Here’s a scenario many travellers can relate to:

You’re in a cab on your way to the airport for a well-deserved tropical Caribbean getaway, after countless days of long hours at the office. During the ride, you start doing the final last-minute checklist in your head: “Do I have everything I need?” (i.e., shorts, bathing suit, sunscreen, passport, health card …)

However, what travellers do not devote as much attention to — in comparison to packing clothing, hygiene products and identification — is reviewing their travel insurance policy, should they choose to obtain one in the first place. This is one concerning aspect.

Among 18- to 34-year-old Canadians, roughly 44 per cent never, or rarely, bought insurance on any trip they had taken to the U.S. within the previous two years, according to a past Ipsos Reid study. And based on a September 2015 Travel Health Insurance Association (THIA) survey, 47 per cent of respondents said they had never reviewed their policies, even though 23 per cent have required medical care while travelling.

The question, “how important is travel insurance?” often comes up when travellers are contemplating booking a trip. In a word: “very [important],” “vital,” “essential.”

According to Canadian travel insurance broker AwayCare, provincial health insurance offers very limited coverage outside of Canada and “may not fully cover medical treatment or testing performed in other provinces,” the broker’s official website states. This can result in astronomically high medical bills. According to AwayCare — in the U.S., for example — a day in a hospital can cost upwards of $4,000 Canadian. A bypass surgery can reach approximately $73,000. In some cases, you could be denied medical treatment.

Factors such as trip length and current state of health can often come into account when getting travel insurance. Typically, travel insurance covers and can compensate for: flight delays, flight cancellations, missed connections that force passengers to pay for a hotel, meals, transit from the airport and back, recovering losses when luggage or other valuables go missing, and if a traveller gets ill or injured and requires medical attention on board an aircraft (to name a few), depending on your policy. However, your average travel insurance health coverage and special risk insurance do not include getting injured in “high-risk activities,” such as parasailing or bungee jumping.

As we state on our website, “worry is not something you should be packing with you” when you’re embarking on your trip. At Ferrari & Associates, we’ll assuage all your travel insurance concerns. We’ll comprehensively outline our travel insurance policy options and possible scenarios you may encounter while abroad. We have assisted many travellers through our boutique travel insurance services since the genesis of our company — offering insurance coverage options that suit each traveller’s budget. At Ferrari & Associates, we are here for you. Contact us to book a one-on-one travel insurance consultation for more information.