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Why
Take Out Travel
Insurance?
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Why all
Australians should take out travel insurance
before going overseas
(reprinted
from the Smartraveller.gov.au
website)
For
most Australians, overseas travel is a wonderful
experience. Unfortunately, every day consular
officers of the Australian Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade at home and overseas deal with
human tragedies involving the death, injury or
hospitalisation of Australians abroad. Each year
the department handles over 20,000 cases involving
Australians in difficulty overseas. This includes
over 700 hospitalisations, 600 deaths and 100
evacuations of Australians to another location for
medical purposes.
In cases where
victims are not covered by travel
insurance,
such personal tragedies are further compounded by a
long-term financial burden. Hospitalisation,
medical evacuations, or even the return of the
deceased's remains to Australia, can be very
expensive. Daily hospitalisation costs in Southeast
Asia regularly exceed $800; return of remains from
Europe in excess of $10,000. The cost of medical
evacuations from the United States regularly range
from $75,000 to $95,000 and sometimes up to
$300,000. The department has handled medical
evacuations from nearby Bali in which costs have
exceeded $60,000.
Unfortunately,
not all of these cases involved travellers covered
by travel
insurance.
Travellers who are not covered by insurance are
personally liable for covering incurred medical and
associated costs. As a result, we have known
instances where families have been forced to sell
off assets, including their superannuation or
family homes, to bring loved ones back to Australia
for treatment.
Despite these
stark statistics, it is not the department's
intention to discourage Australians from
travelling, which in almost all cases is a very
positive experience. Only 0.6% of Australians
travelling overseas encounter difficulty each
year.
Instead, one of
our key messages to Australian travellers is that
there are things you can do to help reduce the
likelihood of becoming one of the more unhappy
consular statistics. With accidents or illness
often unavoidable, proper travel
insurance
is very important in this context. Of course, the
all-to-common occurrence of theft and loss of
personal belongings is also something all
Australian 
travellers
should insure against. Each year the department
handles over 16,000 cases involving the welfare of
Australians who have suffered illness, theft,
robbery or assault.
In choosing a
policy, we would note some insurance policies will
not always cover claims made in those countries to
which the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade recommends against travel. For up-to-date
travel advice, we recommend travellers consult and
monitor the smartraveller.gov.au
website.
Case
Studies
Following
are some examples of the kind of cases
handled by the Department:
The
reasons for Australians requiring
hospitalisation vary. Cases handled by the
department have included car and motorbike
accidents, a simple misstep and fall at a
temple, and side effects from prescribed
drugs. The department advises 'if you
can't afford travel insurance, you can't
afford to travel'. In many of the cases it
is the traveller's family who have had to
foot the bill.
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1.
In
Bangkok a man was hit by a car while
riding a motorcycle. He sustained a badly
fractured leg and was admitted to the
nearest local hospital. His wife was with
him. He did not have any travel insurance,
and so had no choice as to hospital or
treatment. The hospital did not have the
expertise to do anything for him except
clean the wound. After 3 weeks his wife
asked the Embassy for assistance as parts
of the shin bone had died and the
fractured ends were not healing. The
Embassy assisted in having the man
medically evacuated to Australia for
admission to hospital, at very
considerable expense to his
family.
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2.
In Bali,
5 Australians were injured in a mini-van
accident. Consular assistance was limited
to support and routine contact with
next-of-kin (NOK), as all the Australians
involved had travel insurance. The travel
insurance company paid their hospital
bills and arranged their medical
evacuation to Australia.
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3.
A young
man who worked in a US ski resort for four
months, then took time off to travel
around the US. He permitted his 12-month
travel insurance policy to expire just a
few days before his departure for home. He
was hit by a car while crossing a road and
suffered serious head injuries. He was
admitted unconscious to intensive care and
required highly intensive sophisticated
care until he was able to be flown back to
Australia. He was still unconscious and
returned on a stretcher. The cost to the
family for the medical evacuation alone
was $80,000. They have taken out a second
mortgage on their house to raise the
funds.
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4.
A young
Australian surfer went to the United
States for a surfing competition. Although
an experienced surfer, he unfortunately
chose the wrong wave during a practice
session. The wave dumped him on a reef and
he sustained serious injuries. He was
flown to a local hospital and immediately
underwent two major operations. The
hospital bill was AUD$290,000. Fortunately
the young manís parents had
insisted he take out travel insurance
before he left Australia. The insurance
company covered the bill, and the young
man and his family were able to focus on
his recovery.
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