Do I need travel insurance? The honest answer
When you do, when you do not, what it covers and what it does not. Without trying to sell you anything.
Inside the EU: your European health card
If you are travelling within the European Union, the European Health Insurance Card gives you access to the country's public healthcare on the same terms as a local. It is free, you request it online and it arrives in a couple of weeks: get it, it costs nothing and it can save you a lot of grief. But it is worth knowing exactly what it does NOT cover, because that is where people get caught out: it does not cover private healthcare (and in many countries the public system has co-payments), it does not cover repatriation — which can run into tens of thousands of euros — it does not cover mountain rescue or lost luggage, and it does not refund your trip if you have to cancel. The card is a floor, not a ceiling.
Outside the EU: yes, you need insurance
There is no debate to be had here. In the United States, a night in hospital can cost more than your entire trip, and an appendectomy easily goes past 30,000 dollars. In Southeast Asia, a scooter accident with a transfer to a private hospital in Bangkok is the most common bill travellers face, and it does not come in under several thousand euros. A medical repatriation from Asia or the Americas runs around 50,000. Travel insurance costs 2 to 5 € a day. You can do the maths: compare travel insurance and travel with peace of mind.
What good insurance must cover
Look at these covers, in this order: medical costs of at least €100,000 outside Europe (the €30,000 required for a Schengen visa is the legal minimum, but it falls short for a real trip), medical repatriation included, civil liability, trip cancellation for justified reasons, and luggage. Then — and this is the important part — read the exclusions, because that is where the real small print lives: adventure sports, motorcycle riding (which a great many policies exclude by default, exactly what people use most in Southeast Asia), pre-existing conditions and anything alcohol-related. Cheap insurance that excludes what you are going to do is not cheap: it is useless.
Your credit card may include insurance
Many premium cards include travel insurance, but read the conditions before you rely on it. Almost all of them require you to have paid for the ENTIRE trip with that card, have low cover limits, maximum trip durations (typically 30 or 60 days) and medical cover far below what you need outside Europe. For a weekend break it may be enough; for a long or intercontinental trip, almost never. Call your bank and ask for the terms in writing: if the medical cover does not reach six figures outside Europe, that is not travel insurance, it is a marketing extra.
Short trips in Europe: your call (and a confusion that costs money)
For a weekend in Paris or Rome, with the European health card and a decent credit card, you can get by without insurance. The risk exists, but it is low, and the decision is yours. What you do need to be crystal clear about is a very widespread confusion: travel insurance is NOT the same as the compensation the airline owes you if your flight is delayed or cancelled. That compensation — up to €600 under European regulation — is paid by the airline, not your insurer, and you can claim it even with no policy at all. We explain how in claiming compensation for a delayed flight, and you can compare who claims for you and what fee each one takes. And if you travel on a Schengen visa, insurance stops being optional: it is required by law.
