Recently, as a result of hours of lying on the beach, I have warmed up to the tunes of Mr. Kanye West. One song in particular has been stuck in my head for over a week now although certain events have transpired to make me see the song differently. In the song ¨Gold Digger¨ Kanye raps about the issue of women who only marry for money. At one point he states:

If you ain't no punk holla We Want Prenup!
WE WANT PRENUP!, Yeaah
It's something that you need to have
Cause when she leave she gonna leave with half

The passion that Kanye raps with makes me feel like I really need a prenuptial agreement (when I become a rich famous rapper). This week something happened to me that make the song play in my head a little differently. I got sick here in Spain and so did one of my friends and so we went to the hospital to get treated. It was then that I realized what I really needed was travel insurance.

We want travel insurance! We want travel insurance!
It’s something that you need to have
Cause when you leave you gonna have to pay in cash

When I’m sick, it’s never a good idea for me to go to the hospital alone because I never bring the papers I need with me and I am the worst patient. This meant that when they asked me if I had travel insurance I just told them (in my now perfect Spanish  ) that I was going to pay the 34 euros for the visit, get my medicine and be done with it. After the experience however I wondered what I could have done to better prepare and what if I had been more seriously sick.

Now, I am focusing on the health insurance aspect of travel insurance but travel insurance can be purchased to protect you from unplanned changes to your trip and can cover anything from bad weather, bankruptcy of airlines, death in the family and now even terrorism!

My friend who injured his foot however, had to pay much more than me for treatment and so I promised myself that in the future I would travel insured and find out what my options are. One look at the RBC "why do I need travel insurance?" page and it’s easy to see why it’s so important to get coverage. On the site they list the prices for treatment of certain injuries in Florida as an example. When Canadians travel outside of the country all of that wonderful state subsidized health care we have is stripped away and travel insurance helps lessen the damage a holiday injury could do. RBC quotes that a broken leg would cost you $11,000 to be treated. Man that would suck.

As a student I know that I often take risks and don’t paying for things like travel insurance, putting trust in my good luck and the fact that I’m young and think I’m invincible. After the experiences that I had with my friend I recommend that all students check out their options before jetting off somewhere. Gowander.com is this sweet website where people can post videos, photos and stories and share their passion for travel. They all have a blog on there about travel horror stories so if you need more motivation to get travel insurance check it out.

One last thing that especially students should check out is whether or not basic travel comes included in their tuition. I know that at UBC students are under an umbrella of UBC insurance but need to activate it when they leave. So remember that "Travel insurance is something that you gotta have" and let me know if you have any travel health horror stories.