For most of us travel insurance is merely one of a variety of extras which the travel agent tries to get us to add to our holiday package to help boost his profits and to make our holiday even more expensive than it needs to be. However, there are at least three very important reasons for ensuring that you do not leave home without your international travel medical insurance plan in your suitcase.

First, a travel insurance plan will protect you against losing your financial investment in your holiday should an emergency arise and you are forced to cancel your trip. This is especially true in cases where you are booking your holiday some time ahead as you cannot know what might happen in the weeks leading up to your trip. Having said this, emergencies have a habit of appearing at any time and without any warning and so this is one type of protection which should not be considered in terms of time.

It is natural to think that nothing will ever happen to us however a holiday can often involve a large up-front payment and the loss of these funds might mean that you cannot re-arrange your trip later on.

Second, a travel insurance plan permits you to pay for medical treatment while you are traveling and while you are on holiday and, if you have a significant accident or illness, will also pay for you and your family to return home if necessary.

Medical treatment might be excellent at your destination and it may even be considerably cheaper than it is at home. However, a few days in hospital may still produce a very large bill which will eat deeply into your vacations spending money. It is also possible that medical care at your destination leaves a great deal to be desired and you may well need to curtail your trip and head back home to get the treatment you require.

Third, a travel insurance plan will provide protection for your possessions while you are traveling and at your destination so that you will be compensated in the event of loss or damage.

If you have spent any time traveling then you will probably have experienced the loss of your luggage at some point and will know only too well just how annoying and expensive this is. I will never forget stopping for lunch on my way to the airport at the end of one holiday and carefully locking my suitcase in the trunk of my hire car. When I returned to the car roughly half an hour later I found that someone had picked the passenger door lock and folded the back seat down to access the boot and make off with my case.

I will also not quickly forget sitting at a road junction one hot and sunny day when a motorbike pulled up beside the car and a young man reached through the passenger side window to snatch my mother's purse which was on the floor by her feet.

Traveling overseas is expensive enough but traveling without suitable and adequate insurance can lead to bills that you simply do not have the money to pay. So, the next time you are making plans for a trip remember to add travel medical insurance to your holiday list.