Helicopter Insurance

or…

“How to take a 15 minute ride in a Medivac Helicopter and not loose everything you own in the process”

This post was 90% written years ago. Since then things have changed – dramatically.
Many people don’t know of the changes and so I’m guessing this post will come up in their google searches which is why I’m posting now with updated information that will save you money!

First of all, I hope you never need it. As Motorcyclists we all have a risk tolerance that might be higher than the general public. Some of us – maybe a whole lot more. Things are going to happen out there and sometimes we need help. Mitigating the cost of that help is what I’m talking about here.

NOTES:

• I use the terms Medivac, Air Ambulance, Rescue Helicopter rather loosely and interchangeably.

• I am also specifically writing this to apply to the U.S and specifically more the Western U.S. although some of the plans cross borders just fine.

• Honestly, there is no such thing as Helicopter Insurance. There are plans I will be discussing that assign some or all of the cost – but also have some pretty big “ONLY IF”s to qualify. There are PROs and CONs to each of these solutions.

• I have also turned the ripe old age of 65 so I now have options that are available only to old farts but I’ll make that obvious when.

• I’ve been directly involved in at least 4 Air Ambulance events (Tom Pinky in Quincy, Mark in Shaver Lake, that guy in LAB2V, and one other I can’t link to) and the only thing to pull from that is that quite often it’s far from your choice to be air lifted or not.

• I am not a Helicopter Pilot nor a crew member so all of this is from an outsiders point of view. Besides that pilot has no idea how much the ride is going to cost you. Billing is very separate from flight operations.

UPDATE: I have had this post written for a few years now. I just happened to pay a bill that relates to this post and that reminded me to update, complete it and publish it. Some of the pictures have us all wearing COVID era face masks. So that’s about when I started compiling the info. So much has changed since then.

Grab hold of that cyclic and let’s get this post off the ground!

Ambulance rides are expensive. I took a 3 mile ground ambulance ride a couple of years ago for just under $4,000. 3 miles, 4 actual turns and FOUR THOUSAND US DOLLARS! And it wasn’t even a real emergency. I passed out over too much edibles and had a very low heart rate. There was an element of Tequila involved too but all good stories start with Tequila, right?

Ambulance rides in the air are even more expensive. WAAAAAAY more expensive! Like $50,000 ish for an average ride and you don’t even get to look out the window or take the controls for a bit. (I would love, love, love to fly a helicopter).

I am going to start you out with a few different ways to mitigate the impact of that invoice should you happen to get one.

AAA

I have been a AAA Member since forever. I’ve had it mainly for the towing of my cars and sometimes the towing of my bike. AAA offers various annual plans with each having a different towing allotment which is what most people go by. If you go with their most expensive plan there’s the added benefit we’re looking for – EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION COVERAGE

It’s hard to find on their website but you can always call and confirm. It’s only on their Premier Plan and will reimburse you for that helicopter ride up to $25,000. https://mwg.aaa.com/membership

PROS:

• You probably already have an AAA membership for the 100 mile plan. It’s only an upgrade of $24 annually to get the Emergency Medical Transportation benefit of the Premier Plan.
• Buy it and forget it – until you need it.

CONS:

• Your ride is going to be more than $25,000 – most people estimate around $50,000.
• The additional cost which I’ll say is $24 from the Plus to the Premier Plan. I have not read the fine print of reimbursement. I can’t find anything about it on https://mwg.aaa.com/membership/my-membership/reimbursement but I did have an event once where they couldn’t tow me and reimbursed me for having to get home myself and that was pretty seamless.

AIRMEDCARE MEMBERSHIP

“AirMedCare Network is an alliance among Air Evac Lifeteam, Guardian Flight, Med-Trans Corporation and REACH Air Medical Services, creating America’s largest air ambulance membership network.”

That’s true. If you are in the U.S. they do have a lot of aircraft that could be used to save you as long as you aren’t riding in WA, Idaho, Montana or Utah.

You’ll also note there’s no coverage in Mexico or Canada although they do have aircraft in Alaska.

This is a membership – once again, not insurance.

My riding friend Charles has this coverage and has a small sticker on his helmet stating that he’s a member. I kind of think of that like the AAA sticker on the bumper of my car, right?

PROS:

• One Membership covers your entire household.
• 100% coverage for everything that happens while you are in the air.
• No deductibles, no reimbursements.

