Why Medical Evacuation Coverage is Necessary for Cruise Trips?

While planning your next vacation keep in mind that emergencies can occur anywhere. And when thousands of miles away from land, evacuation may be the only viable option for you.

Whenever you plan your vacation for a cruise, you never really consider the potential medical emergencies or other incidents that may threaten to sour your trip. These emergencies occur a lot more than you think. And once they do, the process of treating or evacuating a person becomes a complex and nobody wants to get involved with the different laws of evacuation from the sea etc.

Add to that the amount of expertise or training; it would take for crews and staff of the ship to coordinate with services that help in the medical evacuation process. Therefore, the process itself becomes financially exhaustive and may end up ruining your vacation in more ways than one. You may have heard stories about the Coastguard making these rescue trips, but they are unlikely to show up after your cruise has gone further than particular distance from the shore.

There are additional facts you may not be aware of. One of these is that the cruise captain or the crew are not obligated to transfer you to shore in case of health problems – no matter how bad they are. If there are medical services available they will be from independent contractors who may charge you anything and end up costing you a small fortune. The ship’s doctor is the ultimate boss, so if he asks you to go, you have to without having a say in it.

While ships are equipped with basic supplies to handle minor ailments, or illnesses, something as serious as rampant heart condition is no child’s play, and in the event of such a situation arising evacuation becomes the only solution.

No cruise “Protection Plans” will ever cover you for evacuation, and therefore it is essential you have a health insurance scheme with ample coverage for evacuation, to ensure your vacations do not end in disasters.