package holiday......is insurance necessary??

[Dave7]

When my consultant told me there are absolutely no signs of the cancer I thought.......I NEED A HOLIDAY IN THE SUN (Europe).
Re insurance
......mention cancer and most companies are not interested or at £stupid money.
The consultant told me.....forget insurance....just make sure you have your card with you and no hospital will refuse you.
Now I thought....with package holidays, insurance was mandatory.
Any thoughts ??

 

[shouldbeinbed]

None on bought insurance, do you have any perks like TI with your Bank Account? They'd probably void cover for any pre diagnosed condition but with a medical all clear, you might cop lucky.

Enjoy your well deserved break

 

[Dave7]

None on bought insurance, do you have any perks like TI with your Bank Account? They'd probably void cover for any pre diagnosed condition but with a medical all clear, you might cop lucky.

Enjoy your well deserved break

Dont have bank TI.
Just wondering.....can I book a package holiday with no insurance. I would hate to turn up at the airport and get turned away.

 

[subaqua]

yes you can but the EHIC doesn't cover repatriation in air ambulance etc if you need it . Only basic medical care in the EU. You can find some ambulances in spain take you to expensive private hospitals where the only card they are interested in has VISA or MASTERCARD on it .

if you have not been diagnosed as having cancer then there shouldnt be an issue, unless i am reading wrong and you have beaten it ( if you have well done) .

 

[coffeejo]

Dont have bank TI.
Just wondering.....can I book a package holiday with no insurance. I would hate to turn up at the airport and get turned away.

I might be wrong but I believe you can still have affordable insurance if you accept an exemption for anything related to existing conditions.

 

[Beebo]

Go via a specialist broker and you should get a policy for a sensible price. Accept a higher excess and keep the cover as low as possible.
As pointed out above repatriation alive or dead is very expensive.
I dont think you need insurance on a package holiday anymore.

 

[ColinJ]

yes you can but the EHIC doesn't cover repatriation in air ambulance etc if you need it . Only basic medical care in the EU. You can find some ambulances in spain take you to expensive private hospitals where the only card they are interested in has VISA or MASTERCARD on it .

Somebody on one of my cycling holidays in Spain tangled with a truck coming the other way. (The cyclist went wide round a RH bend and the truck coming the other way cut across. Fortunately, the rider bounced off the side of the truck rather than going under it!) When he was being carted off to hospital he was given the choice of going to the basic hospital which would have meant him sitting in a queue for many hours waiting to be seen, or flash his credit card for immediate attention at the private hospital. He went private, got a receipt, and claimed it back from his holiday insurance company.

 

[screenman]

There are some great places in the UK for a holiday, I am on one now.

My eldest did France without insurance and had to have his appendix done out there, I know somewhere it cost him, but not as much as it did us in getting out to look after his family.

 

[Blue]

I might be wrong but I believe you can still have affordable insurance if you accept an exemption for anything related to existing conditions.

I know LV used to have a cover like that - worth a try.

 

[subaqua]

Somebody on one of my cycling holidays in Spain tangled with a truck coming the other way. (The cyclist went wide round a RH bend and the truck coming the other way cut across. Fortunately, the rider bounced off the side of the truck rather than going under it!) When he was being carted off to hospital he was given the choice of going to the basic hospital which would have meant him sitting in a queue for many hours waiting to be seen, or flash his credit card for immediate attention at the private hospital. He went private, got a receipt, and claimed it back from his holiday insurance company.

so worth having insurance then

 

[Dave7]

yes you can but the EHIC doesn't cover repatriation in air ambulance etc if you need it . Only basic medical care in the EU. You can find some ambulances in spain take you to expensive private hospitals where the only card they are interested in has VISA or MASTERCARD on it .

if you have not been diagnosed as having cancer then there shouldnt be an issue, unless i am reading wrong and you have beaten it ( if you have well done) .

Had cancer for 30 months......everything looks clear but need camera for life (apparently you never get all clear from bladder cancer).

 

[subaqua]

Had cancer for 30 months......everything looks clear but need camera for life (apparently you never get all clear from bladder cancer).

well done for beating it as best as you can.

as others have posted try and get an exemption from cancer related issues. http://medicaltravelcompared.co.uk no idea on how good they are. was fist google result. apologies if you have tried these already

 

[Hill Wimp]

yes you can but the EHIC doesn't cover repatriation in air ambulance etc if you need it . Only basic medical care in the EU. You can find some ambulances in spain take you to expensive private hospitals where the only card they are interested in has VISA or MASTERCARD on it .

if you have not been diagnosed as having cancer then there shouldnt be an issue, unless i am reading wrong and you have beaten it ( if you have well done) .

^^^ this.

Repatriation can cost upwards of £15,000 double that if you are dead so think of your relatives and get some insurance that covers Repatriation. If you have not been diagnosed with Cancer you have nothing to declare on that front.

Edit- just read your last post. Congratulations on the "all clear" . Despite the cost I personally wouldn't travel without it. As @subaqua says it's basic care with your EU card.

 

[ColinJ]

so worth having insurance then

Well, I thought it was fairly obvious that that was my point, but in case it wasn't ... YES!

 

[HF2300]

There are specialists in medical conditions who will do good cover for very sensible prices. It's worth checking those out first before you assume that cover will be unaffordable. As an illustration, something between £200 and 'we won't insure you' from a mainstream insurer might come down to as little as £30.

You don't necessarily have to accept huge excesses either, though taking a big excess on medical conditions might be worth it to get cover should a disaster happen. I'm aware of a number of cancer patients who have gambled and got away with it, and one or two who have gambled and had very expensive holidays, or had very close misses.

You can also take out insurance and choose not to cover pre-existing conditions, or any specific conditions, as @coffeejo says, but some insurers have a reputation for trying to attribute illnesses to conditions you've excluded, however tenuously.

Also worth pointing out that cost of cover and likelihood of claiming very much depends what cancer it was you had, and what exactly is meant by 'no sign of the cancer' (i.e. just finished treatment, X months clear, etc.)

EHIC cover is valuable but very basic, as has already been said.