What Customers Reported on Reclame Aqui

"SEGURADORA NÃO PAGOU AS DESPESAS AO HOSPITAL" — "The insurer didn't pay the hospital." The traveler was left in the middle.

• "Fiz um seguro com a Hero e quando precisei me deixou sem atendimento" — "I bought Hero insurance and when I needed it, they left me without assistance."
• "NAO PAGARAM O SEGURO VIAGEM" — "They didn't pay the travel insurance."
• "Não contratem. Muita burocracia para acionar o seguro" — "Don't hire them. Massive bureaucracy just to trigger coverage."
• "RECUSA NA COBERTURA DE SEGURO CONTRATADO E NEGATIVA DE RESSARCIMENTO" — Coverage denial on a contracted policy, reimbursement refused.
• "SOCORRO — EU NÃO SEI MAIS O QUE FAZER" — "HELP — I don't know what to do anymore."
• Hero Seguros's average response time to complaints is 9 days and 16 hours. My Travel Assist — the TPA actually running emergency operations — averages 13 days and 12 hours. Only 66.7% of My Travel Assist customers would do business with them again. Brazilian law requires claims to be paid within 30 days of complete documentation; complaints document waits exceeding 90 days.

Hero Seguros' average response time to complaints on public complaint boards is 9 days and 16 hours. My Travel Assist — the TPA that runs the assistance — averages 13 days and 12 hours. Only 66.7% of My Travel Assist customers would do business with the company again. Regulation allows up to 30 days to pay a claim after complete documentation; the public reports show waits beyond 90 days.

Why This Happens: The Four-Party Structure

Hero Seguros operates as an MGA (Managing General Agent) — a model where the startup handles product design, sales, and customer service, while a licensed insurer holds the actual risk. In practice, when you have an emergency:

1. TripHero / Hero Seguros — sold you the policy, handles first-level customer contact
2. Generali Brasil — the actual licensed insurer carrying the financial risk
3. My Travel Assist — the TPA coordinating medical emergencies abroad
4. Provider network — hospitals and clinics working via agreements with the TPA

This is a structural problem that isn't unique to Hero — it's the industry default. But it's especially severe in a company that has been operating for three years, without decades of direct hospital relationships built globally.

When you're hospitalized in Madrid or Miami and need authorization for surgery, the chain is: My Travel Assist → Generali → Hero Seguros. Every link in that chain has to respond. Every link adds time.

The US$100 Deductible Per Event

Every time you trigger medical coverage with TripHero/Hero, you pay a US$100 deductible. This is per event, not per trip. A short hospitalization that costs US$300 means US$100 comes out of your pocket first.

For catastrophic events, the deductible is a rounding error. But for the medical situations most travelers actually encounter — an emergency consultation, food poisoning, a minor fracture — the deductible eliminates a meaningful share of what the policy actually covers.

Coverage Limits That Leave Gaps

TripHero/Hero international plans cover between US$15,000 and US$150,000 in medical expenses. The entry-level plan at US$15,000 is dangerous for destinations like the US, Japan, or Australia, where a 3-day hospitalization can easily exceed that.

Emergency Support Is Portuguese Only

My Travel Assist's 24-hour emergency line operates in Portuguese only. If you're traveling with family members who don't speak Portuguese, or you're a Spanish-speaking traveler from Argentina, Mexico, or Colombia who ended up on a TripHero policy, you're on your own linguistically during the most stressful moment of your trip.

Why the Company's Age Matters

Building a global medical assistance network takes decades. This isn't a capital problem — it's a relationship problem. A hospital in Tokyo, Dubai, or Frankfurt doesn't accept a company as a direct payer because they have a well-designed app. They accept because there's a history of payment, established contracts, and local operators with proven track records.

Hero Seguros is three years old. What they describe as a "provider network" is a chain of agreements via TPA — the same model that produces the documented delays in their complaint record.

What Asteroid Offers Instead

Asteroid is the direct product of MDabroad — a company with 26 years of global TPA operations, having managed over $1 billion in claims worldwide. MDabroad has direct agreements with hospitals in 162+ countries — not as a middleman, but as a registered direct payer in each hospital's system.

When you buy from Asteroid:

• The insurer and the TPA are the same company. No four-party chain.
• Hospital coverage is confirmed in minutes, not hours — no inter-company coordination required.
• No per-event deductible on covered medical emergencies.
• 24/7 support in Portuguese, English, and Spanish — with the team that has full authority over your case.
• Automatic parametric payouts for flight delays: no claim form, no waiting, funds arrive before you ask.

MDabroad is not a three-year-old insurtech that raised a venture capital round. It is the infrastructure that other insurers hire to function. Now available directly to you.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hero Seguros a licensed insurer? No. Hero Seguros is an MGA — the licensed insurer is Generali Brasil. Hero handles product design, distribution, and customer service. Generali carries the financial risk.

Does My Travel Assist have a global hospital network? Their materials describe a network of "agreements and partnerships with providers." There is no public evidence of direct hospital registration as a payer — unlike MDabroad, which is registered as a direct payer in hospital systems across 162+ countries.

What happens if the hospital won't accept the TPA? In a reimbursement model, the traveler pays out of pocket and requests reimbursement after returning. The Reclame Aqui record documents exactly this scenario — including cases where reimbursement never came.

Is Asteroid's track record verifiable? MDabroad has 26 years of operational history managing claims for some of the world's most recognized international insurers. The infrastructure behind Asteroid is the same infrastructure those companies trusted with their most complex cases.