Youngsters think Government will pick up holiday medical bills
Almost a third of people aged 18 to 34 don’t bother to buy travel insurance, according to latest research by ABTA.
It found that millennials are the most likely group to travel uninsured, with only 69% taking out a policy compared with a national average of 78%.
Only 16% of the 261 young adults who responded to the survey strongly agreed that travel insurance was important for any holiday (regardless of whether it is abroad or in the UK), far below the national average of 26%.
One in five millennials who had travelled without insurance in the past year said they forgot to take out a policy, but 46% said they didn’t think it was necessary.
A quarter of youngsters mistakenly believed that the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) replaced the need for insurance, compared with 22% who responded to a similar survey last year.
One in 10 were also labouring under the false impression that the UK government would pay for medical treatment if they fell ill abroad.
Of the 2031 who responded to the online survey earlier this month, 22% had travelled in the last year without insurance and16% thought it wasn’t necessary with an EHIC and 7% thought the Government would pick up their medical bills abroad.
ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "As we head into the summer season, it is worrying to see younger people continuing to travel abroad without appropriate insurance, as well as a growing lack of awareness about the function of an EHIC card.
"Every year, we see cases of young people falling into difficulty after travelling without insurance. The risks being undertaken are great, and the costs of not being insured could be many thousands of pounds."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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