Would you ski if insurance didn't cover it?

A snowHead

Before I came to the UK, insurance was something I never thought about. Travel insurance was what you needed to buy in order to be allowed to get a visa for a certain country.

Fast forward fifteen years and it seems no one (myself included) does anything without being fully insured.

Just wondering - if insurance companies flat-out excluded any form of cover for skiing (unless maybe you used full body armour and skied only on blue/red runs) would you still ski or would you give it up?

Side-question: if only offpiste skiing was excluded, would you give that up?

A snowHead

of course not! i think that most insurance is a rip-off and prefer to "self insure" (aka just pay for it if i break it/lose it etc)
there are some things where the potential cost is too high (buildings insurance or, in a skiing context, off-piste rescue) or you legally have to have it (car insurance) - these are really the main things i think are worthwhile. if i lose my camera while on holiday - silly me, i'll buy a new one when i have some spare cash

edit: it's also worth drawing a distinction between public liability (ie where you are buying insurance to cover damage you cause to someone else) and personal insurance. i'm much more inclined to have public liability insurance because if i negligently hurt someone else, they should not suffer from my decision not to take insurance

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I wouldn't ski overseas if rescue and medical costs and personal liability could not be insured. All have the potential to wipe my family out financially if I am not insured.

brian

I've skied for years and years in Scotland with no insurance ... but then again we have free piste/mountain rescue, the NHS etc.

Anyway, no, I wouldn't give on or off piste up. Don't really worry about the costs, tbh, it's the potential for agonising death that injects a note of caution in me. Skullie

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I would not ski without insurance, although we may have considered doing so in the past. Although we have never skied without insurance, until last week, it was perceived as wasted money. Following my husbands accident in France, many things our insurers covered would have badly dented the finances. The costs of ambulance transfer to hospital, taxis back to Serre Chevalier from Grenoble, hotels near the hospital, rebooked transport home, not to mention business class flights for hubby and accompanying son would have been eye-watering. I still have some expenses to reclaim, such as lift passes, ski hire etc, but much of the cost of the accident is already covered by the insurance. Medical expenses were of course met courtesy of our EHIC cards.

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If it wasnt insurable i would still continue to ski, and i would still go off piste if that was excluded. However whilst it is still available i will continue to buy if for the peace of mind and protection that it does offer.

After all it is free

I would continue to ski, but I would do so in a careful manner. I like to think that I generally ski fairly carefully anyway, but I'd probably stop taking little risks (like small jumps on the sides of pistes and stuff like that).

Don't think I'd do any differently from what I do now, while insurance gives peace of mind its more than possible to self insure.

If it came to a life or death situation I think I'd be prepared to be bankrupted by whatever I racked up on the credit cards. Annoying little things like $800 stitches in my nose might however be economised on leading to a bit more scarring wink

I'd be all in favour of policies that dropped all incidental cover e.g. baggage, equipment, snow guarantee bollux in favour of medical/SAR cover over a £500 or £1000 threshold.

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alex_heney, read my whole post rolling eyes

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Arno, I did.

But you only mentioned "off piste rescue" as a ski activity where the cost is to high, which is not what I was talking of. I have seen a number of helicopter evacuations from on-piste accidents.

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I wouldn't travel without insurance. At the moment I'm in the position of only being able to travel within the EU and only having medical cover via my EHIC card since it's still less than two years from my cancer treatment so I can only get limited travel insurance medical cover. This isn't really sufficient and I'd certainly not consider going off-piste until I can get full cover again...

However, I've got the peace of mind from the other aspects that are covered by my travel insurance; baggage, flight delays, resort closure, etc...

I think my income protection insurance doesn't pay out in the event of an incapacitating incident off-piste either so I don't think I'll ever be going off-piste unless I can find insurance that does...

Arno, I think you made the key point in your edit. People need insurance to cover their 3rd party liability...if you crash into someone and (worst case) paralyse them then you need to be able to cough up some serious compensation!

You know it makes sense.

I wouldn't ski without insurance - too risky.

Which is an odd thing to say, as every week I play hockey and cycle which are also both risky activities. Neither of which I have insurance for Puzzled

But I suppose I know if I get hurt, then there is no charge for treatment etc

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

I definitely need my income protection insurance for things like mountain biking, etc. in the UK. If have an accident and cannot work as a result, I don't get paid...

