medical insurance for a trip outside the USA

[submittedviaemail]

Hi,

I am a Swiss citizen living in the USA. I will be going to Pakistan for 5 weeks and to Switzerland and France for 2 weeks this summer (July-August 2007).I would like to purchase an insurance that will cover me for this trip (30 June to 26 August 2007) as well as the activities I will be doing (I will be on an expedition in Pakistan to climb the Diran peak (7262 meters) and will be climbing and mountaineering in France and Switzerland.Therefore I will need a plan with the hazardous sport rider with No altitude limitation. Looking at the different plans from the different companies, I have seen that the Atlas series from MultiNational Underwriters offer this type of insurance without altitude limit

However, before I can buy a plan from you, I have a few questions:

1) I could not understand whether I need the Atlas America or Atlas International, I read on some documents that Atlas International was for US citizen outside the US AND for non-US citizen living in the USA but traveling abroad (which would be me). However, on other documents, I read that all non US citizen had to buy Atlas America, Please advice me which plan I should by and why (and where is the reliable information)

2) I will be part of a mountaneering expedition and thus would like to make sure that I will be insured with this plan (including the hazardous sport rider) even while mountaneering and that there are no altitude limit. Could you please confirm that this is the case.

3) The schedule of benefits says that emergency medical evacuations are covered only if the attending physician certifies that the evacuation is necessary. Obviously, there are No attending physician part way up a summit in Pakistan, and if an accident happened that is life threatening, my friend or the guide will call the rescue to get an helicopter to evacuate me to the nearest hospital. Could you please confirm that this will be cover by the insurance.

4) The schedule of benefits says (under trip interruption) that, if following an emergency medical evacuation, the physician states that it is necessary to return to my home country for proper medical treatment, a one way economy flight will be paid for till the terminal closest to my residence (so Boston). However, if the medical condition is so bad that one cannot be treated in an hospital in pakistan, obviously, one cannot either walk and take an economy flight to the state and then take a bus to a hospital to get the necessary treatment. So how does that work, please explain me.

I look forward to hearing from you, and than you very much for your time

Best Regards

[narendra]

Thank you for your interest in purchasing Atlas travel medical insurance.
Here are the answers to your questions:
1.. International
2.. OK
3.. there has to be an attending physician and they have to work MNU or TravelGuard. No company is going to evacuate him out of there without
A. A physician present B. Guarantee of payment.
4.. the transportation between the airplane and hospital etc. would fall
under "local ambulance" benefit.
You can make instant purchase online at
http://www.insubuy.com/hccmis/atlas/international/travelmedicalinsurance.jsp
Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[submittedviaemail]

Thank you for your answer, I still have some problems with point 3, and
I guess you may not have understood the question.

When you are on an expedition in the Himalaya and get injured climbing a summit, no physician is going to come from a large city, walk to the Base Camp (between 3 and 10 days depending on the mountain), then climb up to camp 1 or 2 (another few days), look at the injured person (dead by now), say "yes, this person need to be evacuated", descend to Base Camp to use the radio to call the rescue company for a helicopter
(Askari Aviation in Pakistan).
How it really work is:
When climbers arrive to Pakistan, they visit " Askari Aviation" deposit US$ 6,000 against possible rescue, obtain a rescue kit (with a radio, and flags and signals to show the helicopter where to land). then the expedition members will take the bus (24h bus ride), and walk to the base camp, and spend weeks attempting to climb the mountain. If a climber get injured while climbing, a member of the expedition will descent to Base Camp, radio Askari Aviation, who will despatch a helicopter, meanwhile, other climbers will try to descent the injured person to an altitude where a helicopter can fly safely (usually less than 5500 meters) and a flat place where the helicopter can land. Then the injured climber will be helicoptered to the nearest hospital, and the nearest phone. So it is only at this time that the companion or the doctor of the injured person could phone the insurance or anybody, as it is the first place that has a phone.
So as you see, no rescue company is going to wait to have the green light for any insurance company, as that would mean the death of the climber, which is something everybody usually try to avoid.....

So please let me know how atlas travel medical insurance work,

I thank you very much for you time,

[narendra]

What you are describing falls under local ambulance coverage.