12 Tips for Picking the Best Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers

The best travel health insurance for full-time travelers (aka: digital nomads) isn’t actually travel insurance. It’s global health insurance.

Overall, there’s a big difference between travel insurance and global health insurance plans (sometimes called expatriate health coverage).

Note: The advice and suggestions given in this post are based on my personal experience. I am not a certified health insurance professional.

Both are important, whether you’re taking a weekend trip or moving to a continent across the globe. You need to make preparations for how you’ll be cared for in case you need medical attention.

Like when my son fell in the pool area at a resort when he was six. He cracked his tooth. We foolishly opted not to get travel medical insurance because I assumed we’d be perfectly safe at a fancy, all-inclusive resort.

It wasn’t too bad so we waited until we got home to see our regular dentist. But it could have been worse, and we might not have had that luxury.

Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers: Quick Advice

If you remember nothing else from this post, here are four steps that can help in making your final decision:

• Know what type of insurance you need based on the location(s) and duration of your travels.
• Don’t just buy the cheapest plan. Price is only one factor.
• Benefits coverage and exclusions for various plans matter.
• Read the fine print!

Follow the four steps above, and you’re much more likely to be properly covered for all your travel needs. Need more help selecting the best health insurance for full-time travel? Then keep reading!

How to Choose Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers

1. Risk Tolerance

Choosing an international health care plan comes down to risk tolerance. This concept is also applicable when picking any insurance plan, The phrase “you get what you pay for” comes to mind here.

Decide what you’re willing to risk. Compare it to what you’re willing to pay. You’ll likely need to make some compromises before making a final choice.

2. Research

Long-term travelers, digital nomads, expatriates and global citizens should do their research. Don’t buy the first quote you get.

Compare a few different options and ask a lot of questions when making a decision.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to ask questions. So you’ll see me repeat it a couple more times. Don’t forget!

3. ACA Differences

Private health insurance plans that cover people primarily outside the United States are not subject to ACA health insurance guidelines. Things that are considered minimum essential coverage in the US can, and often are, excluded by these options.

These exclusions can range from maternity care to pre-existing conditions. Some of that may matter. Some may not.

There is basically no regulation of international health insurance or of travel insurance plans. Read everything before you sign anything!

4. Pandemic Coverage

Not all travel insurance or global health insurance covers pandemics. Always look for global health insurance or travel medical insurance that covers COVID-19.

Note: I am not an expert on pandemics or COVID-19. Please reference official sources, like the WHO, if you have questions about COVID-19.

Some companies will cover you for treatment if you get it, but only if you arrived before a certain date or if the country you’re in is below a certain travel warning level.

They also might not cover your costs for cancelling a trip due to catching the virus or for costs associated with mandatory quarantines. Always ask questions and read the fine print before signing anything!

5. Pre-existing Conditions

Pre-existing conditions are often not covered or have limited coverage. If you have a pre-existing condition, please get clarification from the insurance company on what is and is not covered before signing up.

Often an insurance company will require you list your preexisting medical issues, surgeries, etc. in the application process.

You can be declined for coverage all together, or have certain medical issues excluded in your coverage offer based on this information.

6. Coverage Location and Travel Plan

This is a big one! The country or countries you’ll be living in and traveling to play a big role in what sort of global health insurance you need.

If you’re traveling in a specific region, like Asia or South America, then you can save money on premiums by only insuring yourself for that area.

If you plan on staying put in one country for an extended period of time, then getting local health insurance is another great best option.

Pro Tip: Excluding countries with a high cost of care (US, Singapore, China, etc) can lower your premium substantially.

You’ll want to look into health care reciprocity agreements if you’re from Europe or Australia and plan on spending a significant amount of time in another country that has such an agreement with your home country.

7. Insuring your Stuff

I don’t recommend spending money to insure personal belongings. We have never done it and I know many full-time travelers who also skip this step.

A $500 annual premium to insure your $1,000 laptop doesn’t really save you any money.

In addition, if something happens to your belongings, you can usually file a claim with your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. This includes electronics.

Many people have a rider on their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance that covers expensive items like laptops, cameras, etc. while they’re away from home.

If you don’t have homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, there are other ways to insure your belongings while traveling long-term.

For example, some credit cards offer protection if you use the card to pay for certain items.

8. Plan to Self Insure for Small Things

Self-insuring reasonable out of pocket expenses is a common practice many digital nomads follow. Including us.

