"It limits the reimbursement to the cost of a reasonable commercial airfare."

How kind of them :)

I just mentioned it because the real cost must be much, much higher in many cases, and I imagined being on the hook for a million dollars.

True, but it is kinda like paying for insurance and then when you need it you get a giant surprise bill.

Although ironically much like the American health care insurance system which is much the same. Pay every month for “insurance”, and when you need it you also pay for it.

Fun times.

I did come to think of how a US ambulance ride could be more costly than being evacuated...

maybe we can get the Marines to start running ambulances regionally :)

slap a turret on the ambulance and it can be training for the corpsmen