Medical evacuation insurance

Evacuation expenses can vary greatly depending on the severity of your injury. For example if you were to break your arm and needed a first class seat for the extra space, that would only cost up to $10,000. For a severe leg break that required several rows of seas to be yanked out and a special cot bolted to the floor, ambulance services to/from the airport, and a nurse to accompany you...that will be over $100,000. So given your choices, I would go with the $500,000 policy.

One other thing: If you have reason to think you might need evacuation (eg, an ongoing illness that could flare), you might want to consider another approach. The issue with medical evac insurance through most policies is that the insurance company decides if you need evac or can be treated there. I once saw an unfortunate result from that process. Consequently, I carry a separate medical evac policy through MetJet Assist that lets me or my family decide if I need to be evacuated home (assuming the dr caring for me and the one who will receive for me agree). You can get it for a trip or as an annual policy. It's not expensive, and the annual policy covers evacuation any time I'm more than a few hundred miles from home (don't remember exact number, but I think it's something like 200 miles).

Go to Squaremouth.com and check out all the different policies that they offer. You can taylor one to your needs (including $$ coverage). IMO, no evac is "typical"; it depends on the type of emergency, level of care required, distance from, and type of airport, etc. And read the fine print on each one. I thought that it was very interesting that some insurance companies determines when and if you get evaced...and I did some reading and found out that many policies do not allow you to pick the facility. The MedJet policies sound like pretty good coverage.

I've gotten MedJet Assist for my last couple of trips. I haven't had to use it, thank God, but I'm glad it's there. We did some research and decided MedJet was the best option - reasonable cost for coverage for a year, and like Sherry said, it covers you when you're more than 200 miles from home so you can use it in the States as well as abroad.

We've had Medjetassist for many years now...and thankfully never had to use it. I believe it is available 150 miles from your home.

We joined the Divers Alert Network, which gives us Travel Assist coverage ($55 per year for a family membership). It provides up to $100,000 evacuation in a medical emergency, and other medical services, when you travel at least 50 miles away from home. http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/membership/travelassist.asp