It appears it is an obvious decision to ensure you have travel insurance when travelling to countries such as the America, Far East, and Caribbean etc. Countries where there is a history of high medical costs, if treatment is needed. But as travelling to another country becomes the equivalent to travelling to another big city 15 years ago, more and more people are becoming more complacent about the need for travel insurance. This is more apparent in European countries where there is a national health service, of which there is an agreement with the European community to treat other Europeans free of charge.

Take Spain for example which is part of the European community and will offer free health care say to a UK citizen on holiday or living there. There are certain conditions, first of all you must have a UK E111 form, if you dont have that, you will not be treated. You must also go to a national health hospital, which are not in abundance in certain areas of Spain.

If you were to have an accident, an ambulance would take you to the nearest hospital irrelevant of insurance or not, you would then be asked if you had insurance and then transferred if possible. The problems come when you are not conscience or in such pain you need immediate treatment. All this will be charged to you and possibly the ambulance costs too. If you are holidaying in a remote area or even a holiday island, it is possible that the local hospital does not have the facilities to treat every emergency and you could find yourself being flown to another hospital, of course at your expense.

Another example is hiring a scooter, where in many European countries now they are seen as so dangerous that you cannot get insurance when you hire. You must rely on travel insurance for any health issues and pay for any damage to the scooter.

Check your holiday car hire insurance, does it cover emergency treatment to you and your passengers? Be careful because some car rental policies are based on the assumption that someone on holiday would have travel insurance, so check the details. The facts are that there are very few countries like the UK that gives a free health service in nearly all situations.

Like me you may have had several, event free holidays and have no reason to believe that the unthinkable would happen to you. But the facts are, that accidents can happen to anyone at anytime and usually do. Just ask any member of staff from any hospital emergency ward for confirmation of this point.

There is a situation that would not just ruin your holiday, but could put a financial strain on you for the rest of your life. That is where the treatment and emergency care requires a flight home in a special air hospital. The costs for this could be the equivalent to the price of the home you are living in, not something to put on your credit card.

Lets hope your future holidays are event free from now on, but just in case dont assume that a free health service covers all eventualities, make sure you know all the consequences and have the right protection for you.