First Class

Air Medical Evacuation Coverage Can Be a Life-Saver

By George Hobica, Airfarewatchdog.com

posted: 18 December 2007 05:13 pm ET

: AirMed operates three business jets which are specially fitted out for air medical evacuation. The flagship of its fleet is a Hawker 800, pictured here. The membership program says it has performed many thousands of air medical evacuation missions worldwide, on all continents. Credit: AirMed
: Air medical evacuation membership program AirMed has completed a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international medevac missions, including transporting newborn and very young babies to hospitals where they can get the best pediatric specialist care. In this photo, a very young baby being transported on an AirMed jets is closely monitored and tended by a doctor-and-nurse team. Credit: AirMed

Eddie Mikell thought he had planned the trip of a lifetime with his wife and another couple: renting a house for a week in the French countryside.

But on the way from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to their idyllic retreat last June, a truck clipped their rental car. Mikell escaped with minor scratches, but the others weren’t so lucky. After extensive treatment at a local hospital, doctors warned that his wife and friends, all of whom were in body casts, could only be transported home by commercial airline in seats that reclined to fully flat.

So the party had to buy last-minute seats on Air France for $6,700 each. (To add insult to injury, US Airways, the airline that flew them to France, refused to refund the unused portions of their return flights.) Then there were the medical bills in France ($12,000), the $3,200 ambulance ride back to Paris, the $3,000 in damages to the rental car, and the value of the vacation that never was.

"It has amounted to over $50,000, depleting all my savings, and most of my retirement," said Mikell.

Actually, Mikell got off lightly. Although most travelers correctly believe that something like this will never happen to them, emergency medical evacuation from a foreign country back home can sometimes cost $100,000 or more, depending on the extent of the illness or injury.

Inexpensive air medical evacuation

Several companies specialize in emergency medical air charters and annual memberships are surprisingly inexpensive considering the potential losses.

The best known are two Birmingham, Ala.-based membership programs: MedjetAssist and AirMed. As long as you’re 150 miles or more from home, once you’re medically stabilized either will fly you to whatever hospital you or your family request at no cost.

MedjetAssist charges $225 per year for a single membership for individuals up to 75 years of age or $350 for a family of up to two adults and five minor children. A "Diamond Plan" for travelers aged 75 to 85 costs $395 per year. Coverage for individual trips is also offered.

AirMed charges $250 per year for single travelers up to age 75 or $350 for a family of seven. One distinction between the two firms is that AirMed owns and operates its own fleet of three custom-designed aircraft, whereas MedJet charters aircraft from air ambulance firms as needed.

Both companies are careful to state that they do not provide insurance: Rather, they are membership programs, in much the same way that the AAA offers services for its members. As such, neither company would have paid for the Merkel party’s medical bills in France.

Travel insurance

For that, there is standard travel insurance, from companies such as AIG Travel Guard. This travel insurance specialist recently introduced a "medevac" policy that includes $25,000 in insurance for medical expenses as well as medical evacuation coverage with no cost limit. Rates for travelers under 75 years of age range from $69 for a trip of up to 10 days in duration to $185 per year for an annual plan. The rates are $119/$370 respectively for those aged 75 to 85.

A useful site that compares many travel insurance plans and air medical evacuation programs side by side -- including some insurance policies that offer both kinds of coverage -- is InsureMyTrip.com.

Many health insurance policies, such as those issued by Blue Cross or Aetna, will pay for emergency medical care overseas, but there still may be standard deductibles and co-payments, and the insured may have to pay costs out of pocket and get reimbursed later. (Medicare and Medicaid will not cover you overseas, however, unless you’ve bought supplemental coverage.)

But these health insurance policies will not pay for medical jet transportation back home. It's something to think about next time you travel outside the U.S.