Why is repatriation assistance insurance essential for traveling or expatriation?

 Why is repatriation assistance insurance essential for traveling or expatriation?
Repatriation Assistance Repatriation assistance, you must certainly hear about it when you are thinking about the travel insurance to purchase for your next getaway. It is often said that this is very important, but why exactly?

What is repatriation?

Repatriation can take on different aspects, depending on your state of health and where you are.

For example, if you are seriously ill or injured (following an event guaranteed by your travel insurance contract), and your state of health requires rapid travel, the insurance company will organize and pay for your repatriation to a competent hospital center. If you are a victim of acute mountain sickness (AMS) while trekking in Nepal, the repatriation guarantee will apply to charter a helicopter that will evacuate you to the nearest hospital.

If the local medical infrastructure is unable to provide the required care, the company will take care of your transfer,

- or to the nearest hospital center.

- or to the hospital center closest to your home in your country of residence.

- or to your home in your country of residence.

This repatriation or medical transport can be carried out if necessary under medical supervision (accompanied by a doctor and / or a nurse) by special medical plane, or regular airliner, train or ambulance.

The repatriation guarantee also intervenes in more serious contexts, such as in the event of death. The company takes care of and organizes the transport of the body from the place of beer filling to the international airport closest to your home.

Why is repatriation assistance so important?

You understand, repatriation takes place in emergency cases requiring your immediate transfer.

In the event of a serious illness that cannot be treated on site, this guarantee allows you to be redirected to the nearest hospital. If, for example, you have an appendicitis attack while visiting Machu Picchu, the company will do everything to locate you and take you urgently to the nearest hospital.

In the event of illness or accident ending your trip, the repatriation guarantee allows you to quickly return to your home in France. If you break your leg as a result of a fall and this accident ends your trip, the company will direct you to the nearest hospital and then reserve a seat for you on the next flight to your country of residence. .

In the event of death, in addition to the transport of the body, the company will cover the ancillary costs necessary for the transport, including the cost of the coffin (up to the amount indicated in the table of guarantees). If you die while traveling halfway around the world, your body will be quickly repatriated to your loved ones, who will not have to pay for it.

Repatriation is one of the most expensive guarantees for insurance companies, as transfer prices are often exorbitant. The situation is always catastrophic when the traveler has not taken out this guarantee. This represents indebtedness for the family, and the patient or the body may end up stranded abroad. You have all seen on the Internet money pools organized in disaster by the relatives of a traveler who finds himself stranded abroad, hospitalized or even worse, dead. Don't let that sort of thing happen!

Medical repatriation can cost a few thousand euros for regular flight repatriation without medical assistance, and medical repatriation with an accompanying doctor can cost up to 40,000 euros. Finally, the cost of repatriating a body varies between 1,000 and 5,000 euros.

Please note that in the case of medical repatriation or death repatriation, you cannot count on help from the government of your home country. Indeed, the consulate can take care of contacts with the family and provide you with advice in case of difficulty with the local authorities, but in any case it will not be able to help you financially. At most, in rare cases, he may make an advance of funds which must be reimbursed to him afterwards.

You can avoid all these inconveniences for your loved ones by taking out travel insurance including repatriation assistance.