Medical Evacuation for Foreign Residents and Visitors to Mexico

A guest post from Alex Routh

Today's article is a contribution from Alex Routh, a principle at World Expat Health (https://www.worldexpathealth.com; WhatsApp +1-829-371-4534). Alex helps clients cut through the often dark patterns that litter the international healthcare scene. He is an experienced broker who has lived internationally for 25 years, and he only recommends insurance products from reputable insurers with solid underwriting. Having found that there is really no meaningful information to be found on the web for international health insurance for foreign residents, Alex wrote the only book on the subject, which he makes available for free as a downloadable e-book. I use Alex for my own international health care policy, and I'm a happy customer.

And now, here is Alex with some information on evacuation insurance - an often misunderstood insurance option for international residents and travelers.

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Evacuation What is it?

Let’s define exactly what an evacuation benefit is in travel and expat health insurance policies, because there is a lot of confusion about this subject. You might be surprised that your concept of evacuation is inaccurate. The ambulance gets you to Hospital A and the evacuation gets you to the better closest Hospital B, if and only if you are dying because the facilities at Hospital A, or medical expertise are insufficient to save your life. They key things are that it will be the nearest hospital, not where you want to go, and you don’t get to decide on Hospital B unless you are self- funding it and your life must be in jeopardy. Self-funding almost never happens because it is exorbitantly expensive and you have to pay up front. Try transferring a hundred thousand dollars from a hospital bed where you are dying! Another issue is Hospital B must accept you. If you can’t deposit funds in advance of any evacuation, then they won’t accept, and you could die at Hospital A. Even if you have an evacuation insurance policy, if you can’t get a bed at Hospital B because you can’t advance funds, the air ambulance won’t go wheels up. That’s the weakness of evac only policies, they won’t pay medical expenses at Hospital B.

Evacuation Club Membership Organizations in Mexico

There are several membership evacuation clubs. I call them this for lack of a better descriptive phrase. The largest one prominent in Mexico is Skymed, another is MedJet Assistance. Both suffer from the same problem, they are membership clubs not insurance, they have no financial transparency, and no financial backing by an underwriter. What if there is a tsunami, a hurricane, or devastating earthquake or volcanic eruption and suddenly a surging number of evacuations? Could they handle this financial stress? Nobody knows.

My additional problem with Skymed, whose motto is “Skymed Gets You Home” is the very loose way they allow use of the word “evacuation” in promotional materials almost always in the form of a testimonial. The people appearing in testimonials use the word “evacuation” but that is not the service Skymed performed for them. The service performed was Medical Transportation and to be fair Skymed seems to do a pretty good job of that. The actual Skymed membership rule for evacuation is from Hospital A to the closestHospital B if and only if your life is threatened and could be saved by evacuating you to Hospital B. Also, they state that they will pay no hospital expenses at Hospital B. The only way Hospital B is going to accept you is if you have a method of payment. If you have no method of payment, or no insurance, then no air ambulance is going to go wheels up and you will die at Hospital A, even if you have Skymed! Skymed Medically Transports you home, but not if you are dying, and they won’t evacuate you home clearly and unambiguously in their membership rules which nobody apparently reads. MedJet in their policy rules will not evacuate you if you are within 150 miles of your residence, or at least according to their membership rules they won’t. If you’re resident in Mexico, will they evacuate you to your home country?

So, what is the solution for people that want evacuation back to their home with no ambiguity? We know of only one policy for U.S. citizens that will evacuate you to your US-home-hospital-of-choice from anywhere in the world, and this is perfect for those living as expats in Mexico abroad that have Medicare back home. They definitely have a bed waiting for them at Hospital B in their home state. This is real insurance with a real underwriter, not a membership club, and the premiums are very reasonable. To age 74, the annual premium is $545, for a couple $795. For age 75-84, the individual premium is $850, and for couples $1375. If you have any questions about the above please contact Alex Routh at WhatsApp +1-829-371-4534