Travel insurance is worth treating as a genuine requirement for a Phuket trip rather than an optional add-on, given the island's reliance on private healthcare and its scooter-accident rate.
What a solid policy should cover
- Medical treatment at private hospitals, which bill directly and aren't free at the point of care
- Medical evacuation, in case treatment needs to happen off the island or out of the country
- Scooter and motorbike accidents specifically — many standard policies exclude these, or require a valid licence and helmet use to pay out
- Trip cancellation/interruption, relevant given occasional severe weather disruption
Where claims go wrong
The most common denied claims involve riding a scooter without the correct licence category or without a helmet, or being under the influence of alcohol at the time of an accident — reading your policy's exclusions before you ride matters more here than for most destinations.