Repatriation insurance UK: what it covers, who decides, and real prices from £31.43

Repatriation insurance pays to bring you home when you are too ill or injured to travel normally, and a UK GHIC pays nothing towards it. All five plans a British resident can buy on HelloSafe cover repatriation at actual cost, from £31.43 for a week in Spain (HelloSafe data, August 2026).

The number that makes this cover matter is not the premium, it is the bill. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office puts a broken leg in Spain needing hospital treatment and possible repatriation at £25,000 or more, a quad bike accident in Greece at £80,000 or more, and a hospital stay in the USA at £150,000 or more. Avanti Travel Insurance reports that the average medical evacuation from the USA back to the UK passed £192,212 in 2024, and that a repatriation from Spain now averages £45,136.

Set that against what a typical claim looks like. Association of British Insurers figures for 2024 show more than 500,000 travel claims worth £472 million, with an average medical payout of £1,528. Most claims are small. Repatriation is the tail that ruins people, and it is the one thing a free card will never touch.

So the useful question is not whether a policy says the word repatriation. Every plan sold to a UK resident says it. The question is what sits behind the promise: the medical ceiling that funds the treatment before the flight home, the search and rescue budget that gets you off a mountain in the first place, and the clause that decides who is allowed to call the air ambulance. This page works through all three with real figures from the policy wordings we hold.

Only five of the 60 policies in our catalogue accept a UK resident as the buyer, and every one of them repatriates at actual cost with no ceiling. What separates them is the medical cover behind the repatriation (from about £210,000 to about £420,000), the search and rescue budget (about £2,500 to about £5,000) and the age at which each stops selling.

Recommended for youA. FruchardCo-Founder & Travel Insurance Expert

Why Go Explore + comes first for repatriation

If the worst happens abroad, you want two things: someone to organise the flight home and pay for it, and enough medical cover to keep treating you until you are fit to fly. Go Explore + gives you both at the top of this market. Repatriation is paid at actual cost, the medical ceiling behind it is about £420,000, search and rescue runs to about £5,000, and it is the only plan here that keeps paying for hospital care once you are back in the UK, up to about £17,000. It costs £62.35 for a week in Spain.

Be honest about the alternative. Safe Start gives you the same £420,000 medical ceiling for £38.37, which is £23.98 less, and repatriates at actual cost too. Take it if you want the ceiling without the extras, and take Go Explore + if the search and rescue budget and the cover after you land matter to you.

If price is the deciding factor, WorldSecure Platinum is £31.43 and throws in extreme sports, but its medical ceiling is about £250,000 and it will not sell to anyone over 65. Over 65 the field narrows fast: at 70, only three of these five will quote at all, and World Travel is the only one that goes to 84.

A. Fruchard, Co-Founder & Travel Insurance Expert at HelloSafe

Repatriation insurance is not sold on its own in the UK: it is the assistance section of a standard travel policy, so the price you pay is the price of the whole policy. For a week in Spain that runs from £31.43 to £62.35 for one adult, and the same cover for a family of four starts at £63.31 (HelloSafe quotes, August 2026).

Two things move the price far more than the repatriation clause itself: your age and your destination. The same seven days that cost £31.43 at 40 cost £51.80 at 70, and moving the trip from Spain to the USA lifts the cheapest quote from £31.43 to £49.38. If you travel several times a year it is worth checking annual multi-trip travel insurance against the sum of your single-trip quotes.

Repatriation insurance is the part of a travel policy that organises and pays for your medically supervised return to the UK when illness or injury abroad makes a normal flight home impossible. It is an assistance benefit, not a reimbursement: the insurer books and pays the transport directly rather than handing you a receipt afterwards.

The phrase covers four distinct benefits, and readers usually mean one of them without realising the others exist. The table below shows each one with the real limits our GB plans carry, taken from the policy schedules and shown in pounds.

Notice what is not on that list. Repatriation insurance does not pay for the treatment itself. That is the emergency medical section of the same policy, and it is the ceiling that keeps you alive in a foreign hospital until you are stable enough to be moved. A plan with generous repatriation wording and a thin medical ceiling is a bad plan. See what travel insurance covers for how the two sections work together.

Medical evacuation moves you from where you fell ill to the nearest hospital that can treat you, which may be in the same country. Repatriation moves you from that hospital back to the UK. Evacuation happens first, repatriation happens last, and British policies pay for both under the same 24 hour assistance line.

The order matters because the money runs out in that order too. A remote accident starts with search and rescue, which is capped at about £2,500 to £5,000 depending on the plan. It continues with treatment, which draws on the medical ceiling. Only then does the uncapped repatriation benefit come into play. A traveller who reads only the repatriation line is checking the one figure that is never the constraint.

No. A UK Global Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary treatment in the countries it covers, on the same terms as a local resident, and it contributes nothing at all towards repatriation. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in British travel.

