Assistance cover
Cover that provides help in kind, breakdown service, repatriation, accommodation, home help, rather than a cash indemnity, delivered by specialist companies available around the clock.
Most insurance covers pay a sum of money after a loss. Assistance works differently: it provides a service, immediately, wherever the insured is. A car breaks down on the motorway, the assistance company sends a tow truck; a traveler is hospitalized abroad, it arranges and pays for repatriation; an elderly person leaves hospital, it sets up home help; a pipe bursts on a Sunday, it dispatches a plumber. These services are delivered by assistance companies, which run call centers open around the clock, networks of providers worldwide and medical teams. Assistance is rarely sold on its own: it is included in motor, home, health and travel policies, or in bank cards, and insurers often subcontract it to a specialist assistance company. Its economics rest on pooling a costly infrastructure and controlling costs through networks, since the assistance company chooses and pays the provider directly. Legally, it is an insurance operation, subject to the same supervision. For the insured, its value lies less in the amount than in availability: when help is needed, there is no need to look for whom to call.
Textbook case: a couple on holiday in Spain has their car break down 300 kilometers from home. Their motor policy includes assistance: the call center sends a tow truck within the hour, books a hotel for the night and, as repairs will take a week, arranges their return by train.
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