Travel insurance for skiers vital as overseas medical bills rocket

Fri, 13 Mar 2009

Skiers and snowboarders planning to ditch travel insurance to save money could be leaving themselves open to massive hospital bills if they have an accident on the slopes this year, with overseas medical expenses soaring as sterling slumps in value.

According to statistics from Post Office Travel Insurance, medical expenses make up an estimated 72 per cent of Post Office claims data, supplied by Fortis Insurance Limited (underwriter of the Post Office Travel Insurance Policy) of ski holiday insurance claim costs.

Post Office head of travel insurance Rachel Croft said: "Paying out for medical costs with no insurance has never been cheap, but the weaker pound means that the relative cost of hospital treatment abroad can be potentially much higher. Medical costs in popular eurozone ski destinations such as France, Italy and Austria could be around 18 per cent higher than this time last year.

Rachel Croft added that as well as travel insurance, it’s essential to carry a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which offers free or reduced cost medical treatment in EU countries.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.