I read on one of your posts that you purchase travel insurance and medical evacuation coverage. What is a good site for either of these. Thanks k

K, if you're employed and have AD&D coverage through your employer's group plan, you might want to check and see if it includes travel assistance, which would most likely include medical evacuation. Just a suggestion.

My employer insurance does not cover evactuation - in fact, our company had an employee fall prey to a vicious attack in Belize, and family had to shell out $20,000 to get her back to US.

At any rate, I look at www.insuremytrip.com for a comparison, and have purchased from TravelGuard, CSA Trav Prot, and Spec Risk... I get the basic all-in single-trip package, whatever is best price/best limits.

My employer doesn't cover 'evacuation' either! lol

ttt

Out of curiosity, why was it necessary for the family to shell out 20,000? Was this for a specially equipped plane or something?

Thanks.

Be sure to read the fine print on travel insurance and medical evacuation policies. Many will pay for medical evacuation ONLY if decent medical care is not available where the illness/accident/incident happened. And then they only evacuate you to the nearest compentent medical care location-not to your home town or even your country.

She worked in a different city than I do, but I know she had extensive brain injury and may have needed special care in transport.
I found this article from 1999 on www.findarticle.com from <u>International Travel News</u>:
&quot;..Emergency medical evacuation providers quote somewhat conflicting examples of what your exposure might be without their protection. They seem to agree that the <b>most common range for evacuation costs is between $3,000 and $15,000</b>. A Lear jet is not necessary if firstclass accommodations on a commercial flight meet the medical and other requirements. Travel Guard, which has a $20,000 evacuation limit, said that in the past two years they provided 460 evacuations and none exceeded their policy limits...&quot;

Thanks, Travelnut.

I meant to say that I hope she's ok -- probably came across as a little callous (but then, I don't know her).

A more basic question: What's &quot;medical evacuation&quot; in layman terms? I understand evacuation, but what does this mean really as an insurance clause?

You didn't sound callous, and I didn't know her personally either, just heard from informal information passed to fellow employees at the time (it was several years ago).

I use Travel Assist for my travel insurance. Found them through the US State Department.
Here's the reason why: My Mother broke her hip while in Moscow, 1989. Since my mother did not have travel insurance I had to pay expenses to get her back to the US. Travel Assist flew an ER nurse to Moscow from Washington DC, I had to purchase at least 6 airline seats as Mom was on a strecher and a seat for the nurse. The two of them flew to New York City (where I live). An ambulance met the plane and brought them to the hospital. The nurse spent the night in a hotel and then flew back to DC. The main expense was the multiple seats on the airplane. That's how $20,000.00 can be spent to medically evacuate a person back to the US. Hope this helps answer your question about medical evacaution coverage.