Next to having your passport ready, the most important aspect of planning travel outside Canada is to ensure you have medical insurance coverage.

A recent poll by TD Insurance suggests a surprising number of people are skipping this step. Without a doubt, travel costs have been caught up in the rise of inflation over the past year or so. But cutting costs by not buying travel medical insurance is risky in the extreme.

The TD poll asked participants who are likely to travel in the next year if they would buy travel medical and trip cancellation insurance. Only 27 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 said yes, as did 39 per cent of people over the age of 35.

My wife and I bought a year’s travel medical coverage for $182.21 earlier this year, which isn’t cheap. But in comparison to the cost of medical care in a foreign country, it’s close to nothing. A hospital visit in the United States could cost in the tens of thousands of dollars if you have to stay a night or two.

To read the full article, click here to go to the Globe and Mail website.