The latest figures are indicating that one quarter of vacationers are not covered when they go abroad.
According to the latest data released by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), one in every four vacationers traveling abroad from the United Kingdom has not purchased travel insurance protection.
This figure shows that there is a rapid trend moving away from purchasing the coverage in recent years.
The data indicated that from 2011 to 2012, the number of holidaymakers without travel insurance rose at a dramatic rate from having been 20 percent to become 25 percent only a year later. To the ABTA, this is cause for concern and is indicating that changes need to be made in order to ensure that people are obtaining the protection that they require when they leave the country.
The association has called for the U.K. Government to review the travel insurance sale regulations.
The organization has called to the government to go over the regulations that are in place for selling travel insurance in order to help to encourage people in the United Kingdom to be able to better protect British vacationers when they head abroad.
According to the ABTA, the U.K. government introduced “draconian” measures in 2007 in order to assist in the regulation of the sale of travel insurance. This resulted in a large number of travel agents deciding not to sell those policies anymore. This led vacationers to have to independently seek out the coverage at a time other than when they were actually making their bookings – which had previously been one of the main times during which they bought their policies.
Another reasons that vacationers are failing to buy coverage is that there are many misunderstandings regarding the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which makes them feel as though they have more coverage than they actually do, because they are unaware of exactly what it provides.
Though British vacationers with an EHIC can obtain discounted or free state medical care in each of the 27 countries in the European Union, it will only provide coverage for treatment that is required to allow the vacationer’s stay to be continued, and to provide treatment for pre-existing health conditions. Travel insurance goes well beyond that and would provide coverage for any number of more complicated medical problems that could occur and that would require longer term treatments or transportation back to the United Kingdom. Moreover, it also covers issues such as theft or loss of luggage and transportation cancellation.
