Repatriation insurance: compare the best plans 2026

A medical repatriation costs from 5,000 € within Europe to more than 100,000 € from North America, and neither French social security nor the European Health Insurance Card pays for it. Repatriation insurance covers that transport at actual costs for a few dozen euros per trip.

Our reading of the contracts is straightforward: every travel insurance plan in our comparator already includes medical repatriation at actual costs, with no ceiling. The choice is not about this guarantee but about everything around it: the medical expenses ceiling, personal liability, age and duration limits, and the price for your exact trip.

One reflex conditions everything: the assistance service decides and organises the repatriation. An improvised return without its approval is not reimbursed, whatever the contract. The detailed conditions are further down this page.

Every HelloSafe travel insurance plan includes medical repatriation at actual costs, without a ceiling. The real difference lies in the medical expenses ceiling, personal liability and the price: from 43.12 € for two weeks with Go Protect to around a hundred euros for the 500,000 € plans.

Since repatriation is covered at actual costs everywhere, comparing repatriation ceilings is pointless: they are unlimited. What really separates the plans is the medical expenses ceiling abroad, personal liability, age and duration limits, and the price for your specific trip.

MutuaideGo Protect

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€500,000

Personal liability€4,500,000

From€43.12

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IMA AssurancesSecure Gold

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€2,500,000

Personal liability€2,000,000

From€133.21

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AIGSafe Care

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€500,000

Personal liability€4,500,000

From€99.00

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MGENGo Explore +

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€500,000

Personal liability€1,500,000

From€113.30

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MGENWorldSecure Platinum

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€500,000

Personal liability€4,500,000

From€65.34

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IMA AssurancesSecure Bronze

Included coverage

Emergency medical evacuation & repatriationActual costs

International emergency medical expenses€600,000

Personal liability€100,000

From€51.70

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HelloSafe comparison, 2-week trip from France to Canada, traveller aged 34. Prices computed in July 2026, subject to change with your trip. Ceilings from the general conditions.

Go Protect, the best value for money

Go Protect (Mutuaide) is the cheapest plan in our comparison at 43.12 € for two weeks, and yet the best equipped for a tourist trip. It combines repatriation at actual costs, 300,000 € of medical expenses, the highest personal liability of the panel (4,500,000 €), cancellation up to the trip price (maximum 12,000 €) and extreme sports included. It covers trips of 1 to 90 days, with no age limit.

High medical ceilings: Secure Gold and Safe Care

For a destination where hospital care is expensive, such as North America or Asia, raise the medical ceiling. Secure Gold (IMA) has the highest ceiling of the comparison, 600,000 €, with a 3,000 € cash advance, but stops at 74. Safe Care (AIG) caps at 500,000 €, adds mountain search and rescue costs up to 4,000 €, and is designed for travellers under 64 on trips of up to 60 days.

Frequent travellers: the annual plan

If you travel several times a year, an annual plan costs less than buying contract after contract. Go Annual covers all your departures of the year for 310.20 €, Safe World for 269.50 €, with repatriation at actual costs on every trip. Beyond three short trips a year, the maths quickly favours the annual option.

Repatriation insurance is an assistance guarantee that organises and pays for the transport of the insured person to their home or to a suitable medical facility, after a serious accident, sudden illness or death abroad. An assistance platform available 24/7 coordinates the necessary means: medical ambulance, air ambulance, medical escort.

There are three forms of repatriation, all included in our travel plans.

• Medical repatriation: medically supervised transport back home when local care is insufficient or your condition requires a return.
• Repatriation of remains: transport of the deceased in the event of death abroad, including administrative and consular formalities.
• Vehicle repatriation: bringing your car home if you are no longer fit to drive.

Repatriation cover is not only recommended, it can be compulsory. A Schengen visa requires proof of travel insurance covering at least 30,000 € of medical expenses and repatriation, including repatriation of remains, under the European visa regulation. Most travellers are visa-exempt, but that threshold is a useful minimum to keep in mind.

Medical evacuation and repatriation are two stages of the same emergency, often confused. Evacuation is the urgent transport of an injured or ill traveller from where the accident happened, sometimes a remote or hard-to-reach place, to the nearest hospital equipped to treat them. Repatriation is the later, medically supervised transport back home once your condition allows it. Both are decided and organised by the same 24/7 assistance service and paid at actual costs in our plans.

In the contracts, the two draw on different lines. Repatriation itself is covered at actual costs, with no ceiling. Reaching you in the first place, mountain rescue, sea rescue or search costs, is capped: our plans range from no search-and-rescue cover on Secure Bronze to 10,000 € on Go Protect, with Safe Care ring-fencing 4,000 € for mountain search and rescue. If your trip involves altitude, water or isolation, that line matters as much as the repatriation itself.

For off-piste skiing, high-altitude trekking or scuba diving, the search-and-rescue cap is often the deciding factor. Our extreme sports travel insurance comparison sets out which activities each plan accepts and how far the rescue costs go.

The repatriation guarantee is decided in the conditions, rarely read before departure. Three rules appear in every contract and explain almost every refused claim.

• ✓
  Medically supervised transport at actual costsAir ambulance, road ambulance or scheduled flight with escort, without a ceiling in our plans.
• ✓
  24/7 assistanceA medical team reachable at any time decides and organises the repatriation.
• ✓
  Repatriation of remains in the event of deathTransport of the deceased and administrative costs covered, including to a country of origin.

• ✕
  A repatriation decided on your own, without the assistance service's approvalA return organised without prior approval is not reimbursed.
• ✕
  The consequences of a known, undeclared conditionPre-existing conditions can be excluded depending on the contract.
• ✕
  Repatriation for personal convenienceOnly a medical reason validated by the assistance doctor triggers the guarantee.

