Travel Insurance

Why do i need Travel Insurance?

First of all, (and this is really important), DOCTORS / HOSPITALS / MEDICAL CARE are not free.
We're really lucky in the UK that we have free healthcare. The Government or more accurately us as taxpayers pay for it -very few other countries in the world have such a luxury. To go and see a Doctor costs us nothing, if we're prescribed medicine we get it at a discounted rate. If we need to go to hospital nobody asks for a credit card at the entrance.

Because we've grown up with it many Brits seem to think this is the way it is overseas: IT'S NOT. Go to the US on your holiday and you have to PAY to see a Doctor or use a hospital, in fact fewer than 60 countries have reciprocal healthcare agreements with the UK.

Incredibly 25 per cent of travellers still leave home without any insurance, according to the British Insurance Brokers' Association. Working for a travel agency we have listened to genuine stories of people who have got ill abroad or had an accident and then have lost their life-savings/had to sell their house -it really happens. Consultants and x-rays etc don't come cheap.

Travelling in Europe?

The European Health Insurance Card which replaced form E111 in January 2006, offers free or reduced-price hospital treatment across Europe, but you need both the EHIC and insurance to be fully covered. The EHIC does not cover repatriation to the UK, bills if you use a private medical clinic or are picked up in a private ambulance, or supplemental costs such as accommodating a relative in a nearby hotel, all of which a comprehensive insurance policy will cover.

Don't take it from us though -check out the Foreign Office website before you travel.