For many, insurance is a valuable commodity: it offers protection against eventualities that could prove costly, such as personal injury, baggage loss or theft and cancellation cover.

Of course, as with most things in life, there are some who won’t commit to something without seeing clear proof of the benefit it will give them. Unfortunately, to experience the benefit you will need to encounter an eventuality for which your insurance policy covers you. Without a policy you will learn that benefit the hard way – by being left out of pocket.

As you increase the risk factor on your holiday, the need for some kind of protection becomes ever more apparent. One holiday for which cover should definitely be seen as a necessity is a winter sports or skiing trip.

According to statistics released by the insurer esure, one in four Brits takes to the slopes without any form of cover. A large proportion of those people wrongly believe that their European Health Card will provide full cover should they have an accident. This is not the case and an accident whilst skiing could cost you dearly in the long term.

The health card system aims to provide cover for the initial emergency treatment required but beyond this you are left to foot the bill.

If you are airlifted in a helicopter to hospital, a service that could easily cost you £1,500, this could be classed as an extra. Add to this any daily charges for your hospital bed or room and you could easily be looking at tens of thousands of pounds in total costs. This type of event can easily bankrupt the average person and it is clearly worth purchasing a insurance policy to cover against this eventuality.

It is essential you check a prospective or existing policy before you to ensure you have winter sports cover. You will find with some policies that this is excluded, although it can sometimes be added as a bolt-on to the policy, whereby you pay an optional charge for this cover.

There are many companies who offer a winter sports holiday insurance policy as a standalone package. Other companies will provide this cover within their standard policies. It is important to compare features during the quoting process to see exactly what you are getting for your money.

A winter sports insurance package will usually cover areas such as ski equipment, ski hire and lack of services due to closure or avalanches. Quite often basic cover will be improved to offer higher levels of protection in terms of monetary value.

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It is important to remember when searching for that all-important cheap insurance policy to not base your decision on price alone. Saving £10 or 20 is fantastic but is it worth it if it costs you hundreds in the long run, due to lack of the right cover?