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

alex_heney, do we have to pay for that in the UK? I thought Mountain Rescue et al were all free services (albeit funded by donations etc.).

D

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Helicopter rescue is done by RAF/RN Sea Kings. They use evacs as training & don't want to see your credit card.

After all it is free

Air ambulance is a free charity.

Many a hunter has been rescued after falling off his horse by the air ambulance - even in the Home Counties. Many - if not virtually all - hunts make annual donations to the local air ambulance. Well worth thinking about.

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Most ski bums in the US don't have insurance and it doesn't stop them.

Many people go skiing without insurance or without adequate insurance for the activities they are going to do. Loads of people think that their free credit card insurance is travel insurance when in actual fact it is travel accident insurance (ie only pays out for loss of limb, sight, life). Many go off-piste using polices that forbid it. Many take parapente flights but aren't covered and loads of people pitch up in Canada or Italy and do a day of heli-skiing which often isn't covered. Tobogganing is also often excluded but few think about it. And people who ski while under the influence of alcohol are also effectively uninsured. Then there are those who rely only on an EHIC card and Carte Neige and then there are the locals who, if they injure you, probably aren't insured for liability. And there are plenty who simply forget to buy insurance and arrange it online from the resort - they are not covered either because they have already travelled (it's in the small print). And there are plenty who simply forget to buy it at all - I think FCO reckoned 10%+ of the travel market go uninsured! So, I reckon, to answer the thread title, a frightening number of people already do.

You know it makes sense.

I like it far too much to give up if we were not insured.

3rd party liability is vital, but own liability for rescue/treatment etc....I'd take that chance.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

I must admit I never fully understand the cost in say an on-piste accident.

If for example a French man had a skiing accident in the Scottish highlands and was helicopter off and treated for say a broken leg will he be billed - If he has the French equiv. E111 card?

Does this differ for me in France - I'm English.

I wouldn't go sking inthe the states without insurance.

I do buy insurance as I don't understand the costs and its not very much in the big scheme of things - to do my whole family for a year cost the same as 12 cups of coffee on mountain in Austria last week...did I give up coffee? No way.

brian

cfc5mu0, heli rescue in Scotland is provided to any old punter who gets in trouble by the RAF in their Sea Kings as a training excercise. Otoh, heli rescue in the alps is provided by private companies who want serious dough up front.

So for anybody skiing in Scotland - free. For anybody skiing in the alps - $$$$$.

Medical care once in hospital is a completely separate story, that's where the reciprocal arrangement of the EHIC/E111 comes in.

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Pistehors on rescue costs.

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Kind of OT, but I just wanted to give a little hoorah (actually a big one), for the people/organisations in the UK, including RAFs etc. and especially volunteers like mountain rescue, lifeboats etc. who spend time rescuing us have a go heroes for free when we get into trouble.

We sail a lot and I always donate to the RNLI when I can, in a kind of personal-insurance-scheme-come-there-but-for-the-grace-of-whoever-go-I kind of way.

D

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having had someone in our group last year who was badly injured and spent a week or two in hospital with ambulances, potential medical flight home (which i think was not needed in the end), and even piste rescure although she was hit at the base of the training slope (!), and seeing first hand the costs that wracked up (not even for the injured person, but one of the other people in the group, who had to sort it out), i would say for the cost of £15-25 quid for a week, its madness not to do it... The person injured had no travel insurance and had not even taken advantage of the EU medical E111 scheme!!!

Add in the cheap piste rescue insurance that you buy in resort when you collect lift passes, and its just not worth not doing!!

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I would never ski without insurance. My father injured himself many moons ago, he had insurance. An english guy was put in the bed next to him after dislocating his hip and he had no insurance. His father had to pay his medical expenses - not cheap.

After all it is free

I wouldnt ski outside of the UK without insurance but I just think it will go up in cost a lot but like car insurance we will find the money to pay for it !

Last year my boss actually tried to ban me from going skiing saying I was putting myself in danger of getting injured and therefore being off work sick and I shouldnt go ! hmmmmm ridiculous

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Would you ski if insurance didn't cover it?

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