It makes more sense to pay out of pocket for doctor’s visits, prescriptions, etc. and save the insurance for bigger medical expenses like hospitalizations.

This will save you money in the long run. Many health insurance plans have high deductibles and co-pays. If you can afford to pay for these out of pocket, you’ll save a lot of money over time.

A higher deductible that you can afford to cover for emergencies can create a lower premium, which saves a lot of money over time. Depending on your individual circumstances, you might not need much more than just a basic health insurance plan.

9. Renewals and Extensions

Ask about renewals and extensions. With travel insurance, it’s typical that a policy extension triggers a new coverage period.

This means that whenever you extend your policy (and thus enter a new period of coverage) anything that happened before the extension will now be treated as a pre-existing condition so it will often no longer be covered.

With global health insurance, when you renew your coverage for another year there is no reset of pre-existing condition coverage. Anything that happened during the coverage period willl typically be covered as a known condition.

Definitely get clarification on this for any policy you’re considering, as each company handles these definitions differently.

10. Home Country Visits

Get clarification on home country visits. You need to know what is and is not covered for home country visits. In addition, you need to know how many home country visits you can make as well as how long each visit is covered.

Travel insurance will often not cover you for any medical care in your home country. This is especially true for Americans receiving medical care in the US, because it’s one of the most expensive countries for medical care on earth.

Global medical insurance for full-time travelers, though, will typically cover you for short home visits. There are usually limits in how long you can stay for one visit as well as how many visits are permitted each year or coverage period.

Often, there is fine print that you cannot return to your home country with the intention of receiving medical care. It will only cover you in your home country for emergencies, like appendicitis or car accidents.

11. Insurance Company Communication

Always call your insurance company before seeking medical care. Even if it’s an emergency, call them on your way to the hospital. Some companies are very picky about what they will cover. It’s usually in the fine print.

Occasionally companies will refuse to cover your issue just because you didn’t contact them first. This could be because you went to a hospital that isn’t in their contracted network and they haven’t vetted it to ensure a quality level of care.

12. Insurance Documentation

Keep your insurance documentation everywhere. There’s no such thing as too many storage options in this case.

Keep an insurance card in each of your wallets, the policy info and documentation on your computer, and a copy of that policy info on a cloud storage drive or USB.

Plus, it’s a good idea to leave a copy the full policy documentation, including policy numbers, with someone you trust in your home country.

That way if you’re hospitalized, the doctors treating you can call the ICE (In Case of Emergency) number in your phone.

Why Do Full-Time Travelers Need Health Insurance?

There are a lot of reasons why full time travelers need health insurance. First, accidents and emergencies happen, even when we’re being careful. If you don’t have health insurance, you could be stuck with a huge medical bill.

Some hospitals won’t discharge you from their care without being paid, so having peace of mind that you can afford an emergency is essential.

Having health insurance can help alleviate some of the stress that comes with travel, especially when you’re far from home.

Pre-existing medical conditions can be expensive to treat, especially if you’re in a country with high medical costs. Many travel insurance plans won’t cover pre-existing conditions, or will only offer limited coverage.

Pro Tip: Global health insurance for full-time travelers often does, though.

Contracting serious illnesses on the go is always a risk, no matter how healthy you are. In some parts of the world, diseases like malaria and dengue fever are a real threat.

And while you can’t always prevent getting sick, having health insurance can help you get the treatment you need if you do fall ill.

No one likes to think about what could go wrong on their travels. But the truth is, anything can happen. And it’s better to be prepared with health insurance than to not have it and really need it.

Organizations that Recommend Medical Insurance for Travel

Center for Disease Control (CDC): “If you are planning an international trip, you should consider getting travel insurance to cover yourself against accidents or illness while you’re abroad.”

U.S. Department of State: “The U.S. government does not provide medical insurance for U.S. citizens overseas. We do not pay medical bills. You should purchase insurance before you travel”

World Health Organization: “Travelers are strongly advised to travel with comprehensive travel insurance as a matter of routine.

Travelers should be aware that medical care abroad is often available only at private medical facilities and may be costly. In places where good-quality medical care is not readily available, travelers may need to be evacuated in case of accident or illness.”

Travel Insurance vs. Health Insurance for Full-Time Travel

Travel insurance has some benefits that are similar to health insurance, but it is not the same. 

A health insurance policy defrays the cost of regular medical care, emergency medical treatment, medicine, and other medical-related costs inside a health insurance  network.

