Uninsured travellers 'risk financial ruin'

TRAVEL COSTS:TRAVELLERS HAVE been warned about "recklessly" travelling to the US without medical insurance. Sixteen per cent of all travellers, and 5 per cent of those heading to the US, go abroad without taking out travel insurance, according to a survey by AA Travel Insurance.

The company claims this amounts to a major gamble by holidaymakers. “If people were aware of the risks that they are taking, in some cases risking financial ruin for a family, they simply would not risk it,” says AA policy director Conor Faughnan.

Medical costs are so high in the US that they can turn a short-term illness into a “life-changing debt”, he says. The cost of an air ambulance to repatriate a visitor from the US to Ireland can be up to 150 times the cost of a normal flight home, for example, varying between €66,000 and €77,000. Closer to home, it can cost €22,000 to be transported by air ambulance from Spain.

Other emergency costs incurred by holidaymakers recently include €22,000 for an angiogram in the US, more than €5,500 per night for a stay in an intensive-care unit in the US and up to €1,600 for the same facility in Spain.

Not surprisingly, under-25s were the most likely to do without travel insurance, at 28 per cent, while just 11.5 per cent of over-65s did without.

Travellers are advised to check their insurance policy before leaving home.

Questions about pre-existing conditions often cause problems when claims are being made, and need to be answered fully.

While the US has a highly privatised health system, many European countries have public health services that are better than our own here, and they can be accessed by Irish visitors.

In most European countries the European Health Insurance Card – obtainable free from the HSE – will cover most of the cost of necessary treatment. However, it does not cover the cost of repatriation or private medical services, where these are needed.