You already paid for the holiday. A hospital abroad can still take the rest.
The cheap tick-box at checkout is not cover. It is a bet that nothing goes wrong.
You know the sequence. Flights booked. Hotel paid. Out-of-office on. Then you skip travel insurance because “we’re only gone a week” and nothing ever happens to you.
Until it does. Food poisoning on day two. A missed connection that strands you overnight. A child’s ear infection at 2am. A fall on wet marble. The hospital does not care that you already spent a month’s wages on the trip. They want a card before they treat you — and a flight home, if you need one, is not free.
That is the actual product. Not peace of mind in a slogan. A way out of a bill you cannot pay from a sun lounger.
The bill that follows a “small” accident
Most people picture travel insurance as lost luggage. Insurers do not. Medical treatment is the claim they see most: one in three travel claims is for medical expenses. The average medical payout sits around £1,528. That is the ordinary case — a clinic visit, an ambulance, a night in a ward.
The ugly case is the one you will remember. One insurer paid more than £1 million for emergency hospital treatment in the United States plus the flight home. You will not “sort it with a credit card” at that number. You will be choosing between treatment and debt.
What people actually claim for
Medical is the largest single reason for a claim — not delayed bags. Sources below.
The health card will not fly you home
Plenty of travellers still treat a European health card as insurance. It is not. Where it works at all, it is for some state healthcare. It does not cover private hospitals, mountain rescue, cancelled hotels, or a medical flight back. If the clinic asks you to pay up front, the card does not argue for you.
The other trap is the £8 policy at the airline checkout. Winter sports excluded. USA not included. Blood pressure never declared. The claim is declined in a paragraph, and you still have the invoice.
If you take tablets, have seen a specialist, or are waiting on a test, say so on the quote. Insurers would rather load the premium than pay nothing when you needed them. Silence is what kills a claim.
Age does not care that you “feel fine”
Claim size climbs with age. Industry figures put the average payout around £518 for travellers in their late thirties — and around £1,830 for people in their early seventies. You do not get a discount for being “still active”. Hospitals bill the injury, not the story you tell yourself.
Average claim size by age
Older travellers are not “unlucky”. Treatment simply costs more when something goes wrong.
Five minutes before you pay for anything else
Buy cover when you book the trip, not at the gate. Cancellation only works if the policy already exists. Then check four lines, not the pretty price:
- Medical limit high enough for where you are going — especially the US
- An excess you could actually pay on the day
- Your conditions declared, in writing, on the quote
- Skiing, scooters, or work abroad listed if that is the holiday
If those lines are vague, the policy is decoration. Get a live quote, read the exclusions, keep the assistance number in your phone.
Do not wait until the hospital asks for a card
Compare cover for this trip now — while you still have a choice.
Sources for the charts
- Chart 1: Association of British Insurers — medical expenses were 34% of travel claims; average medical settlement £1,528; one US hospital-and-repatriation case exceeded £1 million. Reported from ABI member data: Insurance Times, ABI travel payouts
- Chart 2: Association of British Insurers — average claim about £518 at ages 36–40 and £1,830 at ages 71–75: ABI, “Travellers Ten”