Do I need to have travel insurance when crossing Schengen border?

score:7

Accepted answer

Technically yes, the terms under which a Schengen visa is issued require you to have health insurance up to a certain amount of coverage. You may be asked for proof of this in the form of health insurance documents when you're entering the Schengen zone and/or at any passport control checks.

In practice though, it is unlikely that you will be asked to provide documentation for this. However, travel health insurance is still a good thing to have as hospitalisation costs in case something does happen can be expensive. You don't need to get an expensive policy; at least in the UK, you can get short term travel health policies which cost less than £10. Even though these policies may have high deductibles, for serious accidents they will still help you recover medical expenses.

Upvote:3

I have never been asked for that on European Airports Check points. They usually ask you

  1. Where you're going
  2. What you're going to do
  3. How long you will stay. Sometimes they even ask you to show them your returning back tickets or reservation.

I once saw a police asking a person to show him how much money this person got. It really depends on how the police look at you…

However, travel insurance is a requisite to enter a Schengen country. In fact, it is stated in every European embassy webpage. It costs about $50 USD for two weeks covering $50,000 USD. I believe you should spare no expense. No one ever knows.

Almost at the bottom of the Wikipedia article on the Schengen area, there is a table of procedures border guards follow when checking travellers who cross external borders of the Schengen area.

More post

Search Posts

Related post