The government says so in its own words. According to the FCDO's foreign travel insurance guidance: “EHIC and GHIC are not alternatives to travel insurance as they do not cover any private medical healthcare costs, repatriation or additional costs such as mountain rescue in ski resorts.”

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  Being flown back to the UK : the NHS lists medical repatriation as something the card does not cover, in any country, at any cost.
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  Treatment in a private hospital : the card only works in the state system, and in much of Europe the tourist clinics are private.
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  Ski or mountain rescue : the card pays nothing towards getting you off the slope, which is where a search and rescue ceiling earns its keep.
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  Anywhere outside its list : the card works across the EEA plus Montenegro, Australia, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, St Helena, Tristan and Ascension. Thailand, the USA, Turkey and the UAE are not on it.
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  An unconscious traveller with no card on them : cover depends on presenting it, and a GHIC in a hotel safe is a GHIC that does nothing.

Carry the card anyway. It is free, it removes the upfront bill for state treatment in the EEA, and some insurers waive the medical excess when you use it. The NHS position, on its own GHIC page, is that you should hold both: “We advise that you have a UK GHIC (or UK EHIC) and private travel and medical insurance for the duration of your trip.”

An uninsured medical repatriation to the UK typically runs from £25,000 within Europe to more than £192,212 from the United States, according to FCDO guidance and insurer claims data. The distance, the aircraft type and the medical team on board decide the figure, not the illness.

Against those numbers, the premium is close to a rounding error. Seven days of cover in the USA costs £49.38 at the cheap end of our GB catalogue, which is roughly 0.026% of the average American medical evacuation. If you are heading there, read travel insurance for the USA before you choose a ceiling.

The condition that decides most repatriation claims is not in the benefits table: it is the rule that the insurer's medical adviser, not you and not your family, decides whether and how you are moved. Three of the five policy wordings we hold state that refusing the solution their medical team proposes cancels the personal assistance cover outright.

That wording is worth reading twice. It means a family who books a private air ambulance out of frustration, or a traveller who buys their own flight home because they want to be in their own bed, can lose the benefit they were trying to use. The decision is taken on medical necessity alone, after the adviser has spoken to the doctor treating you, and it covers the date, the means of transport and the hospital you are moved to.

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  Repatriation at actual cost : insist on the words actual cost rather than a monetary ceiling. All five of our GB plans use it, so there is no reason to accept less.
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  A medical ceiling that matches the destination : about £420,000 on Go Explore + and Safe Start, about £250,000 on WorldSecure Platinum and World Travel, about £210,000 on Go Explore.
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  A search and rescue budget : about £5,000 on Go Explore +, about £4,200 on Safe Start, WorldSecure Platinum, World Travel and Go Explore, about £2,500 on WorldSecure Basic.
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  Direct settlement of hospital bills : all five settle directly with the hospital so you never advance the money, which is what keeps a foreign clinic treating you.
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  An age limit above your age : WorldSecure Platinum stops at 65, Safe Start at 69, Go Explore and Go Explore + at 80, World Travel at 84.
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  The extreme sports option if you need it : WorldSecure Platinum is the only plan of the five that includes extreme sports, and an unticked option is an uncovered rescue.

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  Organising your own flight home : refusing the insurer's proposed solution cancels the personal assistance guarantee on three of the five wordings we read.
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  Pre-existing conditions : illnesses existing before the policy took effect are excluded from the assistance benefits, so a repatriation caused by a known condition can be refused.
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  Alcohol and recreational drugs : being drunk or under the influence of substances not prescribed by a doctor voids the cover on the wordings we read, and the FCDO warns of the same clause across the market.
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  Desert searches : Go Explore + covers mountain and sea search up to its ceiling but excludes desert search costs entirely.
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  Buying after you leave : these plans must be bought before departure, and Go Explore and Go Explore + require at least one day's notice.
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  Funeral costs at home : the transport of remains is covered, but the ceremony, interment or cremation stays with the family on every wording we read.

Yes. Every plan a UK resident can buy through HelloSafe covers the repatriation of remains, meaning the transport of the body back to the UK and the coffin legally required to move it. It is one of the most searched questions on this topic in Britain and one of the least clearly answered.

The wordings differ in how they cap it. Go Explore + names a figure: transport of mortal remains up to about £8,400 including the coffin. WorldSecure Platinum pays the transport at actual cost but limits funeral expenses to about £1,300. WorldSecure Basic carries the body to the international airport nearest the home address with the coffin included. World Travel includes the coffin cost within the amount set out in its table of benefits, which its policy wording does not restate in the sections we read.

• What is covered everywhere : the transport itself, the legally required preparation and conservation of the body, and the coffin needed for transport.
• What is never covered : the ceremony, the interment or the cremation once the body is home. Those stay with the family on all the wordings we read.
• What to check before you buy : whether the plan names a figure or refers you to a table of benefits, because an unnamed limit is a limit you find out about at the worst possible moment.
• Who arranges it : the same 24 hour assistance line that handles a medical repatriation, and the same rule applies that the insurer organises the transport rather than reimbursing a funeral director you appointed.

