Think Ahead: Buy Medevac Insurance For Emergency Air Flight To A Hospital
You Can Buy A Membership For Alaskan Medevac Services GET TO A HOSPITAL BY AIR This story has been updated Signing Up For Medevac Service...
https://www.countryjournal2020.com/2022/09/think-ahead-buy-medevac-insurance-for.html
You Can Buy A Membership For Alaskan Medevac Services
GET TO A HOSPITAL BY AIR
This story has been updated
Signing Up For Medevac Service Is Not Expensive
Rapid response to a medical emergency is key to saving lives.
Ground ambulance and EMS service in the Copper Valley is vital for public safety. But also important is making sure, if you are in a car wreck, have a heart attack, or have any other major medical issue, that you can get to an actual, distant Anchorage hospital quickly. Usually, the best way is by air.
Ground ambulance and EMS service in the Copper Valley is vital for public safety. But also important is making sure, if you are in a car wreck, have a heart attack, or have any other major medical issue, that you can get to an actual, distant Anchorage hospital quickly. Usually, the best way is by air.
A "Medevac" is when a specially equipped medical helicopter or plane comes out from Anchorage to pick you up. Uninsured Medevacs can be extraordinarily expensive. But, there is a solution. For under $200 a year, you can sign up for a program with one of two Alaskan Medevac service companies, Lifemed or Guardian.
From a practical point of view, it's worth looking at their websites, calling them, and seriously considering weighing the advantages of having a Lifemed card in your wallet and on your keychain. Especially now that there is no after hours care at Cross Road, starting September 21st, 2022 – and Cross Road advises you to get a membership.
[Update Note as of March 5th, 2024: Ground ambulance service is expected to run out in the Copper Valley by the end of June, 2024.]
In case you haven't thought about this service, take a look now, and call or write them for details of how they work, how much it costs, and what they do.
This is not an advertisement.
Call Or Write For Details From Alaskan Medevac Service Companies
LIFEMED
Lifemed & Guardian Both Offer Services
Why They're A Good Idea
In the past, the Copper Valley had doctors. Today, there are no physicians working at either Cross Road or CRNA's medical clinic.
There are no hospitals in the valley either. This is part of a growing national problem in rural America.
Living "out in the country" doesn't necessarily add to your health and safety. As the Association of American Medical Colleges wrote in 2020, rural people in general are unhealthier than city people. With fewer than 3,000 residents, scattered across a place as big as West Virginia, it's probably not surprising that we have difficulties getting medical care, no matter how diligent our two major medical providers, CRNA and Cross Road, try to be.
Compounding the lack of doctors and hospitals are the inherent dangers of this part of Alaska, and its vast distances from outside help. Most people live hundreds of miles from a hospital. The road into Anchorage is long and frequently dangerous. Rural life here is even more difficult and hazardous than in many other "rural" areas in America – precisely because this is Alaska.
SAID THE ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL COLLEGES:
"Across the country, physician shortages have left a growing number of communities... desperate for care. Of the more than 7,200 federally designated health professional shortage areas, 3 out of 5 are in rural regions. And while 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural communities, only 11% of physicians practice in such areas.
"The lack of physicians is deeply worrisome. That’s in part because rural residents are more likely to die from health issues like cardiovascular disease, unintentional injury, and chronic lung disease than city-dwellers. Rural residents also tend to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages and have worse outcomes."
