Australian government launches travel insurance campaign

Australia’s government is urging the country’s citizens to buy travel insurance before heading overseas.

Travel Insurance News - 29/11/2012

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Australia’s government is urging the country’s citizens to buy travel insurance before heading overseas.

To persuade Australians, Canberra has begun running a series of electronic advertisements and distributing postcards depicting Erin Langworthy, the young Australian traveller whose bungee cord snapped last year as she jumped from a bridge more than 100 metres above a mountain river in Zambia.

Bob Carr, the Australian foreign minister, told the media that nearly around 14,000 Australian citizens become ill, sustain injuries or are admitted to hospital each year while travelling in another country. He added that the message was “especially clear” to young people who opt for exceptionally adventurous trips abroad.

Government officials proclaim in the AUD $2.6 million (£1.7 million) campaign that Langworthy benefitted from immediate treatment in a top medical facility that would have left her with medical bills totaling to around AUD $50,000 (£32,500).

Carr said that obtaining insurance is easy and inexpensive, especially considering the massive health and financial risks at stake for those that travel without it. He said that without having taken out cover prior to travel, Ms Langworthy might also have ended up with poor quality treatment in addition to serious medical costs.

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