It can also mean that they will only pay out up to a certain maximum and that can make a lot of difference if you are skiing, fall, break your back and can not move. If your cover is say £50,000 It sounds a lot to us but in medical treatment terms it may not be enough for the treatment or the air ambulance to fly you home.

Skiing does require extra cover to the usual beach holidays too so make sure you have it, even if it is at an additional cost.

There have been a few reports on TV about people getting insurance for £5 then finding out that the insurance company are refusing to meet the cost of medical treatment due to some clause or other and lying on a hospital bed in a strange country waiting for some one to re-mortgage their house to pay for your care must be sheer hell.

What I do is get insurance from a big name company such as one of the leading supermarkets or businesses. I know they wont want the TV to report that they are not going to pay out. It is bad for business.

I use Virgin, not the cheapest but last year when my flight home was delayed for 17 hours, They were helpful when telephoned to ask about the claim and sent me the claim form in the post so I got it the next day and my cheque for the full claim was received very quickly. So I do recommend them. Their cover for medical is actually in the millions not just a few grand.

Also, I suggest if you are going to Europe, take the E111 card and carry it with you at all times. A lot of countries have an agreement with the NHS to treat us free but you have to have the E111 on you, you can not use it after the event.

http://www.ehic.org/

Enjoy your holiday and please take care.