Travel Medical Evac

So you are traveling away from home and the unthinkable happens…you have an accident and require serious medical attention. What do you do? Travel MedEvac would be there to help if only you had purchased their service. Travel MedEvac has much more to offer than just an air ambulance ride. They will assist you in everything necessary to get you back home to the hospital of your choice, or if you prefer to remain where you are, or can’t be moved, will get a loved one to you. Especially when you are in a foreign country and don’t know the language, you need help!

I met an older lady, Grace, in Costa Rica several years ago and she explained she was there taking things off her bucket list. Grace was there to see the jungles and beaches and even had plans for a canopy ride. The following afternoon as I was leaving the hotel lobby I saw Grace getting out of a taxi van. Just as she stepped on a stool it moved on the wet pavement and she slipped further as she tried not to fall. At 76 years of age, you could hear the break a long ways away. As she was laying there waiting for medical help she explained that she had just finished her adventurous canopy tour with no problems.

She couldn’t believe what had just happened getting out of the taxi. She was obviously in pain but had little worries as she waited for the ambulance. It was obvious she had broken her hip and possibly more. She said, ”I have travel medical insurance and an air ambulance membership as well, and while I thought I would never need it, I purchased both before I began traveling internationally so much” . Turned out to be well worth having the foresight to have an air evacuation membership as well as travel medical insurance.

She later explained that she is a very careful person but had never fully read the travel insurance she always bought before a trip, and just assumed it would also take her home if she needed it. But a friend with an air ambulance plan told her to read her policy and she discovered that the only responsibility of that policy was to take her to the next closest hospital if the first hospital couldn’t take care of her, not home at all!

Good for her, as she was flown out after 2 ambulance rides, visiting one clinic and one hospital in Costa Rica and then an air ambulance ride back to the states. The service included arranging her pre-admission to her home hospital, the ambulance from hospital to the airport, the air ambulance, and the ambulance on landing to her home hospital, which of course was great for Grace because she spoke no Spanish.

I thought about how much that would that cost if it happened to me, who at that time was not insured. Well, it was well over $50,000 just for air transportation, but she had no deductible to pay and was taken to quality hospital in Southern California where she and her family lived. You think this may not happen to you or that you have medical insurance in the U.S. or Canada, but does that cover major medical in foreign countries or an air ambulance to get you to quality medical services near your family? If you have any travel medical coverage, it usually states to the nearest facility, not to your home or chosen facility.

*Available to residents and citizens of the United States and Canada, Travel MedEvac has you covered whether you travel or live in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Bahamas or Bermuda.  If a member is traveling more than 150 miles from home and admitted to a hospital for a serious or critical injury or illness, our preferred provider/coordinator Air Ambulance Worldwide with more than 50 aircraft in their extended network will return you and your traveling companion to your home hospital of choice.  If a US member is admitted to a hospital while at home and requires a “specialty hospital” transport that is more than 150 miles away from home, your Travel MedEvac membership includes air medical transport at NO additional cost.