Up until about 5 years ago I seldom bothered with travel insurance, my naive reasoning being well I never have accidents at home so why worry when abroad. Then one night I got a minor bite by a dog and went through all the rabies jabs process. The cost of treatment was about 7000 B overall out of my pocket, but more importantly a wake up call that we are vulnerable and of course it could have been financially worse. Since then I have always purchased insurance, "just in case".
Well just under 2 weeks ago one of those "just in case" situations arose and fortunately my pre planning paid off straight away.
First off I ALWAYS have the policy in my pocket,(why buy insurance and keep it in your room or worse the safe if you then cannot access it in an emergency) along with a copy of my passport, the phone number of the insurance company highlighted including country code and enough credit in my Skype account to make international calls. Also I have the phone number of a local I know can help written on the policy, be it farang or Thai, it's just good to have someone to sort things while I am not 100%.
In my case it was a broken arm, the insurance cost me 7000 B for my trip, but if I had not had it the whole experience would have set me back me an eye watering 390,000 B, just under 10,000 Euro. I did have to pay an excess waiver of 3000 B, small money when you look at the alternative.
Seriously guys, if you are not insured or are but have it locked away in the room (almost the same as not having it if you cannot get someone to bring it to the hospital), get it on your person, save yourself a lot of hassle and travel around safely, this is not home.