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Expats must beware of ‘inadequate’ emergency medical evacuation cover warns InterGlobal

13 January 2010 Interglobal

International private medical insurer InterGlobal, believes that may expatriates are purchasing health insurance plans with inadequate emergency medical evacuation cover and is urging expats and their advisers to urgently check their level of cover.

InterGlobal is concerned that some plans fail to provide evacuation cover for serious medical conditions and others could force expats to abandon their dependants in overseas jurisdictions.

InterGlobal’s emergency medical evacuation cover entitles members to be accompanied by their partner and all of their dependent children in the case of a medical emergency. In comparison many competing plans only allow a single adult to accompany the patient. This eliminates the risk of a patient being separated from their loved ones when they are evacuated.

InterGlobal also provides unaccompanied, non-emergency evacuation to a high quality medical facility for more minor medical conditions if no adequate treatment is available locally. In comparison many competing plans only provide evacuation if a condition is ‘life threatening’ leaving expats exposed to the risk of poor quality treatment or a deteriorating medical condition.

Peter Rousseau, Business Development Director, InterGlobal says:

“We’re concerned that some expats believe they are receiving a higher level of evacuation cover than is actually the case. This could leave them or their families seriously exposed in the event of a medical emergency and we urge all expats to check their cover carefully.

“We’ve heard of cases of expats being forced to leave their spouse and children behind because their evacuation cover was inadequate – just think of the stress this adds to the patient and family and how much longer it would take a patient to recover if they were worrying about their family.


“We’ve also heard of people being refused evacuation because their condition wasn’t considered life threatening even though local facilities are inadequate. In these circumstances we believe it is far better to evacuate a patient on a scheduled flight to a decent regional hospital whenever the local facilities are not up to scratch. This provides better quality care and prevents treatable conditions from becoming chronic.

“The acid test of an international PMI plan is whether it delivers when the chips are down – and we have gone to great lengths to ensure that our plans will perform whatever emergency befalls our members.”

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