This is a sponsored post.
As a young female solo traveler who likes to take risks, I was never worried about any health risks while I was traveling because I always had the mentality that “nothing would happen to me”. I was so confident about this that I wouldn’t even buy health insurance and my mentality was that I would deal with it when it happened. This started to change the more I traveled.
After visiting 46 countries, the more I traveled and the more I spoke to other travelers, I realized how common freak accidents can be where you would need medical care in a foreign country The thought of landing in a hospital without my family around terrifies me. As much as I love traveling solo, it is still scary (but that’s part of the fun, right?) and ideally I would like to mitigate as much risk as I possibly can. 
I’ve heard multiple stories from other solo female travelers who have been in medical emergencies. One had broken her collarbone in Italy while riding a scooter. Another one was in a bus crash in Venezuela and had to wait hours to get to the nearest hospital with a broken arm. Although these occurrences aren’t very common, even the idea of it happening once is horrifying, and this is something I would never want to experience.
While there is no way to prevent accidents from happening, there are ways to make them less scary when they do happen. One obvious way is always having insurance while traveling but, I think insurance is the minimum protection you should have while traveling.
So, besides insurance, what is another way to protect your safety if you get into a medical emergency?
There is something called an air medical transport membership. Let me tell you all about it.
If you don’t know what a medical evacuation service is, here are all the important details. Basically, if you have a medical emergency while you’re traveling, your travel insurance will medevac you to the nearest hospital that can stabilize and treat you. But you’re usually stuck there until you can be rebooked home commercially. A medical transport membership will get you moved from that hospital to your hospital AT HOME, from almost anywhere in the world. The service covers all the costs so that you won’t have to worry about anything until you’re in your home country (and your family doesn’t have to start a GoFundMe page to raise the $30,000-$200,000 to get you moved home)!
I’d never heard of medical evacuation programs until I did the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu and a German couple mentioned that they subscribe to one. They explained that if they were ever in any accident, their membership would airlift them from any hospital in the world back to Germany. That seemed like such a great option to have on top of insurance which only allows you to have medical treatment while you’re in whichever country you’re traveling.
Some programs, like Medjet, have 24/7 security response you can add, giving you teams of security experts to call if something really bad is happening around you, or someone for your parents to call if you just (scary) disappeared. Before I learned about this, my biggest safety tip was to share my location on “Find My Friends” with my parents so they would always know where I am without having to tell them. But this way, if I get into an accident, or my safety is threatened, I have extra protection.
What company would you recommend for a medical transport service?
Although there are many options out there, I would recommend Medjet as this is the “expert recommended” program for travelers. A lot of celebrities and sports stars choose them too. Medjet is available for anyone who lives in North America, and they can transport you from almost any country internationally, back home. 
They offer multiple different pricing options and memberships that are pretty cost effective. The two main memberships are MedjetAssist and MedjetHorizon.
I would say MedjetAssist is more appropriate for typical travelers just wanting to be able to get home if they’re sick or injured. MedjetHorizon is better suited for travelers going on adventurous trips or going to countries with a higher security risk.
Here are the main benefits of each:
MedjetAssist benefits:
- All expenses paid, bedside to bedside, air medical transport to your hospital at home
- No out of pocket expenses, no pre-existing conditions exclusions, no claims forms
- Medical language translation assistance
- Message relay to family
- Transfer of mortal remains
MedjetHorizon benefits:
- Same medical transport benefits as MedjetAssist with additional benefits:
- Emergency cash advance up to $60,000 for medical emergencies
- Travel security response for violent crime, terrorism, political threat, natural disaster, pandemic, kidnap for ransom, wrongful detention, disappearance, and extortion
Each option is for a different travel circumstance so you can gauge which one would be better for you depending on what kind of coverage you need. Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of each membership, you’re probably wondering how much something like this costs. I was pleasantly surprised with these costs since you would think that any service that provides air transport would be very expensive right?
Here is the cost breakdown of each membership:
MedjetAssist costs:
- For individuals:
- $99 for an 8 day trip (also comes 15, 21, and 30 days)
- $295 for an Annual Membership (as much travel as you want)
- For families:
- $199 for an 8 day trip (also comes 15, 21, and 30 days)
- $399 for an Annual Membership (2 adults and up to 5 dependent kids)
MedjetHorizon costs:
- For individuals:
- $184 for an 8 day trip (also comes 15, 21, and 30 days)
- $444 for an Annual Membership
- For families:
- $314 for an 8 day trip (also comes 15, 21, and 30 days)
- $578 for an Annual Membership
There are also multi-year annual memberships that save money, and specialty memberships like the Expat180, Expat365, and Student/Faculty available for individuals and families if you are deciding to travel longer term, or study/teach abroad.
While to some people the cost may seem a little high, if you think about all the things that can go wrong, and how expensive it would be to get moved home, they’re actually a bargain. Especially for the peace of mind it gives both you, and your family, since you’re out there alone.
Next time you’re traveling, I would really consider looking at Medjet for memberships!
