Medical Evacuation Coverage
When traveling internationally, it’s important to make sure you have adequate medical evacuation benefits. Lots of travel insurance plans will have medical evacuation coverage, but often it is not enough.
According to a recent article in the Miami Herald
Medical evacuation is expensive and is not covered by ordinary health insurance. From a cruise ship in the Caribbean back to a city in the United States, the cost may run $10,000-$15,000 or more. From remote locales or in particularly complicated cases, the cost can exceed $100,000. That’s why travel insurance that offers evacuation coverage is a good idea, as the Bradys learned.
In this article, Mark Brady suffered a seizure just an hour and a half into a cruise, but the boat wasn’t able to turn around. The cost of bringing him back to a hospital in Ft. Lauderdale. The cost: $16,600. Fortunately the Bradys had medical evacuation coverage.
For those of you not yet familiar with medical evacuation insurance, I’ll explain. Imagine you are on an exotic island or touring a third world country and experienced a medical emergency. Chances are, you would prefer to go to a US or European hospital with all the latest technology to see to your condition. You would need to be flown in an “air ambulance” with competent medical staff, which can be extremely expensive. Medical Evacuation insurance will cover this expense up to a maximum amount outlined in the policy.
Travel medical insurance plans from Global Underwriters feature $100,000 in medical evacuation coverage.