You do not claim repatriation the way you claim a lost suitcase. You call the insurer's 24 hour assistance line, and from that point the insurer runs the process: it speaks to your doctor, decides the transport and pays the provider directly. Your job is to make the call early and not to arrange anything yourself.

1. Call the 24 hour assistance number on your certificate, from the hospital, on the day of the admission. If you cannot, have a travelling companion or a relative call on your behalf with your policy number.
2. Give them the treating hospital's name and the ward, and ask the hospital to release your medical details to the insurer's medical adviser. Nothing moves until those two doctors have spoken.
3. Let the insurer settle the hospital bill directly. All five of our GB plans do this, so do not pay the hospital yourself and expect to be reimbursed for a sum this size.
4. Wait for the medical adviser's decision on repatriation. They decide the date, the means of transport and the destination hospital on medical necessity, and refusing that decision can cancel the assistance cover.
5. Ask about the people travelling with you at the same time: an accompanying seat, and on WorldSecure Platinum a relative flown out if you are hospitalised on site for more than six days.
6. Keep every document you are given abroad, including the discharge summary and the transport paperwork, for the reimbursement of anything you did pay out of pocket.

The deadlines and paperwork for the cash side of a claim work the same way as any other benefit, and are set out in our guide on how to make a travel insurance claim. If you are still choosing a policy, compare travel insurance in the UK or start from our UK travel insurance hub.

• What is repatriation insurance?

  Repatriation insurance is the assistance section of a travel policy that organises and pays for your medically supervised return to the UK when illness or injury abroad stops you flying home normally. It is not sold separately in Britain: it comes inside a standard travel insurance policy, and all five plans a UK resident can buy on HelloSafe cover it at actual cost from £31.43 for a week in Spain.

• What is the difference between medical evacuation and repatriation?

  Medical evacuation moves you from where you fell ill to the nearest hospital equipped to treat you, often within the same country. Repatriation brings you home to the UK once you are stable enough to travel. Evacuation is the emergency step, repatriation is the last step, and a UK travel policy pays for both through the same 24 hour assistance line.

• Does a GHIC cover repatriation?

  No. The FCDO states that the EHIC and GHIC are not alternatives to travel insurance because they do not cover private medical healthcare costs, repatriation, or extras such as mountain rescue in ski resorts. The NHS lists being flown back to the UK as something the card does not cover, and advises holding both a GHIC and private travel insurance.

• How much does a medical repatriation cost without insurance?

  From about £25,000 in Europe to more than £192,212 from the United States. The FCDO puts a broken leg in Spain with possible repatriation at £25,000 or more and a US hospital stay at £150,000 or more, while Avanti Travel Insurance reports that the average medical evacuation from the USA to the UK exceeded £192,212 in 2024 and that a repatriation from Spain now averages £45,136.

• Does travel insurance cover repatriation of a body to the UK?

  Yes. All five plans sold to UK residents on HelloSafe cover the repatriation of remains, including the coffin required for transport. Go Explore + names a limit of about £8,400 including the coffin, WorldSecure Platinum pays the transport at actual cost but caps funeral expenses at about £1,300. The ceremony, interment or cremation once the body is home is never covered.

• Who decides whether I am repatriated?

  The insurer’s medical adviser, after speaking to the doctor treating you and sometimes your GP. Only medical necessity is considered, and it governs the date, the means of transport and the hospital you are moved to. On three of the five policy wordings we hold, refusing the solution the medical team proposes cancels the personal assistance cover, so organising your own flight home is a serious risk.

• Can I buy repatriation cover on its own?

  Not in the UK market. Repatriation is bundled into travel insurance as an assistance benefit, so the premium you see is for the whole policy. That is why the sensible comparison is not the repatriation clause, which is identical at actual cost across our five GB plans, but the medical ceiling and the search and rescue budget behind it.

• Does my packaged bank account already cover repatriation?

  Many packaged current accounts include travel cover with a repatriation benefit, but two conditions decide whether it will pay for you: the upper age limit on the account’s policy, and whether you declared your medical history to the underwriter. Read the policy booklet rather than the account summary, check the age cut-off against every traveller on the trip, and compare the medical ceiling with the figures on this page before you rely on it.

• Is repatriation covered if I was skiing or doing an adventure sport?

  Only if the plan covers the activity, and the rescue that precedes the repatriation is capped separately. WorldSecure Platinum is the one plan of our five that includes extreme sports. Search and rescue runs to about £5,000 on Go Explore + and about £4,200 on the others, and Go Explore + excludes desert searches. Our ski travel insurance and extreme sports pages set out which activities each plan accepts.

• What voids repatriation cover?

  Four things come up repeatedly in the wordings we read: a condition that existed before the policy took effect, being drunk or under the influence of drugs not prescribed by a doctor, arranging your own transport home against the medical adviser’s decision, and an activity the plan excludes. Buying after departure is a fifth: these plans must be in place before you leave, and two of them need at least a day’s notice.