What travel insurance really means • Hacker News Board

Re: What travel insurance really means

#71

Post by J-dawg » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

trocadero wrote: post #37

I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…

I’d always assumed that “Travel Insurance” means you’re covered for whatever treatment you need in the country you happen to be in. (EDIT: providing the accident happens on your trip).

Flying you home and palming you off onto the state seems kinda shady to me. That’s not really “medical cover”, it’s just a flight home. And to make matters worse they made out as if flying him home was doing him a favour.

EDIT: Reading some of the other comments makes me think I’m just another mug who doesn’t read his insurance policies. But I still think that offering “£5,000,000 in medical cover” without qualifying that it really means "£5,000,000 in medical cover, only if we absolutely can't get you home and get the NHS to do it for free", borders on deliberately misleading.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#72

Post by robjan » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

The insurance company is likely not in the wrong here. I think part of the problem is that, as Brits, we are used to not worrying about this kind of thing. If we get hurt in the UK we get unlimited "free" healthcare (paid through taxes) and there are reciprocal agreements throughout Europe whereby healthcare is either free or has a nominal charge to reduce Moral Hazard. We don't have to think about communicating with an insurance company.

Since moving abroad I have gotten used to carrying my insurance card and calling their number before any elective insurable event takes place. I feel that the OP was unfortunate in finding this out the hard way.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#73

Post by J-dawg » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

trocadero wrote: post #68

mamurphy wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's unclear to me why he didn't ask for/demand coverage for the emergency finger-attaching procedure. In the article, he skipped the details on that in terms of supposedly having to inform them beforehand for an emergency procedure. That emergency procedure, not the follow-up, seems more in line with what the plan is designed to cover.

>Yeah, it's unclear to me why he didn't ask for/demand coverage for the emergency finger-attaching procedure. That's bizarre to me as well. Why does he think not claiming reimbursement for covered expenses is being reasonable?

That part seemed really strange. You bought the policy, claim for whatever you’re entitled to!

Part of me wonders whether this set fraud alarm bells ringing and made them scrutinise his case more. (Not that that excuses anything the company did subsequently).

Re: What travel insurance really means

#74

Post by trocadero » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

J-dawg wrote: post #71

trocadero wrote: post #37

I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…

I’d always assumed that “Travel Insurance” means you’re covered for whatever treatment you need in the country you happen to be in. (EDIT: providing the accident happens on your trip). Flying you home and palming you off onto the state seems kinda shady to me. That’s not really “medical cover”, it’s just a flight home. And to make matters worse they made out as if flying him home was doing him a favour. EDIT: Reading…

Nah, travel insurance is to cover emergency medical expenses abroad. Long term care is taken care of by your local insurance or government system.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#75

Post by pawelwentpawel » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

Given the context of this thread - what would be a travel insurer for a UK resident that digital nomads of HN would actually recommend? Not necessarily the cheapest, just the most reliable one.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#76

Post by gnode » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #66

He paid £275 for 18 months of travel insurance? Well yeah, of course they are going to want to fly him back to the NHS. As a US traveller my insurance was $2600 for 12 months. When you enter into a legal agreement (insurance) read the fine print, it'll save you a lot of disappointment.

> read the fine print

People should be able to expect that insurance is as advertised, and there's no "not really" in the fine print. UK courts are much less accepting of such things than the US. The infamous case is PPI misselling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_protection_insurance

Re: What travel insurance really means

#77

Post by J-dawg » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

I wonder whether the author has contacted any of the consumer rights TV programmes such as "Watchdog" [0], which are quite popular in the UK. Martin Lewis [1] might also be interested.

This story seems tailor-made for them. It's an emotive story, connected to a wider issue ("Can YOU trust your travel insurer?"), and just in time for summer holidays!

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74 [1] https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/

Re: What travel insurance really means

#78

Post by astura » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:41 PM UTC

J-dawg wrote: post #71

trocadero wrote: post #37

I'm somewhat sympathetic to the insurance company here. Travel insurance is there to take care of emergency medical care. It's not for long term care. The guy clearly didn't want to travel because he preferred to be cared in Singapore. From his e-mail: >I intend to stay in Asia for some time yet. I did consider travelling home to have surgery in the UK, but the medical Service here is excellent and I'm already schedu…

I’d always assumed that “Travel Insurance” means you’re covered for whatever treatment you need in the country you happen to be in. (EDIT: providing the accident happens on your trip). Flying you home and palming you off onto the state seems kinda shady to me. That’s not really “medical cover”, it’s just a flight home. And to make matters worse they made out as if flying him home was doing him a favour. EDIT: Reading…

Travel insurance is only for emergency coverage while traveling. You absolutely can't purchase travel insurance for $100 and use it to fly abroad to get non-emergency surgery.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#79

Post by gnode » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:42 PM UTC

jochakovsky wrote: post #24

true_religion wrote: post #9

Looks like they wanted him to use NHS, unless he was dying. Luckily, I live in America, where no travel insurrer will ever tell you to return to as costs will increase by 40x.

I think they would still tell you to return, since any costs in the US would be paid by your regular medical insurance, not your travel insurance.

In this case I presume you'd not be paying for US insurance, as you'd expect to be backpacking for many months more.

Re: What travel insurance really means

#80

Post by J-dawg » Tue, Jul 17, 2018, 4:44 PM UTC

astura wrote: post #78

J-dawg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d always assumed that “Travel Insurance” means you’re covered for whatever treatment you need in the country you happen to be in. (EDIT: providing the accident happens on your trip). Flying you home and palming you off onto the state seems kinda shady to me. That’s not really “medical cover”, it’s just a flight home. And to make matters worse they made out as if flying him home was doing him a favour. EDIT: Reading…

Travel insurance is only for emergency coverage while traveling. You absolutely can't purchase travel insurance for $100 and use it to fly abroad to get non-emergency surgery.

> You absolutely can't purchase travel insurance for $100 and use it to fly abroad to get non-emergency surgery.

I've certainly never thought that was the case, and I don't think my comment implied that (I've edited it for clarity anyway).

What I meant was, I've always assumed that if I had an accident abroad, it would cover me for any surgery I needed in the immediate aftermath, until I was well enough to either resume my trip, or fly home somewhat comfortably.

I still don't think that's an unreasonable assumption, but I've learned something today!