How do Travel Insurance work ? is it worth it?

Your insurance covers you for almost everything, especially if you have the higher end ones. You need to be wary of purchasing the cheap ones from people like moneysupermarket as ultimately they're not worth the bit of paper they're written on. The 3 main things you *need* on your policy are cancellation cover, baggage cover and medical cover. Medical cover is especially important as when you're abroad a lot of medical fees aren't free/paid for by the state like the NHS in the UK. You need to cover them yourself, or through your travel insurance policy. Prices can rise into hundreds of thousands of pounds, which clearly for a £15 insurance policy, it's worth it! To claim you'd need documents of the treatment you've had, and potentially to contact the company before this treatment commences where possible. Obviously if you're incapable of contacting the insurer you'll be fine to receive treatment still and deal with it after.

It's a little more involved than just explaining to them what happened. They'd need medical records/documentation, etc.... You should have travel medical insurance. Whether you want to cover the cost of the trip with travel insurance is up to you.