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What’s Best Travel Medical Evacuation Insurance For Emergency?
I’ve seen several questions about travel insurance and wanted to tap into collective wisdom.
Seems like most travel insurance has the same bundle of benefits.
I don’t need most of them – interruption, delay, cancellation, lost baggage, etc. – because we get those through credit cards and the bulk of our travel is through highly flexible points redemptions.
The one bit of extra coverage I do think I want is emergency medical and evacuation/repatriation insurance.
I know that some credit cards have travel insurance evacuation benefits, but this doesn’t seem like the place to skimp.
A lot of the travel evacuation insurance I’ve looked at seems to play fast and loose with the terms evacuation (transport to the nearest hospital) and repatriation (transport to hospital in home country).
The latter is the one I want since that would be the outrageously expensive part if needed.
Also, I can’t seem to find many emergency evacuation travel insurance products that have just the medical portion – and the one or two I did find weren’t any cheaper.
What is the best medical evacuation insurance?
I’ve heard that companies like Global Rescue or Medjet, are the actual providers of the medical transport and evacuation, and you pay them a membership fee.
It’s about the same as regular travel insurance.
There’s something sort of appealing about not having to deal with a middleman if you actually did need to use your emergency medical evacuation insurance.
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8 Replies
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I’ve had MedJet for a few years but never used it.
But wanted it through Covid.
$500 for 2 people with medical evacuation.
The more expensive one is for any type of evacuation like civil unrest.
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We got Allianz’s annual policy and put the most minimum amount for flights/hotels, in order to get the medical /repatriation.
Everything we do is either points or can be canceled.
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I set up Allianz Travel Insurance.
We are ‘very late mid-age’ (okay, older), and it was approximately $500/yr.
It’s much less for younger people and for 30 days, rather than annual policies.
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I’ve had Medjet Assist for several years.
When I was working on overseas assignments, my employer required it.
I still buy it.
FYI – if anyone you want to cover will turn 75 during the policy period, a doctor’s statement is required.
It’s also good in the US.
Note that they limit you to one medical evac in a 12-month period.
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If you are purchasing a very expensive vacation, like an Antarctica cruise, buy a separate policy.
Credit card insurance will not cover the high costs of Antarctica.
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A previous employer used Global Rescue and they came through for both groups and individuals we had in difficult situations.
I haven’t needed it for my own personal travels yet, but I would definitely recommend them.
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I watched a webinar (sponsored by Wendy Perrin of Travel & Leisure) on Medjet Assist, which she swears by.
The most important thing that I learned is that most insurance companies, even the “better ones”, will take the injured to the nearest hospital for treatment.
And even if that facility is less than ideal, if a person wants to transfer to a facility back home, that would not be covered.
One usually has no say in the matter.
With Medjet, a person is taken for immediate care and will then be airlifted back to the home facility of choice for treatment.
HUGE distinction for similar or a bit more cost.
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The Amex Platinum for the US does provide emergency evacuation assistance at no charge in certain circumstances.
They must find a need for it, and don’t provide it just because you get sick.
See page 5 of this link:
What I did was pay for an annual policy from Allianz (note that there are probably other good providers, I’m not trying to promote them).
It covers emergency medical evacuation up to $500,000 and gives medical coverage up to $50,000, which may be spent fast if you have a major emergency.
The policy on medical repatriation (as opposed to medical evacuation ) looks to me as a non-specialist to be a little more generous than AMEX.
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