A sizable group of yeshiva students were detained in Paris and prevented from boarding their Air France flight to Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Airline officials informed these students that they must present proof of medical insurance in Israel.
Chaim V’Chessed was notified of the incident and was baffled of the report, since although it is always recommended to have medical insurance, there is no such requirement forcing passengers to show proof of insurance. Chaim V’Chessed reached out to the Foreign Ministry who then confirmed that this is not an Israeli policy, but rather an Air France requirement. Israeli Embassy officials in Paris intervened to have this rule revoked.
Eventually, Air France finally conceded that there is no such requirement, and allowed the uninsured passengers to board their flight.
Chaim V’Chessed tells YWN that at this hour, passengers traveling on Air Canada in Newark to Israel with stop-overs in Toronto Airport are now being stymied by a similar demand for medical insurance. Chaim V’Chessed representatives are now involved in resolving this misunderstanding by the airline.
“This demand by Air Canada is not grounded in law, and is extremely troubling”. Chaim V’Chessed tells YWN.
At the same time, Chaim V’Chessed is advising travelers to immediately purchase travelers insurance policies online which will satisfy the requirements.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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10 Responses
It’s unclear to me why this is bogus. My son was just accepted to yeshiva in Israel for the upcoming year. To ensure he can attend, the acceptance letter outlined a list of mandatory steps (and expenses) that included health insurance. They were clear that we need that for him to travel to Israel.
The smarter advice is :- Never fly Air France nor Air Canada ever again, for needlessly taunting their passengers.
The rule makes sense, this way if ח”ו there is a medical emergency, that country won’t have to deal with a צדקה case out of their pocket.
It is still prudent to have medical insurance anytime you leave the State or Country you live in.
It is my understanding that most American insurance policies have little or no coverage outside of the USA. There are even some very limited policies that have participating providers only in certain parts of the USA.
While it might be prudent to have insurance, in no way does that obligate someone to have it nor does it give the countries a right to deny continuation of flight because of it. In fact, as stated in the article, the companies admitted that there is no such rule so it’s not quite clear why they started up in the first place.
@ Kohein1
That my be the yeshiva policy, but it’s definitely not the law.
So it’s bogus for Air anything to prevent flight.
While it would make sense to have such a rule, it would have to come from the country one is flying to – Israel, in this case. The bogus part is random airlines “enforcing” a law on behalf of Israel, where it is not a law.
The insurance isnt the issue and makes no sense!! I suspect that other passengers either werent asked to show proof of travel health insurance either or the number of detainees would have been greater. The issue is harassment. AntiSemitism plain and simple. If one chooses to gamble and not purchase insurance, they pay out of pocket. No difference if one chooses not to purchase life insurance etc.
Why would any intelligent yid travel these days w/o health insurance?? I sometimes wonder what they are using that space between their ears for. This has nothing to do with Covid, masks, or vaccines. Its common sense which apparently is a rare commodity these days. Whether the airlines have authority to impose such a rule when flying out of a U.S. airport is a separate matter.
“If one chooses to gamble and not purchase insurance, they pay out of pocket. No difference if one chooses not to purchase life insurance etc.”
Ohevet Yisroel: Bad analogy. If someone is traveling overseas and incurs a serious health issue, the local hospitals and health system would have to treat that individual, sometimes at very great cost. Few individuals travel with sufficient cash or credit card limits that would allow them to pay a typical hospitalization bill and the hospital rarely has the ability to recover their costs if someone from out of the country has left w/o payment. It is a problem for both government provided health care and private health care providers. There actually are some authoratarian countries where they “hold” your passport after discharge until you pay the bill.