Author: Brian Stevens
Source: ezinearticles.com

When you’re planning your dream vacation the last thing you want to think about is that someone could be injured or ill and need medical evacuation insurance. But these things do happen – people have heart attacks, break bones, or have other medical emergencies while traveling and need to be air lifted home.

To ease your mind before you begin your trip, you should look into buying an inexpensive medical evacuation insurance policy. It could end up being the best insurance you’ll ever buy.

Your Health Insurance isn’t Enough

Noting that a medical evacuation can cost as much as $50,000, the U.S. Department of State recommends that all international travelers purchase supplemental medical evacuation insurance if their health insurance doesn’t already offer this coverage.

The fact is, few health insurance policies provide you with any coverage while you are overseas, much less coverage for emergency trips home.

Benefits these Policies Offer

A medical evacuation policy typically provides medical coverage, including air evacuation services, medical transportation to the nearest adequate medical facility, and then medical transportation home if necessary.

The coverage may be stand-alone or part of a broader travel insurance policy that also covers such items as trip cancellation and interruption and lost or stolen luggage.

Choosing a Policy

Buying a medical evacuation policy won’t add much cost to your trip – most policies are only a few dollars a day. You can also set the policy up for the exact number of days you’ll be away, whether one day or one year.

Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get medical evacuation insurance quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more tips and advice in their Articles section, and get answers to your questions from an insurance expert by using their online chat service.

The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written other articles on medical evacuation insurance.

Author: Yamileth Medinabr
Source: articlesbase.combr
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A medical emergency is one of the worst things for a person to go through. Emergency transportation to a medical facility in an ambulance has saved many lives. Sometimes, an air ambulance is needed. These helicopters rescue people in locations inaccessible to standard emergency vehicles, such as at the top of the Grand Canyon. They are also used in the most critical cases, when time is of the essence and backed-up traffic could make the difference between life or death. The companies that provide air ambulances provide an essential service, and there is no doubt that they are appreciated by those rescued, as well as their loved ones. Unfortunately, much of this emergency transportation is not covered by health insurance plans. Victims are often in for a new shock once they get a bill from these private companies. Obviously, these firms must charge in order to cover their costs, as well as be profitable. Many Americans are already familiar with the increasing fees charged for an ambulance transport by truck–anywhere from $8,000 to $2,000 for transport. Health insurance plans often cover only a portion of ambulance expenses, leaving the patient and their family with the rest to handle out-of-pocket. Sixty percent of private plans pay the entire bill, but that cost is often passed onto policyholders in the form of higher premiums. Public health insurance plans, such as Medicare and Medicaid, are charged a rate discounted by 40% due to their stingy reimbursement rates. Meanwhile, just two percent of the uninsured who have used an air ambulance pay off the charges.The amount charged is based on an initial fee, plus a certain amount per mile flown. Operators of air ambulances point to several factors when justifying their rates, which range from $8,000 to $25,000. First, they must recoup the costs incurred from those flights not paid for in full; whether those losses are due to health insurance plans stalling reimbursement payments, writing off patients without insurance who lack any resources to pay, and the reduced amounts recieved for those insured by the government. In addition, air ambulances emphasize the millions of dollars in infrastructure that must be invested to provide this service. For example, emergency air transport companies must have operators in far-flung locations and bases able to travel in most states on a moments basis. Helicopters, which are expensive enough in themselves to acquire and fuel, must also be equipped with the highest quality medical equipment and staff around the clock. Air ambulances transport over 500,000 people in the United States annually. Most of the time, patients and their loved ones are not provided with clear, reliable information regarding how much the trip will cost them. The ambulances appear at a vulnerable moment; therefore, few individuals take advantage of their legal right to refuse ambulance transport. Some refuse to use a ground ambulance, preferring to have a friend or family member drive them to the hospital in order to avoid fees. However, such a strategy isnt as effective in those situations most likely to require air transport: a patient in critical condition with severe injuries, when the closest treatment center is extremely far away or there are extenuating circumstances that may increase travel time (e.g. rough terrain or traffic). Most people dont know what amount of emergency transport is covered in their health insurance plans, because that provision is typically hidden in the fine print. As a result, those with high-deductible health insurance plans or Health Savings Accounts are unable to shop around for the best deal.As an increasing percentage of Americans has been driven to bankruptcy through medical debt, new solutions have been introduced to mitigate the negative impact ambulance costs can have on a familys or individuals finances. Now, there have been supplemental insurance plans offered by air ambulance companies, which allow careful consumers to pay a fee in exchange for free emergency transportation. These programs, such as Northwest MedStar, cover any of the costs left over after health insurance plans pay their share. Such memberships can be especially helpful to those living in rural areas where hospitals are distant, or those employed in dangerous lines of work. However, these products are not as strictly regulated as standard health insurance plans, so research is necessary if one chooses to go down that route.(Image: euthman under CC 2.0)br
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pYamileth Medina is an up and coming expert on a rel=nofollow,nofollow href=http://www.vitalonehealth.comHealth Insurance/a and a rel=nofollow,nofollow href=http://www.healthinsurancesearch.com/healthcare-reform/Healthcare Reform/a. She aims to help people realize that they can find quality a rel=nofollow,nofollow href=http://www.vitalonehealth.comhealth insurance plans/a right now while waiting for a public option, if it ever gets passed. Yamileth lives in Miami, FL./pbr
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