Well, I unfortunately had to deal with a relative being seriously ill near Shanghai a few years ago. Took him to a private hospital and got a confirmation that he needed to be hospitalized. Called the number on the back of his AMEX Gold card, and they transferred me to AXA that handles those issues. Despite the obvious emergency, they did nothing more than sending an email asking for the receipt of the medical consultation to eventually be refunded. They also seemed to be very incompetent on how to deal with the Chinese medical system, and, surprisingly, with repatriations in general.

His medical conditions deteriorated so quickly that when at the airport (NKG) trying to go back to France ASAP, the medical station of the airport called emergency services and he was hospitalized at the local public hospital. Called this time the number on the back of the Visa Premier (LCL), was redirected to Mutuaide (the insurer), and they handled the situation very professionally. They got in touch with their local contractor in Shanghai that handles medical repatriation in Asia-Pacific. This company sent someone to pay the hospital bills and communicate in chinese with the hospital (big language barrier in China), and then, a french doctor that met him for repatriation on the next flight out of Shanghai.

Also, they were frequently in touch with the local hospital and with me to ensure that everything was OK.

Then they refunded by wire transfer all of the hospital bills we had to pay before the insurance handles the situation.

I learnt quite a few things in this awful experience :

- Always travel with several credit cards because the insurer of one may not be what you would expect.

- Travel with a big cash withdrawal limit especially in those countries because in this case the first hospital bills were to be paid upfront in cash before the insurance handled the case.

- Public hospitals in Chinese big cities are no joke. Modern, clean, professional. Extremely helpful, kind and competent staff despite the language barrier.