This is also what makes the plans compared above valuable: repatriation is decided by a medical team reachable 24/7, paid at actual costs with no advance from you, and extended to the repatriation of remains. On one condition, the golden rule: call the assistance service before any decision.

What actually separates the plans

This is where reading the contracts pays off. Repatriation is identical everywhere, at actual costs, but the limits around it are not. The cash advance the assistance service can pay a hospital on your behalf runs from nothing on Secure Bronze to 3,000 € on Secure Gold and Secure Silver. Search-and-rescue costs, the money that gets a team to you, range from 3,000 € to 10,000 € on Go Protect. Age and trip-length limits then decide who can buy at all: Safe Care stops at 64 and 60 days, Secure Gold at 74, while Go Protect accepts any age for up to 90 days. Travellers over 60 should check these caps first, as our travel insurance for seniors explains.

A medical repatriation is never decided by the traveller alone. The assistance platform's medical officer, after discussing with the local care team, judges whether your condition requires a return and by which means. This rule protects the insured, but it requires contacting the assistance service before any decision.

1. You or a relative call the assistance platform, day or night, as soon as hospitalisation begins.
2. The medical officer contacts the local doctors and assesses the medical situation.
3. The assistance service chooses and organises the appropriate transport: air ambulance, medical aircraft or escorted scheduled flight.
4. Transport and escort costs are settled at actual costs, with no advance from you in most plans.

A travel insurance plan including repatriation at actual costs runs from 43.12 € (Go Protect) to 133.21 € (Secure Gold) for two weeks in Canada, depending on the medical ceiling you choose. The median price actually paid by our travellers for a two-week trip is 32 €.

Repatriation is never sold on its own: it comes inside a travel insurance plan that also covers medical expenses and personal liability. The comparator at the top of this page calculates the exact price for your dates, destination and age.

Without insurance, a medical repatriation costs from a few thousand euros within Europe to more than 100,000 € from North America. By comparison, our travellers pay a median of 32 € to insure a two-week trip, repatriation at actual costs included. The gap between the cost of the risk and the cost of the guarantee speaks for itself.

A point many travellers ignore: social security never pays for the return transport from abroad. The European Health Insurance Card reimburses care received locally within the European Union, but never the air ambulance or long-distance transport. That is precisely the role of repatriation insurance.

Yes, your bank card covers repatriation at actual costs from the Visa Premier or Mastercard Gold tier. The problem is not the repatriation itself but the medical expenses around it: capped at about 155,000 €, they run out fast in the United States or Canada, where a hospital stay can exceed that amount.

• ✕
  The trip must be paid with the cardWithout paying for the trip with the card, no guarantee applies.
• ✕
  Cover stops at 90 daysBeyond that, a long stay is no longer covered by the card.
• ✕
  Medical expenses are capped lowAbout 155,000 € on common cards, insufficient outside the euro area.
• ✕
  Cancellation is rarely includedEntry-level cards do not reimburse a cancelled trip, unlike a dedicated cancellation insurance.

Our travel plans cover temporary stays, up to 365 days for WorldSecure Platinum or Go Explore +. They suit long trips, round-the-world journeys and assignments of several months. A genuine expatriation, meaning a lasting move abroad with a change of residence, calls for a dedicated international health insurance, which this page does not compare. If you are moving abroad, look at an expat contract rather than travel insurance.

• Is repatriation insurance mandatory?

  No, except for a Schengen visa, which requires a certificate covering medical expenses and repatriation for at least 30,000 €. For most trips it remains strongly recommended without being mandatory.

• What is the difference between medical evacuation and repatriation?

  Medical evacuation is the emergency transport of an injured or ill traveller to the nearest hospital that can treat them, sometimes from a remote or hard-to-reach place. Repatriation is the later transport back home once your condition allows it. Both are organised by the assistance service and paid at actual costs in our plans; only the search-and-rescue costs that reach you are capped, from 3,000 € to 10,000 € depending on the plan.

• Is emergency medical evacuation included in travel insurance?

  Yes. Every plan in our comparison organises and pays, at actual costs, the medically necessary transport, from evacuation to a local hospital to repatriation home. What varies is the search-and-rescue cap that funds reaching you in the first place: none on Secure Bronze, up to 10,000 € on Go Protect.

• What is the difference between medical repatriation and repatriation of remains?

  Medical repatriation is the transport of a living person, ill or injured, to a medical facility back home. Repatriation of remains applies after a death abroad and covers the transport of the deceased, along with the administrative formalities, to the place of burial.

• Does my Visa Premier cover repatriation?

  Yes, the Visa Premier covers repatriation at actual costs, provided the trip was paid with the card and the assistance service gives prior approval. Medical expenses remain capped at about 155,000 €, insufficient in the United States, Canada or Asia.

• Does the Mastercard Gold cover repatriation?

  Yes, the Mastercard Gold covers repatriation at actual costs through its assistance provider, with the same limits as the Visa Premier: trip paid with the card, first 90 days of the stay, and medical expenses capped at about 155,000 €.

• Does repatriation insurance cover expats?

  Travel plans cover temporary stays, even long ones. A lasting move abroad, with a change of residence, calls for a dedicated international health insurance, distinct from travel insurance.

• Is repatriation of remains to a country of origin covered?

  Yes, our plans cover the repatriation of remains to the deceased’s country of origin, including the administrative costs of consular formalities.

• Does social security pay for repatriation?

  No. Social security and the European Health Insurance Card reimburse care received locally, but never the return transport from abroad. Only repatriation insurance pays for the air ambulance or long-distance transport.

• Is there a waiting period after purchase?

  There is no waiting period for the repatriation guarantee in our plans. Cover is effective from the departure date stated in the contract, provided you purchased before the start of the trip.