Why Winter Sports Cover is Important

Hitting the Slopes? Why Wintersports Cover is Important

December 2015

With the snow beginning to fall in Europe and the ski season starting to gather pace in resorts, it’s worth noting the benefits of having wintersports cover included in your travel insurance policy.

If you are unfortunate enough to fall while skiing or snowboarding and have an injury and you do not have winter sports insurance on your travel policy, any medical expenses you incur are unlikely to be covered, meaning that you will responsible for the costs of any hospital bills.

Piste rescue, including helicopter rescue in many cases these days, would also not be covered if you hadn’t added the cover for winter sports to your travel insurance policy, so again you would have to cover these costs yourself, with helicopter rescue potentially costing thousands of pounds alone.

Most ambulance services in ski resorts are privately run, unlike here in the UK, so there may be an additional cost to pay for these.

Doesn’t it make sense to let these expenses be taken care of by your winter sports travel insurance?

While you may think the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) will help you in these circumstances it will only entitle you to the same treatment a local would get in a state facility, so many of the previously mentioned examples are unlikely to be covered in full by the EHIC, leaving you out of pocket. Medical repatriation back to the UK would also not be covered by the EHIC even if it was necessary.

Obviously if you are planning on going further afield than Europe for your snowboard or ski holiday, such as the USA or Canada then the EHIC will be of no use to you, even though some 5% of people, according to research by GoCompare, believe it will cover you on a worldwide basis.

The cost of medical treatment in the USA can be astronomical and with the increased risk of injury whilst taking part in winter sports activities it makes sense to have travel cover with it included. For instance, the cost of treating a lower leg break in the United States is likely to cost £20,000 alone, according to emergency assistance companies. On top of this there could also be additional costs involved in upgrading your flights back home to accommodate the extra space needed for having a leg in plaster.

All in all, this means that ‘hitting the slopes’ this winter could be rather more expensive than you were planning if you were to have an accident.

In addition to medical cover, choosing to have winter sports cover will also help protect your ski equipment, whether it is your own or hired, in the event that it is lost or damaged on your trip.

Please note: Insuratrip, like many other travel insurance policies, does not replace items on a ‘new for old’ basis, a deduction for age and wear and tear will be made.

Despite the obvious benefits to having winter sports cover included on your travel policy, ABTA reported recently that nearly 1 in 3 people (31%) travel without the appropriate cover. Wintersports travel cover for skiing insurance or snowboarding insurance can be added to your policy quickly and easily to when you buy your Insuratrip travel insurance or to get a quote with it already added click this link.

Written by Evie

Sources:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/how-ehic-really-costs-dangerous-6226057 

http://abta.com/about-us/press/winter-sports-a-third-left-on-thin-ice-without-appropriate-insurance