It’s peak summer season, and many are heading off on holidays – but UK residents are travelling more and insuring less, new figures show.
Last year saw an 8% rise in overseas travel at 70 million visits, according to the Office of National Statistics, but that rise coincided with an increase in those travelling uninsured. Twenty five per cent (25%) of travellers set off abroad without travel insurance in the last year, up 3% on the year before, recent ABTA data shows.
“It’s important to educate consumers about the value of travel insurance – and it’s not just about protecting themselves against significant costs,” Dr Tim Hammond, chief medical officer for CEGA, told Insurance Business.
The global assistance and claims management company has been warning holidaymakers about some of the lesser known travel risks – with the aim of encouraging the uptake of travel insurance.
“We also work hard to communicate the message that if a holidaymaker has an accident or becomes seriously ill the other side of the world and they are not covered by travel insurance, they could find themselves having to manage their own medical emergency, having treatment delayed and even being given the wrong care,” Hammond commented.
If holidaymakers don’t have travel insurance, their relatives will have the stress of organising and paying for repatriation when they are critically ill, he explained.
“Relatives may not know where to turn – and they could lose crucial time trying to find out,” he said. “This could be fatal if holidaymakers are stuck in a country with unsophisticated medical care.”
Many UK travellers may assume that when in Europe, where in many cases they can use a European Health Insurance Card, they will be fully covered for things like repatriation should they need it – but the reverse is true.
“We remind travellers that the EHIC only covers basic costs in public hospitals and it won’t cover any bills at all in private hospitals,” noted Hammond.
The increasingly remote destinations that attract travellers today can also turn minor health problems into major worries.
“Good treatment for a chest infection, for example, will be much easier to reach in a country like Spain than in a developing country, where facilities may be very basic,” he explained. “Assistance companies need to develop global networks of trusted transport and medical providers, to meet the needs of our increasingly intrepid and mobile population.”
Looking to the future, policyholders will increasingly want to see risk-management products built into their travel insurance.
“Mobile travel insurance apps can enable employers, friends and relatives at home to track travellers’ proximity to natural disasters or terrorist attacks,” he explained. “They can send out alerts about local real-time dangers, give travellers advice about keeping safe and offer alternative travel routes to avoid risk.”
Hammond concluded: “As medical and security needs overseas become increasingly intertwined, policyholders also want to access combined medical and security assistance, at the swipe of a screen or via a single call... Assistance providers need to work closely with their insurer clients to meet these changing needs.”
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