International Emergency Evacuation Plans

Emergency Evacuation insurance international plans are good for:

• Those on a nationalized healthcare plan living in a foreign country.
• Those on medical “share plans” such as Medishare, Samaritan Ministries, Christian Healthcare  Ministries (CHM), or Liberty Healthshare.
• Those who work with a local organization abroad that offer limited local health coverage but do not include evacuation back to your home country.
• Those on Medicare A, B or supplemental that do not have emergency evacuation coverage.
• Anybody else who does not have emergency evacuation as a part of their international health insurance benefits or travel insurance benefits.

Emergency evacuation is complex

Most people do not consider what is actually entailed if you were to need to be emergency evacuated to another country or city because you could not get adequate life-saving or limb-saving treatment locally.

Imagine not only getting to a local hospital or clinic by ambulance and stabilized, but then scheduling an airplane or maybe pulling rows out of a commercial jet. Imagine securing tickets or bumping people off a flight last minute. Having to work with that foreign country to secure emergency visas for you and the medical crew that will be transported with you to care for you.

Imagine having to let the country you are in know that you will not be leaving the country as planned through customs. Otherwise they are going to be looking for you for overstaying your visa. Filing new emergency flight plans as needed, usually through more than one country’s airspace. Costs to secure a pilot and co-pilot, to fly those people and the medical attendants back home after the evacuation. Arrange for an ambulance at the other end to pick you up and transport you to that facility. Work out all the arrangements that hospital and specialists and tests. Then arranging and flying you back home after you are able to return home.

The most expensive part of emergency medical coverage abroad = Emergency evacuation

So you realize that not only the bills and costs involved, sometimes as much as $15,000-$150,000USD or more, but also the amount of work entailed especially during an emergency. That emergency evacuation is a critical and costly medical benefit!

This is only compounded when you are traveling in remote areas, in countries that may or may not be friendly to your home nation. When you might be working in poor conditions or helping in areas of pandemic or instability.

And while some health policies state that they would reimburse for a medical evacuation, it would still be up to you to make all the arrangements.

Not Search and Rescue

These emergency evacuation only plans are for transport from one medical facility that cannot adequately treat you to another hospital/medical facility with the specialists and equipment that can save you/treat you. They will not “rescue” you on the high seas or send special forces to help you get to life-saving treatment. However, some of these plans do include a “search and rescue” benefit if you know where you are located (via GPS) and cannot get yourself to a hospital.

Some will even include emergency evacuation benefits in situations where your life is not in danger.
They will take you to the hospital of your choice (back home). Most emergency evacuation benefits as part of a travel insurance plan will take you to the closest medical facility that can adequately and reasonably treat you. Understand that sometimes it may not be wise to transport you “home” if that is a 12 hour flight and you are not medically stable or safe to fly that long.

Know what you are buying

Emergency evacuation only plans are not insurance and will not cover medical treatment. They only cover medical travel/evacuation. Sometimes a good travel insurance plan that includes emergency evacuation will actually be cheaper than an “evacuation-only” plan. Sometimes it will include more benefits including medical benefits. (Some travelers choose to “double up” in these cases and will let the insurance companies decide who will pay for what in an emergency.)

Annual evacuation membership plans should only be selected if you are sure you have proper medical coverage that will follow you home. They should be selected to protect you overseas by paying for medical costs incurred before your are transported.

Certain plans we offer will take you back to your home country to the hospital of your choice. Others will allow you to select the country to be sent to.

Furthermore, the emergency evacuation plans we offer do not exclude pre-existing conditions.

If you are purchasing international health insurance, you do not need to buy additional emergency evacuation insurance separately. It is included as a benefit on most travel insurance plans and most long-term international health plans.

We have emergency evacuation insurance international plans to fit most travelers:

• Those living overseas for a year or more.
• Those traveling from 10 days to 6 months.
• Those traveling within their own country and needing emergency evacuation back home from over 150 miles away.
• Seniors traveling abroad or living part of the year abroad up to ages 75-84.
• Those traveling to high-risk areas/countries that are unstable/countries with terrorist risks.
• International students and those on Gap Year.
• Adventure sports people and fans of extreme sports.
• Missionaries, community health workers, those helping with pandemics and natural disasters.

In all of these situations, we can help recommend a plan or suggest whether travel insurance or an emergency evacuation only plan makes more sense or will save you the most money. Call us at 1-480-813-9100 or email [email protected] for personalized service and answers to your questions.