Jeanne

My family will be travelling in Europe in a few weeks. We've considered investing in medical evacuation insurance... just in case. What's your take on this? Is it worth the money? Worth the risk?

elaine

Three travel insurance companies (all have websites)
Access America 800 284 8300 www.accessamerica.com
Travel Guard International www.travelguard.com
CSA (New York Times reporter in her article said that CSA denied her claim: "if there is a
narrow interpretation available, even the best companies will seize it."

www.insuremytrip.com allows you to compare policies and quotes from up to five companies simultaneously. Site also has currency conversion and packing tips.

elaine

I'm having trouble posting, and the first half of my above posting didn't print the first time
this is how it started--
Jeanne
I don't see how anyone can answer this for you. Insurance companies sort of assume that most people won't really need or use the coverage--that's how they make money. It's a sort of gamble, by both sides. Is anyone in your family in poor health, and/or elderly?
If not, the odds are you won't need the evacuation.But those are odds, not assurances. Do you have financial means that could absorb the cost of the unlikely need for an evacuation, interruption of the trip, or medical coverage not covered by your regular insurance? If it would be difficult, but
conceivable for you all to absorb these costs, then play the odds and don't take the insurance. On the other hand,
if the improbable but possible downside would be devastating, then the insurance is worth it both for peace of mind and for practical reasons.

John

Jeanne:
I wouldn't dream of going abroad for a few weeks without trip insurance, including medical evacuation. The cost is not that great for the peace of mind.

PB

If you have an American Express Platinum card, medical evacuation insurance is usually one of the "perks".

Unless you're travelling to Eastern Europe, I honestly don't see the need for evacuation coverage, although I would major medical coverage, if you're really concerned. Medical care in most countries is excellent... in fact French medical coverage is one of the best in the world, ranking way above the US.

PB

PB

< < in fact French medical coverage is one of the best in... > >

Sorry, I meant to say medical care.

janice

I agree with the above poster who advised that Western European medical is wonderful. I was very VERY sick in Venice a couple of years ago, and had fabulous medical care - doctor visits in the hotel (for $27 each!) and phone calls from the pharmacy to the hotel to make sure that the medicine was okay etc. I was too ill to be evacuated - I couldn't have been moved - so I was lucky to get such great care.
But if somebody in your party is elderly, chronically ill, or has some really unusual medical condition - that changes everything.

Christina

I agree that unless you have some very unusual requirements, I would not buy medical evacuation insur. from western Europe. If someone is on Medicare, that might be a consideration as it does not provide coverage abroad, although many other insurance plans will. If you have some HMO, though, it may not. That would be another reason, although I would check to see if medical evacuation insurance would cover you if you just decided you wanted to leave, not because you had to for any reason. In other words, check the fine print to see if it only is valid if there is a medical necessity that you must leave because they can't treat you (which would not occur in western Europe, I don't think), not just because you want to leave. I don't buy it and I'm a consultant in the health insurance field.

Jane

Check with your health insurance company before you do anything. It's entirely possible that they provide that type of insurance. Either way, you'll know more. In the last few years, a lot of the large U.S. health plans have begun partnering with insurance companies in foreign countries. Blue Cross Blue Shield has a pretty large network in Europe, for example. (BTW-I used to work as a journalist covering the managed care industry).

I've never bought travel insurance. I was hospitalized once in the UK, and had no problem there, as it's a nationalized health system. Granted, the hospital could have been a little cleaner, and I didn't like being a huge ward with 20 other people, but it worked out okay in the end.

If Western European health care is so good, why do all of the top athletes in Europe travel to American when they need treatment? U.S. medicine is the most advanced in the world. Yes, our insurance system needs a huge overhaul, but there's no disputing that U.S. medicine is the best in the world.

PB-Please give me information on where to obtain the study showing that France is ranked above the U.S.

PB

to Jane:

< <If Western European health care is so good, why do all of the top athletes in Europe travel to American when they need treatment? U.S. medicine is the most advanced in the world. Yes, our insurance system needs a huge overhaul, but there's no disputing that U.S. medicine is the best in the world. > >

Where do you find the facts that "All the top athletes travel to the US for treatment ? > >

US medicine has some of the best technological advances in the world - that's not disputed. However, you might be surprised to learn that almost all of it is clinically tested outside of the United States.... especially advances in the cardiovascular sector.

< < PB-Please give me information on where to obtain the study showing that France is ranked above the U.S.> >

You might check the archives of the International Herald Tribune, which published the results of the annual survey reporting on healthcare worldwide. This study has been mentioned on this forum and elsewhere in the past. The US came in number thirty-seven.... France was in the top five.

http://www.iht.com

PS I am an American who has spent most of her life outside of the US, and find the US healthcare system appalling, to say the least. Not only the insurance situation, but the fact that often profit comes before the patient.

StCirq

I'll back up PB's assertion that healthcare, at least in France and Italy, is superior to healthcare in the US as a general rule. I've had plenty of opportunity to experience it. I believe the study PB refers to is the World Health Organization's annual ranking of healthcare around the world. France was number 1 this year, Italy number two (or maybe I got 'em reversed), and the USA was, I believe, 37th.

Christina

The report is on WHO's web site, I believe (www.who.int/whr). I do work in this field and have a MPH (Master's in Public Health) so keep up on those reports. It's a report looking at the system as a whole and considers responsiveness, access, financial burden (as pct of income, I think), as well as issues such as health of the population (one direct measure of the quality of a system) and the portion of the GDP spent on health care. The latter figure is quite large in the US, we spend a much greater amt on health care than other countries but have fewer people insured and are not in the top on some health measures (particularly infant mortality rates, I believe). Yes, the US has good technical medical care, but to suggest that you must therefore leave Europe and come to the US for medical treatment is not supported. This is chauvinistic, I think, why would one assume Europeans do not know as much scientifically and medically as the US? I have a German friend who is a permanent resident here but goes to Germany for health care when she's over there; she has congenital eye problems and when she needs treatment in US (went to Johns Hopkins eye clinic, not exactly low level quality), they were very interested in seeing her prior surgery done in Germany as they were pioneers in the field of her problem. I think most of what people refer to when they say we have superior health care is simply that we spend a lot more and have a lot more expensive machinery spread around (like MRIs) in more places, which is one reason why our costs are higher, bills must cover the idle time of all that expensive machinery that isn't needed. Also, we have a for-profit healthcare marketplace in many cases (many hospitals, doctors, insurance, and drugs), and that drives up costs. Often people who say this are just repeating something that a politician or biased advocacy group or trade assn. has said and don't really know any statistics on it (such as comparisons of populations on health measures). I really haven't heard about all top athletes travel to US for health care, either, but would be interested in that; I'm sure some might in less-developed countries without good health care systems, but I've not heard of that in general or that many athletes from Western Europe came to US for medical care. There are certain rare diseases that you hear about sometimes in that regard, that's true, (often a last attempt to seek out all opinions for terminal diseases) but that is not a good reflection of the state of the general health care system. Really, I do not think people need to be evacuated to the US because French or Italian health care is inferior. For example, Janice (? I think, if I got that wrong, I'm sorry) has made a blanket general statement that US medicine is the best in the world-I'd be interested as to what is your basis for that statement empirically? That statement is not even limited in any way (such as our techniques for heart surgery or equipment are the best, or research innovations, or something)--from my perspective as a public health professional, financing, access, cost/benefit ratios, etc, are certainly a part of determining the quality of medicine, as well as outcome measures such as infant mortality, teenage pregnancy, etc rates.