Medical Evacuation: Reputable Company Discovery

The big issue for self directed medical evacuation is that it is your decision. Insurance company like to be in control and limiting their liability. Without some type of independent standards, you could insist on a medical evacuation for a sprained wrist. I doubt seriously if you can find a policy that allows you to make that determination. Good luck.

Medical evacuation is at the discretion of the insurance company on the advice of medical personnel. While you may be allowed a voice in the decision, the ultimate decision will be made between insurance and medical personnel. If you are injured "running with the bulls" and your ankle is broken, they will likely put you on a blood thinner to prevent clots, set your ankle in a cast or boot, and send you home on a regular flight. However, if you are gored by the bull and have a serious life-threatening injury that will require you to be hospitalized after your arrival back home, you will be sent on a chartered medical flight back to Canada. However, medical evacuation insurance will only pay for the flight to your destination airport. You will be responsible for paying for your medical transportation from the airport to your home hospital. I don't know how that works in Canada with it's socialized medicine thingy...

Most travel insurance companies (I use Travel Guard "Platinum") offer some sort of medical evacuation insurance. There are usually upgrades that you can purchase to enhance the basic coverage offered under each plan.

I broke my ankle in two places ( 2areas of the ankle) and I really wanted to get home "at first" but the doctors in Ireland and in Italy were awesome. I needed blood thinners and that was their priority for me .Siena hospital did ultrasound for DVT adjusted my bloodthinners etc...In Italy they slit my cast just in case of swelling on the plane. I had American Express and I thought they were awesome. They kept in contact with me daily . I got on Delta first class to elevate my leg . Evacuation will depend on the medical need but as far as I know you do have some say in the matter but it will not be for a sprained ankle,broken ankle etc..major yes, minor no.

I'm neither an attorney nor a claims adjuster nor do I play one on TV, but if it were me I'd read carefully whatever policy is offered (if any).

Seems to me that if a serial bull-runner gets hurt running with the bulls the insurance company might say that the injury could have been foreseen, and disallow the claim.

Then you will be hurt, with no transport, and have paid for a worthless (to you) policy....

Lawrence

I've just noticed that you posted this question in the "To the Boot" area of the board.

You might get more help from the "Transportation" section of the board, where the focus is on transportation. The focus here is Italy.

I assume he is not a bull runner and was just using it as a cute example. But most are not addressing his basic question, How to find a policy that allows self-directed evacuation? Personally, I don't think it would exist -- but -- for a price, anything is possible even in Canada.

Have to agree with Frank. I doubt a self-directed evacuation policy exists. In addition, if you put yourself in harms way (bull running, base jumping, standing on the side of the road during a road rally...) then you would certainly void any insurance policy. They usually only cover accidents and unforseen medical problems (pre-existing conditions are not covered).

I've had MedJet Assist for a number of years. Fortunately, I've not needed evacuation, but when I first evaluated them, I found they were backed by a major, reputable insurance co, and they've been around for a number of years, which I think is a good sign. You decide when you need to be evacuated, which they'll do as long as the dr at your end approves and there's a dr to receive you at the other end. And what's nice is it works in the US also, provided you're a certain distance from home (300 miles, I believe). They also will fly a companion with you, as I remember, and have a number of other benefits. You might want to check their website. You can do annual memberships (which I do, since it also works in US travel) or a single trip policy.

I actually do run with the bulls in Pamplona. I have done so every year since 1976. I have been hurt, but never to the extent where an air ambulance would have been required. I also tour in the middle east (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey) on my faithful BMW motorcycle.

The AirMed policy that I am wondering about is similar to Sherry's MedJet Assist. They claim to do hospital-to-hospital transfers at my option. The hospital-to-hospital transfer is how they do their need screening. They claim, on their website, to have done medical evacuations from a lot of places in the world. As with Sherry's MedJet Assist, they claim to do flights within North America, for example, for skiing injuries that occur some distance away.

Their policy appears to be reasonable enough. I need a specific way to figure out if they are reputable.

(I know that I double posted, it was accidental, I meant to post to "Transportation," but accidentally first posted to Italy, now I do not know how to merge them.)