The other day I received an email from my UK bank, Coventry Building Society. It was encouraging me to buy their travel insurance product, guaranteeing, among other things, up to £5m of medical cover. That seems par for the course: all such products in the UK offer a multi-million pound cover when it comes to matters of medical life and limb abroad.
Yet when we went the other day to investigate travel insurance for two of the three people in our party of visitors to the UK, all we could find was insurance costing hundreds of pounds for just three months and covering medical up to a paltry 50,000 euros ! Oh, and we had to pay in cash, of course.
We haven't bought anything yet as I'm still hoping there is something more sane available. Since the insurance we were quoted came from a Swiss insurer, how come the maths seems to be so different for Brazilians rather than Brits or, presumably, other nationals with access to normal travel insurance ?
As usual, any explanations or advice gratefully received.
Update: when we returned to buy the insurance the price had gone up to 1600 reais ! (£640). We found a student travel specialist and got something similar for 1300 reais (about £500). Still with a piddlingly small cover on medical expenses.
I could be wrong, but I suspect this is partly based on past claims. The UK is a rich country and Brits travelling abroad mostly wouldn't claim for medical cover unless there was a real emergency. But people from fairly poor countries visiting the UK may be more tempted to claim for medical cover, as they would be getting better treatment than they would back home. I think there is a history of this sort of thing in the UK, so insurers just need to cover themselves. Of course, this means that the honest people lose out.
ReplyDeletePeople from poorer countries also travel less, so there is bound to be less competition among insurers. Also, the local market there could be rigged.
Maybe a combination of all these and some other things thrown in for good measure.
Hopefully you'll find something more reasonable. When are you headed to the UK? I'm probably going in March for a few weeks. Nothing definite yet though.
Very interesting thoughts Manfred. We were shopping for insurance in this relatively posh neighbourhood where we now live so I would have hoped the products would be targeted at Brazilians who perhaps don't need to play the foreign health system as you suggest.
ReplyDeleteHoping to be in the UK later this month but still firming up plans.
I think in places like the UK, insurance only started getting cheaper when the internet got popular. So if people there still buy insurance from the high street, as they do in Thailand, then that will keep prices high, because people think it's normal.
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