Travel Insurance IS a Prime Necessity

by Barrie | November 18th, 2010   Tweet

More so than ever travel insurance should be a priority and organised for you and your family even before you leave for Bali. It’s no good saying “I’m healthy and have nothing to worry about. Besides, it’s only for a few weeks” The problem with that attitude is that bad things DO happen and the spiralling cost of medical attention in foreign lands would put a hefty dent in your budget not to mention the anguish caused.
Only idiots travel anywhere without insurance. Walk down any street in the tourist strip on your holidays in Bali and sooner or later you will notice somebody in a plaster cast or a limb bandaged in some manner. Travel insurance is a necessity. To give you an example of cost for medical care, earlier this year I suffered an extreme bout of food poisoning and was hospitalised for two days. The cost was heavy at Rp6 million.
Fortunately, Bali has a good selection of hospitals and clinics. The Clinics favoured by tourists include SOS International and BIMC, both located in the Kuta area. Obviously if you have medical / travel insurance you would want to go to a western standard clinic but if you don’t have insurance those places are very expensive.
There are many good travel insurance companies and one that I would highly recommend is the one provided by BootsnAll. There are other travel companies and also your own medical insurance company in your home country can assist you.
With travel to Bali it is imperative you are well covered and especially for medical evacuation and this can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. There are too many strange bugs ‘out there’ that are more than willing to spoil your holiday.