10 worst illness spots for Kiwis
Death in Thailand highlights wisdom of medical insurance in Southeast Asia
The death of Kiwi woman Abby Hartley in Bali earlier this month was a confronting reminder that falling seriously ill while overseas inflicts a heavy financial burden on loved ones over and above the emotional toll.
With the Hartleys’ travel insurance refusing to front up for hospital bills due to an undisclosed pre-existing condition, the New Zealand Government was asked for assistance, and refused.
But the Hamilton family’s request for the Government to intervene in medical costs overseas is not unique.
Since 2009, 1643 Kiwis have made a medical request for assistance overseas to the Government.
One notoriously volatile yet beautiful Southeast Asian country looms large over all others in global numbers: Thailand.
Since 2009, there have been 150 requests from Kiwis travelling in Thailand for medical assistance from the Government.
The next highest is Australia, with 117 requests, but our transtasman neighbour had more than 9 million visitors in that time, dwarfing Thailand’s 350,000 total visitors. Southeast Asian countries feature prominently on the list — with five of the top 20.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs data, obtained under the Official Information Act, comes two weeks after the Herald on Sunday revealed a Kiwi woman’s drink spiking and attempted abduction in Phuket in 2016.
The woman in her early 30s, along with her fiance´’s sister, was pulled unconscious from a taxi by her cousin after drinking at a bar on Thailand’s largest island with “suspicious Russians”.
Darcy Peacock, an Aucklandbased travel guide who spent a year living in Thailand, and six years in Asia, said there was a lot of reckless, drug and alcohol-fuelled behaviour involving tourists in Thailand.
“Usually the places that are the worst are the islands,” Peacock said.
“You get people who get down there, often 18-year-olds.
“And people make stupid decisions, they’re away from their own country and they get hurt, and sadly lots of people go over there without insurance.”
On its official Safe Travel website, the Government warns of the dangers of the country 51,000 Kiwis have as their main holiday destination in the year to June 30.
It includes an “exercise increased caution” warning due to an unpredictable political system, civil unrest, ongoing terrorism threat, and sexual assaults through drink-spiking.
Unsurprisingly, given the number of Kiwis getting into medical strife in Thailand over the past decade it’s also insisted: “New Zealanders travelling or living in Thailand should have a comprehensive travel insurance policy in place that includes provision for medical evacuation by air.”
But the Hartleys’ sad case also highlighted the conundrum of buying travel insurance with pre-existing medical conditions.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged Cover More Travel Insurance to stump up and pay the $170,000 to medivac Abby back home from Bali after she was left in a coma from septicaemia contracted during emergency bowel surgery.
“Ultimately, what we hope is in these cases that insurers really step in and assist families when they have situations like this,” Ardern said.
But Cover More Travel Insurance did not, because Hartley had not disclosed a pre-existing condition.
Insurance Commission of NZ chief executive Tim Grafton said there was a range of pre-existing conditions most travel insurers would cover, and then others which would need negotiation depending on the countries visited.