The goal of travel insurance on the other hand is to offer short term medical insurance coverage for a brief period of time. Travel insurance exists to get the traveler back home safe and sound to the primary insurance network.

Then the home insurance network will take on the bulk of the treatment and expense. Travel insurance is basically out of home network gap coverage.

What Type of Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers is Best?

Travel insurance is designed for vacationers to cover cancellations, personal belongings, and emergency medical evacuation or treatment.

Alternatively, international health insurance is designed to cover inpatient treatment check-ups and continuing treatment of chronic conditions while the insured person is living and/or working abroad for a prolonged period of time. 

International medical insurance plans will usually allow a person to choose where you have treatment. Travel insurance returns the individual back home to continue treatment once they are well enough to make the journey home.

When choosing between travel insurance and international medical insurance it’s important to decide what factors are most important.

Pro Tip: The ‘right answers’ will be different for everyone in considering health insurance for full-time travelers.

Are you worried about losing baggage or being airlifted home in the case of devastating accident? Or are you more worried about having access to vital healthcare if you develop a chronic condition while living overseas?

What’s Covered by Travel Insurance vs. Global Health Insurance?

These are the top seven things covered by both travel insurance and international medical coverage:

Top Things Covered by Travel Insurance

1️⃣ Lost luggage
2️⃣ Delayed departure
3️⃣ Trip cancelled
4️⃣ Personal belongings
5️⃣ Personal Liability
6️⃣ Travel Documents
7️⃣ Emergency Medical Coverage Until You Can Travel Home

Top Things Covered by International Medical Insurance

1️⃣ Regular Medical Checkups
2️⃣ Prescription Medication
3️⃣ Rehabilitation
4️⃣ Short-Term Health Insurance Coverage in the Home Country
5️⃣ Maternity Coverage
6️⃣ Newborn Coverage
7️⃣ Cancer Treatment

Finding health insurance for full-time travelers was difficult. It turns out that many companies recommended to us as the best travel insurance did not actually offer global health insurance.

Others didn’t offer coverage to US citizens, or they had coverage gaps in their minimum essential coverage that was undesirable for us in the long term.

Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers: “Must- Haves”

• Affordable monthly premiums
• Covers pre-existing conditions, even if a reasonable waiting period is applied
• Customer service is accessible 24/7
• Strong worldwide coverage network
• Limited amount of US coverage for home country visits
• Translation services
• More than one year of coverage offered. “Indefinite” options preferred
• Includes coverage for sports like skiing, hiking, etc.
• Covers all emergencies and worst case scenarios
• Underwritten by strong company
• High life cover and high in hospital cover for worst case scenarios

Our general plan for health insurance is to cover basic doctor visits and prescriptions out of pocket. Not surprisingly, the United States has the most expensive medical care on earth.

In most other countries, basic healthcare is affordable. Singapore is one of the most expensive places on the planet. Yet a digital nomad I know spent just $153 on an ER visit there for food poisoning.

We have a savings cushion for emergencies and recommend all full-time travelers do the same. Complex things like hospital stays or, goodness forbid, a cancer diagnosis will need actual health insurance.

Types of Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers

☑️ Travel Insurance Companies

These are some of the more popular travel insurance companies for digital nomads. Some don’t realize the differences in health insurance and are underinsured.

However, other people maintain health care coverage in their home country during full-time travel so travel insurance is all that they need.

These are the travel insurance for full-time travelers I’d recommend considering. I haven’t used any of them, but they are commonly recommended by others we know.

World Nomads

This is an incredibly popular option with some circles of bloggers and digital nomads. It’s user friendly in that you just have to go online and update your account when there are new countries to add for coverage.

However, they are very expensive and don’t seem to cover catastrophic medical that is non-accident related (IE: a cancer diagnosis).

Ultimately, World Nomads essentially sells many different policies depending on the destination and is essentially just more thorough travel insurance.

Allianz

Their products offer similar coverage to World Nomads at a cheaper cost. The fine print says you need to have a booked return flight to your country of origin on the day you say your trip is ending.

If you do not or “do not intend” to return on the date, the insurance contract is void. Again, although highly recommended by some bloggers, it is still just travel insurance rather than global health coverage.

Because of the fine print in coverage end dates, I’d recommend this for people taking a “gap year” rather than indefinite travelers.

Travel Guard

Offered by AIG, this is very comprehensive travel insurance. It has a mid-range price point and is a good choice for people going on vacation or traveling a few months at a time. It doesn’t offer coverage for longer than three months, though.

