Another day, another idiot abroad

Another day, another tale of woe from an Australian travelling overseas who has suffered from misfortune.

This time, it is a woman in Bali, who decided to drink cheap alcohol and fell ill "the day their travel insurance ran out". Now they are stuck with a $50,000 hospital bill they can't pay.




It is a tale that is repeated, in one form or another, every day.

There is the middle-aged person who falls over and breaks their leg in New York, ending up with a medical bill well into six figures. But he doesn't have travel insurance.

Or the young bloke who crashes a motorbike in Thailand, but forgot to invest in travel insurance.

Memo to morons: If you can't afford travel insurance you can't afford to travel. Other countries are not like Australia; free medical care is rarely available.

You are gambling with your future, so don't expect us to feel sorry for you if you fail to spend a $100 bucks or so on insurance and end up with life-threatening injuries and massive debts.

Of course, if you are stupid enough to drink illegal white spirit, or go white water rafting while drunk, you probably won't be covered anyway.

But the message is a simple one. If you are travelling, you need travel insurance (it is not that hard to renew if you overstay and your policy runs out).

It takes about five minutes to fill in a form online. But if you are too busy being a bogan then too bad.