Can you afford not to have travel insurance ?

I finally got round to arranging my travel insurance at the weekend

I go on holiday in 2 weeks and it has been worrying me that I had no insurance in place.

Usually I have annual cover through my bank but recently changed accounts and hadn’t got round to changing to the advance account which provides the annual insurance for myself and my family.

I booked the holiday in February and paid my balance in March so the fact that I have not been insured is very silly on my part.

After all I haven’t saved any money by leaving it until nearer the time and I have taken the risk of losing all of my hard earned money should I have had to cancel.

Especially working in the travel industry and seeing first hand the problems this has caused people in the past.

Travel companies are not sympathetic and if you have to cancel will charge you a cancellation fee depending on the time scale involved.

I do occasionally get asked by customers if it is necessary to have travel insurance at all and my answer is always yes.

I know there is cover in place when travelling in the EU but this only covers medical care at designated NHS equivalent medical centres/hospitals.

If you need an ambulance or even air ambulance this would not be covered neither would assisted medical care back to your home country.

A few years ago my mum and dad set off an a holiday of a lifetime to tour around New Zealand , something they have planned to do for years but only had the time once they retired.

Unfortunately they only made it as far as Los Angeles when my mum fell ill on a flight and was rushed to hospital in LA.

She was kept in hospital for 3 weeks and had many tests and also surgery and the final bill came to about £35,000

Thank goodness they paid the £180.00 travel insurance before they went as all they lost was their excess.

Not only would you receive peace of mind knowing that your insurance would cover medical costs most insurance would also cover cancellation, loss of passport, luggage, missed departure as many other benefits.

So the question is can you really afford not to have insurance.

What do you think is it worth taking the risk ?