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It's worth considering travel insurance if you have high nonrefundable booking costs or plan to travel internationally, where your health insurance won't cover you. However, travel insurance may not be necessary if trip costs are low or refundable, or if you don't need additional coverage apart from your existing health insurance or credit card travel protections.
Learn more: Travel insurance: What it covers, costs, and how to choose the right policy
The more expensive nonrefundable trip costs you have, the greater the risk you take if you have to cancel or interrupt your trip for unforeseen reasons. With full coverage travel insurance policies, you're typically covered for various trip cancellation reasons that are out of your control, such as you or a traveling companion becoming seriously ill or getting injured.
Your standard health insurance plan may not cover you if you travel abroad, so it may make sense to look into travel insurance policies with sufficient medical coverage. Also, a travel insurance policy with emergency evacuation and repatriation coverage could cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses if you plan to travel to a remote destination or a destination with limited infrastructure.