I have purchased a $150,000 medical/med evac policy from Travelex. Is add'l protection from AirMed recommended?

Keith

The two most important points to be sure of about your cover are:
1- That it covers instant medical air evacuation from wherever you are to the nearest reputable hospital!
2- That the procedure to call an air evacuation is immeadiate and efficient.

It is important you find out exactly how it works with Travelex; Who do they use for the air evacuation in the country you will be in. For example if you are hunting Tanzania and you will be in a very remote area, you must know who is going to come fetch you. Who are they affiliated with? Is your outfitter/ph familiar with them? Will the plane be a medical plane with trained medical personnel/doctors on board? Can they fly and land at night (remote bush strip)?

Also be sure about how to go about calling an air evac from where you will be (radio, sat phone, etc). Some companies, need you to call them "before" they send a plane. A lengthy discussion between you or your ph/outfitter and their medical experts (who often have never travelled to Africa and know nothing about available medical facilities in the country you are in) normally follows as they try to determine if an evacuation is truly necessary and to which hospital. Not a good idea as in certain situations, time is everything. A good medical cover will give the decision on whether to order a medical evacuation or not to the outfitter/Ph. Ideally, the call can be done directly to the actual company handling the air evacuation (in Tanzania, we use Flying Doctor's)instead of Travelex who then after the procedure described above will need to contact the local affiliate, etc, etc.

A good cover is one which cuts communication down to one brief conversation;

"Immeadiate air evacuation needed. Patient stable but critical from leopard wounds. Airstrip Coordinates ....degrees South and .....degrees East."

"Copied that. will be airborne in 5 minutes and ETA is 1 hrs 15 minutes!"

It is very important to determine before which hospital they will evacuate you to. Again if in Tanzania, where good hospitals are rather rare, you need to make sure they will take you to a hospital Nairobi, Kenya or Jo'burg.

Lastly, find out form your outfitter/ph what system they have in place for such an eventuality!

Good luck and good hunting!

If you were hunting leopard within a two hours drive of Windhoek, would you consider MedJet type insurance?

For all who may have an interest, you may want to contact a lady named Gloria Wong, e-mail gloriaw@bupa.com.hk for info on this. They may well have something. I'm not selling anything here. I work Internationally and have a policy with them for medical and med-evac. This is in addition to my regular health insurance with Aetna, stateside.

BUPA is a Blue Cross derivative company that offers worldwide coverage for the above. Gloria's e-mail is at the Hong Kong location.

Regards.

Bwanamich,

That was my question. I have sufficient evac and med insurance for the foreign travel but would like to get back to the states if a long hospitalization or specialized med attention is required. I would like to get back to the states even in the absence of a "medical necessity or lack of local hospital" which most med policies require for repatriation. Medjet apparently provides the means to get back on your own recommendation, not a local doctor in conjunction with the consulting doctor from the ins company in the USA.

I just wondered whether or not anyone had experience with getting the med policy to pay for repatriation, thus making Medjet redundant.

I know this may sound like over planning, but I'm taking my son, and will have my bases covered.

Advice appreciated.

Keith

I am not familiar with all of the travel insurances that are available around the world, but I do know that many travel insurances are worthless once you get into the bush. They are fine once you are at a medical facility but until that time you are on your own.

My recommendation is to take out insurance with MARS (Medical Air Rescue Service) because not only will they cover you medically, and provide good medical treatment, but they will come and get you out of the bush. MARS operate in RSA, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and Kenya.

That's exactly what Medjet does......In Tz they use the Flying doctors' society of Africa for the evac from bush strips to nearest hospital and then they will use their own to medievac you to the hospital of your choice. Pretty effective IMO.....

Thanks, Gentlemen

Keith