CONS:

• You must be flown in one of their partner aircraft. This is a big one. I know from spending time with my local pilots that even though there might be a perfectly good REACH aircraft just a few miles away when you call 911 – that might not be the one that is dispatched to pick you up. All dispatch is routed through a center in Texas that takes into account everything about the aircraft as well as the flight crew. Unlike your local firefighters who might work a 48 hour shift and answer every single call no matter what – a flight crew has very specific limitations as to their hours in the air. They might have had a very busy night and can not / will not be sent back into the air until after a specific amount of downtime. Of course you wouldn’t know that. You fractured your Tib/Fib and while writhing in pain called 911 – you might have seen the REACH on the Helipad 10 miles ago and figure you are covered. The Medics that get to you load you into the helicopter that was dispatched and unbeknownst to you it’s not a REACH at all. Your $99 membership isn’t going to help.
• And no, you cannot call 911 and ask them to send only a REACH helicopter.

GARMIN SAR

If you have a satellite beacon – and you should – and it happens to be a Garmin… They have a plan for you.

I run a Garmin inReach Mini that sits on my shoulder at all times. I have an annual plan that runs about $11/mo normally and then I bump it to the $50 level for a month if I am riding big stuff. That $50 allows me to turn on unlimited tracking so the wife can know where I am at all times. My PLB (personal locator beacon) has an SOS Button that will summon the helicopters – but that is not helicopter insurance, right?

Garmin offers their Search and Rescue Insurance for $40 a year. they have other plans but they are more for the mountaineers and not for us ADV types.

This is the reason this post finally got published. I had purchased the SAR 100 plan before and it’s a subscription. I was notified that my plan renewed and so here we are.

The plan covers just the one person.

PROS:

• Relatively inexpensive
• Not dependent on a particular company
• Covers $100,00 worth of rescue

CONS:

• Requires a supported device with an active subscription
• Requires that the first contact be made through a Garmin Device. This is a major pitfall that I only found while reading the fine print of the .pdf they sent after I signed up. (https://aufroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-25-Garmin-Insurance-Services-LLC-Cert-Personal_en.pdf)

What that means is that it can be your Garmin inReach, it can be your buddies, or it could be the poor guy who happens to come upon your mangled and twisted body. It just has to be a Garmin device that makes the first contact. Not a SPOT, not a Zoleo, not an iPhone running a Starlink connection.

So let me ask you. You’re out riding and come across a guy laying in a ditch. He’s unresponsive but alive. You have your Garmin inReach, You have your Garmin XT Navigation Unit, and of course you have your cell phone. Which do you reach for first?

That’s right, the cell phone and you call 911. You don’t look to see if you have bars or 5G you just dial 911. You know that even if you have zero reception on your carrier’s network that 911 will use any carrier network. That call might go through. It should go through. But let’s say it does but your dropped so you switch to your PLB and push that SOS Button. According to the fine print you did not use a Garmin device FIRST as 911 will have a timestamp of your previous attempted call.

Or let’s say you have a ZOLEO or SPOT – once again, sorry it has to be a Garmin.
Remember, we’re dealing with Lawyers.

Ok, so let’s try to make some sense of the numbers…

AAA will sell you $25,000 of coverage for $24 which comes out to $1,041 per dollar spent.

Garmin will sell you $100,000 of coverage for $40 which comes out to $2,500 per dollar spent.

AirMedCare will sell you an unlimited amount of coverage for $99 but we still need a number so let’s just use the $100,000 that Garmin does which comes out to $1,010 per dollar spent.

So just by numbers alone the Garmin provides the most coverage for the least amount of money but with that also comes the caveat that you must use a Garmin device FIRST.

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t overlap. I do. I have the AAA Premier Plan and also have the Garmin SAR 100 plan. You have to make the choice yourself. Do what is right for you.

UPDATE: 9/4/25

Ok, so pretty much all that was written years ago. Guess what?

THE NO SURPRISES ACT

The No Surprises Act is a federal law effective January 1, 2022, that protects consumers from certain surprise medical bills by prohibiting balance billing for out-of-network emergency care and for services from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities.

• As of January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act protects you from a large balance bills and surprise costs related to emergency medical care if you have insurance. You’re only responsible for your deductible, co-pay or coinsurance, just as you would be with any other healthcare service.
• If you bought or are considering buying an air medical membership because you are worried you could get a 50K+ bill, times have changed. If you have health insurance, you are protected.
• It doesn’t matter who your insurance provider is or if you are in or out of network, you can’t get a surprise balance bill, no matter who transports you.
• Air medical transportation is a covered benefit for both Medicare (Part B) and Medicaid patients.

https://www.airmethods.com/membership-facts/

Or simply…

If you are in the US and have health insurance you don’t need to worry about helicopter rescues. Period!
If you are 65 and have Medicare Part B – you don’t need to worry either.

Yes, I am keeping my AAA Membership as I am more in need of the 200 mile towing.
Yes I am cancelling my Garmin SAR 100 – Chances are it would never be used anyway.