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Coast Guard evacuation?


39august
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On anther forum someone posted that if you are evacuated for a medical emergency by the US Coast Guard there is no charge. Is that correct?

 

your tax dollars at work, just like you won't be billed by your local fire department to put your house fire out. But there are limits. If you're taken off a ship on an Alaska cruise you'll not be taken all the way home on the tax payer's dime.

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Reasonable not to take you all the way home. Any US city is fine with me. So that huge coverage for evacuation may be overkill. I have read that very small percentage of evacs. require helicopers.

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Reasonable not to take you all the way home. Any US city is fine with me. So that huge coverage for evacuation may be overkill. I have read that very small percentage of evacs. require helicopers.

 

 

It will be to the nearest hospital able to treat your symptoms. It may not be a US hospital

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While the cost of the US Coast Guard would be taken care of, its never guaranteed that the US Coast Guard is going to be the one who does the evacuating. Depends on location.

 

Also, as others have said...you will be taken to the closest facility. If you need special transport in order to get home, that will be your cost. It can be very expensive to get medical transport home if one needs to fly.

 

I'll take the overkill.

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They only do a helicopter evacuation when the ship can't get to a port with emergency facilities nearby in a similar amount of time as the evacuation would take. We were on a cruise a couple of years ago where the ship didn't do an evacuation, but rather sped up to full speed to get to St. Maarten (in the Caribbean) as it would have taken just as long for the helicopter to get to us. In fact, I believe we got to port faster than a helicopter could get to us.

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This was in our local news a couple of weeks ago: http://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2017/02/20/woman-with-stomach-pains-evacuated-from-cruise-ship-off-san-diego-coast/

 

I was surprised that the Star Princess didn't just make for a port. They were 400 miles away, and it took them just over 14 hours to get to US waters and arrange the evacuation of the ill woman from the ship by Coast Guard helicopter. That's about the same amount of time it would have taken them to reach San Diego at full speed, and I would think they were even closer to Ensenada.

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As a general rule, around the world, no Coast Guard (USA or other countries) will charge to evacuate you off a cruise ship. We are not aware of any cruise medical evacuation done by anyone other than a Coast Guard organization or the military (who also does not charge). On our many cruises (more then 3 years on cruise ships as a passenger) we have seen several ship helicopter evacs and they were all done by Coast Guards....with the exception of a US Navy (the SEAL aviation unit from San Diego) evacuation from a HAL ship. In that case, we were out of range of any US Coast Guard helicopter and the Navy agreed to a helicopter evac with the use of a KC130 (tanker) air to air refueling of the helicopter. That was very interesting as the tanker was also within view of the ship...and the Navy was able to pull off the complex evac...which they called an excellent training exercise (although it was very real for the evacuated ill passenger).

 

Folks should also be aware that every medical evacuation insurance policy (or coverage) we have seen does specify that the evacuation most commence from a hospital. We are aware of at least one case where a cruiser was on an island that had no hospital...and they could not get coverage for evacuation because they had not been admitted to a hospital.

 

Hank

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As a general rule, around the world, no Coast Guard (USA or other countries) will charge to evacuate you off a cruise ship. We are not aware of any cruise medical evacuation done by anyone other than a Coast Guard organization or the military (who also does not charge). On our many cruises (more then 3 years on cruise ships as a passenger) we have seen several ship helicopter evacs and they were all done by Coast Guards....with the exception of a US Navy (the SEAL aviation unit from San Diego) evacuation from a HAL ship. In that case, we were out of range of any US Coast Guard helicopter and the Navy agreed to a helicopter evac with the use of a KC130 (tanker) air to air refueling of the helicopter. That was very interesting as the tanker was also within view of the ship...and the Navy was able to pull off the complex evac...which they called an excellent training exercise (although it was very real for the evacuated ill passenger).

 

Folks should also be aware that every medical evacuation insurance policy (or coverage) we have seen does specify that the evacuation most commence from a hospital. We are aware of at least one case where a cruiser was on an island that had no hospital...and they could not get coverage for evacuation because they had not been admitted to a hospital.

 

Hank

 

There was another situation reported here (maybe the same one?) in the Caribbean, where the ill person was on an island with no airport sufficient for a medevac.

What that person did isn't quite what we would have done (but "we weren't there at the time", etc., of course), but the bottom line was that one way or another they had to take a small boat to a larger island nearby, where there was a suitable airport.

 

We've got MedJetAssist, and there are times they can't/won't help.

 

I'm now wondering if regular travel insurance or other health care insurance would help with some other "Med-e-boat" or whatever the local assorted island authorities have.

That might not be bankruptcy costs, but it would still be nice to get reimbursed.

But the first question is... are there such resources if one isn't in a totally isolated area?

 

Thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On anther forum someone posted that if you are evacuated for a medical emergency by the US Coast Guard there is no charge. Is that correct?

 

Before you count on the Coast Guard, read this -

 

"Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's budget proposal includes a $1.3 billion cut to the US Coast Guard, congressional sources told CNN Tuesday.

The cuts would be applied to an operating budget of about $9 billion, which hawks on the Hill were quick to slam as too deep a reduction to the military branch's funding."

That is a 14% cut in the Coast Guard budget.

DON

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  • 3 weeks later...
Reasonable not to take you all the way home. Any US city is fine with me. So that huge coverage for evacuation may be overkill. I have read that very small percentage of evacs. require helicopers.

 

 

If you are in the Med you might get lucky to get to an American hospital on an American base in Italy. Same perhaps if in the Baltic and near American base in Germany

 

I'm just putting this out as a theory...not fact so please if anyone has actual info that would be great

 

 

On our last cruise out of NYC we had a Medivac....the 1st attempt was to get close enough for them to get a chopper out from Norfolk but he got sicker so it was a diversion to be close enough to Bermuda

 

Not a clue if it was Bermuda choppers or USA choppers but it was right outside our balcony

 

I would probably be concerned on cruises far from the US mainland and territories

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Before you count on the Coast Guard, read this -

 

"Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's budget proposal includes a $1.3 billion cut to the US Coast Guard, congressional sources told CNN Tuesday.

The cuts would be applied to an operating budget of about $9 billion, which hawks on the Hill were quick to slam as too deep a reduction to the military branch's funding."

That is a 14% cut in the Coast Guard budget.

DON

 

 

Maybe so but that doesn't mean they won't help a ship pax in distress

 

It could me less building of new barracks

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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