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A CORSAR card can be added to a fishing license for $3/yr or $12/5 years. Here are all of the details:

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Trail ... d%20rescue

Jon MGLTD wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:53 am Just get yourself a fishing license and your covered for the heli flight.

Thats wrong.

Also certain choppers are free for everyone, like blackhawk military. BUT you cannot request what type of chopper or rescue they send you.

ry14er wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:18 pm Should you need a medical helicopter evac or ambulance service, then they charge you for their services.

If you're covered by an ACA-compliant health insurance plan through your job or otherwise, then you should be covered for emergency ambulance transport, including air ambulance... at least that's the theory. The problem until now has been that most air ambulance companies (often owned by private equity firms) are outside health insurers' provider networks. They charge far more than insurers' in-network rates, leaving the patient to pick up the difference, which is often enormous. This is called "balance billing" or "surprise billing".

It's same problem if you go to a hospital ER. The hospital may be in-network, but the ER physician may be an out-of-network subcontractor, and you get a separate surprise bill from them.

The good news, sort of, is that Congress has passed a bill (yes really) that will ban this type of abuse starting in 2022. In future, if it's a medical emergency then health insurers and out-of-network providers will have to sort things out between themselves, and patients won't be responsible for more than their usual in-network copay and deductible.

However, ground ambulances are exempt from the new law, apparently because ground ambulance services are often provided by cash-strapped local authorities.

Trotter wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 1:05 pm

Jon MGLTD wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:53 am Just get yourself a fishing license and your covered for the heli flight.

Thats wrong.

Also certain choppers are free for everyone, like blackhawk military. BUT you cannot request what type of chopper or rescue they send you.

This is a good point and worth clarifying. The national guard does not offer air ambulance services. they offer services for SAR such as personnel insertion, aerial search and subject extraction via hoist (in some circumstances). they have no capabilities to treat injuries nor will they transfer a subject to a hospital.

Jon MGLTD wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:53 am Just get yourself a fishing license and your covered for the heli flight.

I dont believe this. This lots of litigation over being charged $10,000s for commercial evacuation flights.

martinleroux wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 1:40 pm

ry14er wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:18 pm Should you need a medical helicopter evac or ambulance service, then they charge you for their services.

They charge far more than insurers' in-network rates, leaving the patient to pick up the difference, which is often enormous. This is called "balance billing" or "surprise billing".

It's same problem if you go to a hospital ER. The hospital may be in-network, but the ER physician may be an out-of-network subcontractor, and you get a separate surprise bill from them.

The good news, sort of, is that Congress has passed a bill (yes really) that will ban this type of abuse starting in 2022. In future, if it's a medical emergency then health insurers and out-of-network providers will have to sort things out between themselves, and patients won't be responsible for more than their usual in-network copay and deductible.

Maybe I'm just arguing semantics here but "balance billing" usually refers to a provider accepting insurance and then turning around and billing you for the difference between what insurance paid and what the provider actually charged. This practice has been illegal in some places for awhile, though may still be legal in other places , unless the Congressional legislation (or some other federal legislation) put a stop to it nationally.

"Suprise Billing" on the other hand works more or less the way you describe: i.e. a provider you had knowing (or for that matter choosing) turning out to be out-of-network.

as someone on a local SAR team it's somewhat convoluted, as a general overview for CO:

What a COSAR card or the SAR surcharge on a fishing/hunting license does is puts money in a general fund, local SAR organizations can then apply for reimbursement of rescue cost out of that fund if the subject of the rescue had a card or license, essentially you get one of these to support local SAR, not for your personal benefit, SAR will come and get you regardless, and you won't be charged for it regardless ( I think there are some exceptions to this for extreme negligence?)... however, you can be sure that the SAR folks looking for you will be happier if they know that they aren't going to pay for the whole thing out of their own budget, most SAR in CO is run by volunteers and operating cost are fundraised by the members, not a lot of extra cash on hand in general.

Quite a bit of the air assets used on SAR missions are military/fire and are under federal funding, you won't pay for those, they won't deliver you to the hospital either...

Depending on the mission there might be private aircraft used, those are usually billed to the local SAR or sheriff's office, see above for why you should have a COSAR card, the price tag for rescue get's big quick when privately owned aircraft are in use, you aren't paying for it but SAR is...

Air ambulance services are the responsibility of the person getting rescued, check with your insurance for what your coverage is, in general, if you are getting loaded in an air ambulance you are probably not in a condition to protest...I believe some supplemental insurances are available specifically to cover these cost