Honeymoon Health Cover: What to Look For
Organising health insurance should be top of your honeymoon planning list - in particular, ensuring you have the right level of health cover for your chosen honeymoon destination. As dispiriting as it is to have to plan for - or even think about - accidents or ill health whilst on your trip, it is imperative that you do organise a suitable policy before you go away.
What Sort of Cover Do I Need?
The type of cover you need will depend on where you are travelling to and what you intend to do when you get to your honeymoon resort.The Foreign and Commonwealth Office recommends that all holidaymakers travelling overseas should ensure their health cover will insure them for every eventuality. This should generally be taken to mean:
- Cover for medical and health emergencies, accidents or injuries whilst you are abroad.
- Twenty four hour assistance and access to emergency services in the event of a claim.
- Personal liability cover in the event of your being sued should you cause injury to another person or damage to their property.
- Cover for your possessions in the event of them being stolen or lost.
- Cover should your trip be curtailed or cancelled.
- Extra cover for any other activities that you may be partaking in, which your normal policy excludes, this could be skiing, jet skiing, white water rafting etc.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also stresses that the policy should cover the whole time that you're away on your trip.
Travelling in Europe
If you are planning on honeymooning in Europe (or any country belonging to the EU - the European Union - including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) you should apply for your EHIC before you travel. The EHIC - European Health Insurance Card - replaces the old E111 form which gives you reduced cost or free health care should you have an accident or fall ill whilst holidaying in Europe.Your EHIC can be applied for online, and lasts for five years. You can apply for your spouse and any children at the same time, as long as you have all their relevant details (date of birth etc.) to hand.
The EHIC does not replace your travel insurance though, which should should still be taken out in full for the duration of your travels!
Travelling Further Afield
When you are travelling outside of Europe, you must make sure your travel policy covers you for any health issues that should arise when you are abroad. Make sure you declare any pre-existing conditions when getting your insurance quote, and fully satisfy yourself to the level of cover your health policy provides.You really can't underestimate the costs of a medical emergency abroad! If you fell ill and needed to be brought back from your honeymoon to the UK, you could find yourself with a bill for literally thousands of pounds - FirstAssist Services Ltd quote twelve thousand to sixteen thousand pounds for an air ambulance flight from the Canary Islands, and a staggering fifteen to twenty thousand pounds for a stretcher, scheduled flight and the assistance of a doctor if you needed to be flown back from Australia!
