International Rescue and Health Insurance Confusion

Hello all, I'm posting this in a couple of categories on MP because I can't figure out where to put it, so sorry if you've already seen it.

I'll be doing a full climbing season abroad (in Patagonia, between Frey, Cochamo and El Chalten). For those unfamiliar with the area, my climbing will be low altitude (<12000 ft) flargely technical rock and some moderate snow and sketchier scrambling in a relatively remote location (1/2 to 2-day approaches and far from helicopters and hospitals). 

I would like to be insured in case of an emergency. All of these places have very very infrequent helicopter rescue (though increasing as the sport becomes more popular) and large volunteer rescue corps, but that just means if I were to be heli evac-ed it would be extra expensive as there's nobody nearby. I've seen a bunch of options: Global Rescue, the AAC member rescue benefit, GEOS/IERCC (the garmin partner), and then regular backpacker's insurance but with an extreme sports bonus (Atlas insurance claims to cover mountaineering up to 4500m for instance). 

My thinking is as follows:
Global rescue is extremely expensive for the whole season (close to 1000$) but comes highly recommended

I'm unclear on how good AAC's coverage is since they swapped to redpoint from Global Rescue and whether they will actually sort out the heli/deal with international stuff

IERCC seems great but suspiciously cheap (100$ a year??), Does anyone have any info or history with them?

I don't know if I trust regular traveler's insurance to sort out a helicopter for me or if they really know what mountaineering up to 4500m entails (this is not just hiking), though it is much more reasonably priced and throws in a bunch of useful stuff

Other expedition insurance I've looked at (BMC because I'm from Britain for example) covers up to 30 days but I'll need closer to 150-200)

Would appreciate guidance from anyone who has any relevant experience, in particular, if anyone has had a rescue in a remote international location and not gone bankrupt

Thanks in advance!

Eric

Don’t get hurt Eric. I’ve always been bankrupt after I bought the plane ticket for my expeditions. Following this thread tho.

Hey Jimmy, that's super helpful and yes I'm aware of the insurance vs rescue coverage divide. My plan then would be GR coverage exclusively during my time in Patagonia and backpackers/medical insurance for the whole time I'm in the country. From your investigation into other insurers did you find any straightforward answers on whether they will cover medical care for accidents that occur in places they wouldn't rescue you from? Like if GR gets me to a hospital will some regular travel insurance sew me back up or fly me back home?

Obviously it'll depend on provider but just curious if you ever resolved that

We use Global Rescue at my work (lots of travel to developing countries and conflict zones) and it comes highly recommended. For personal stuff I just use the Garmin insurance.

Hey Jared! have you ever had any rescue with the Garmin insurance? It looks great and all the issues of "you must contact us directly to get coverage" that GR demands are eliminated if I ask for help through my inreach so I'd love to use them.

Eric alluded to it above but just to state it explicitly- GR requires you to contact them directly or they may not reimburse you. For some folks this may not be a big deal but I personally rarely if ever have cell service / the means to contact them while climbing. I called and asked them about this and I found them to be very shady dodging this question and lots of "well it depends" when asking if I would be covered if I initiated a rescue through my inReach / did not contact them until post rescue. Switched to Garmin as soon as I hung up the phone. You press SOS and they cover all expenses incurred. 

I have not traveled internationally to climb/researched the rescue variables so I don't know how relevant this might be for you. Was just very surprised to hear the AAC coverage was not as realistically practical for me as I had thought and have found many other folks did not realize this either, so thought it was worth sharing.

Eric Och wrote:

Hey Jared! have you ever had any rescue with the Garmin insurance? It looks great and all the issues of "you must contact us directly to get coverage" that GR demands are eliminated if I ask for help through my inreach so I'd love to use them.

Fortunately for me (perhaps unfortunately for your info here), I have not needed to use a rescue yet - I misspoke and technically I *will* use the Garmin insurance if needed, but haven’t used it yet. So far I’ve just used the InReach to send a live location to family when I’m completely off the grid and to set waypoints for shelter and campsites if the weather looks sus.