of your life, can be seriously ruined if you choose not to.
I will be taking out travel insurance when the family travels within the next month or two. Normally if you purchase the tickets on your credit card you are covered. but this will not be the case this time. I always take out extra cover on hire cars as well because last time someone drove into it when it was parked and luckily had excess covered as well. This was the first time I opted for the more expensive insurance cover and was happy I did.
for the most part and unless you are traveling to the United States, travel insurance or other types of insurance are so inexpensive it is just foolish to not have it IMO. You are making what I consider to be the correct choices here.
The only choice I think because when you don't do things like you should something will inevitably go wrong.
that's always the way it works out right?