The Medjet Advantage: What to Do When Your Travel Insurance Can’t Get You Home
Many travelers assume their health, travel, business or credit card coverage gets them all the way home in an emergency. They might be in for a very unpleasant surprise
August 1, 2023
While traveling for business or vacation, you may have made the assumption that the medical evacuation and repatriation benefits of your health insurance, travel insurance, or your company’s travel coverage, got you all the way home to recover when something bad happens.
Yet many travelers find themselves “stuck” in a foreign hospital. How? Why? Because the insurance company has deemed that facility “acceptable” and deemed it’s not “medically necessary” to move you any further. To pay out of pocket for a medical transport, just because you’d like to be moved to a hospital at home, can cost from $30,000 to $200,000.
For companies and organizations, not making it possible for a traveling employee to get home for treatment can present numerous “duty of care” issues. Substandard care, language barriers that make treatment decisions difficult for the patient and family, and an employee’s emotional distress and family disruption can become serious issues. The solution, paying sky high transport costs out of pocket, can be a significant financial hit to any organization.
For an individual, it can be a catastrophic hit to savings and retirement accounts.
The limitations of medical evacuation benefits in health, travel and company insurances is the gap Medjet has filled for over thirty years. Medjet is the oldest, and most respected, program of its kind, covering individuals, families and organizations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It’s the preferred program for celebrities, Fortune 500 executives and selective organizations like Morgan Stanley, Virtuoso and the NFL.
If a Medjet member is hospitalized, 150 miles or more from home, during domestic or international, business or leisure travel, Medjet arranges and pays all costs associated with air medical transport to the hospital of the member’s choice at home. They also offer a membership that adds 24/7 security and crisis response benefits. With rising geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, violent crime and rioting in the news today, it’s no wonder research still shows 3 out of 4 travelers are concerned about their safety, even in places like Paris or Mexico where they used to feel relatively “safe.” Knowing you, or your employee, has someone to call anytime their safety is threatened is invaluable peace of mind.
In this post-Covid resumption of travel, individuals have a heightened awareness of their vulnerability while traveling and seek elevated protection options. Corporations seek new, affordable ways of elevating their duty of care suite for traveling employees. In both cases, Medjet Membership seems to be the answer.