People traveling for the summer school holidays, for example, may find this one to be a good choice.

Berkshire Hathaway

This is another travel insurance company that even offers different types of coverage. Notably, it will quote cruise insurance separately than standard travel insurance.

We looked at them seriously when we booked our 24-day cruise from LA to Singapore.

Their website also has a handy explanation on how much travel medical insurance costs, on average.

☑️ Budget-Friendly Global Health Insurance Companies

IM Global (IMG)

IMG provides worldwide health insurance that’s fairly affordable.

They even offer different levels of coverage, from catastrophe coverage with high deductibles to comprehensive plans that even cover annual wellness visits and dental care.

Quotes say “Plans only available to non-US residents and those who reside outside their country of residence”. So, this would not be offered to US residents living in the US until after they leave the country.

Personal Note on IMG

We chose IMG for our health insurance for full-time travelers. When we enrolled, I called to tell them that I was still in the US at time of application.

They required my future address in another country but allowed my mailing address to be in the US.

I gave them our short-term rental address in the first country where we stayed outside the US and our insurance didn’t start until we arrived there.

In the several years we’ve been using them, I have never been asked to update my address in our renewals.

Cigna Global Health

Cigna has affiliates in almost every country worldwide. When I requested a quote, I had to tell them I was already in Indonesia not the US. Otherwise they wouldn’t quote me because they don’t want to deal with US.

Cigna coverage is pretty comprehensive. It requires even basic stuff like checkups and full coverage. This can increase the premium, though.

A+ Medical Insurance

They claim their plans are bulletproof. In addition, they claim to offer customized plans, but in reality they have four levels of coverage from which to choose.

And, one can save money by choosing just individual countries at a time instead of covering the entire world indefinitely.

They seem to partner with local providers and coverage networks. So, choosing a smaller geographic area could be a good way to save money on health insurance for full-time travelers if one is traveling long-term in, say, Asia for a few years.

☑️ Pricier (but Excellent) Global Health Insurance Companies

Regency for Expats

According to their website, Regency offers worldwide services to globally mobile individuals and corporate clients in over 120 countries. In addition to health insurance they also offer life insurance.

Regency is the only company I’ve seen that separates Bali from Indonesia in crafting quotes. It didn’t change the rates by location, though. I got quotes for several countries to see how it would work.

Overall, their rates were mid-range compared to our expectations. Being insured in the US for so long, at first we had major sticker shock on quote prices.

Now International

This plan was one of the more expensive options I found. However, you know the saying “you get what you pay for.” That certainly applies here. Now International is also very comprehensive and offers some of the best global coverage I found.

It’s one of the few I found that covers organ transplants. It also has a higher lifetime maximum than some of the budget plans we’ve considered.

☑️ Insurance Brokers

Expat health insurance plans are often offered by insurance companies around the world.

They tend to be insurers who also offer travel insurance and standard health plans, but you’ll find the occasional dedicated expat insurance company as well.

Pro Tip: Before signing anything, check to see if your rates paid through brokers include a commission paid to the broker by the insurance company.

Some people like to use insurance brokers to help them find the best health insurance for full time travelers. With one request, you can get a summary of various insurance companies and plans, costs, and general policy specifications.

Broker answers are usually unbiased, and can be extra helpful since they hold experience working with these insurers.

👉 I recommend the insurance broker, Insubuy. They help you shop for travel insurance to, within, and outside of the USA.

RVer Insurance Exchange

Our friends are full-time RVers in the US and like RVer Insurance Exchange. However, this is only good for people moving around within the United States.

If you’re a domestic US full time traveler, consider looking at this even if you aren’t living in an RV.

Pacific Prime

Instead of being an insurance company, Pacific Prime is actually a broker. This means it helps digital nomads, expatriates, and long term travelers compare a variety of insurance options.

When we ran quotes for our ages and genders, the quotes were higher than expected. We also couldn’t select USA as our nationality. So, I’m not sure if it covers people from the US living abroad full time.

Pro Tip: If you’re interested in working with a broker, contact them for more information.

International Care

This one is another full service insurance broker that sources both travel insurance and global health insurance. It does not actually provide insurance on its own.

In addition, it seems to specialize in servicing international organizations who want to find insurance for their employees.

Individuals have to request quotes separately from each company with which International Care partners. However, their partnership list is extensive.

☑️ Other Health Insurance Options for Full-Time Travelers

Healthcare Co-ops

These cost-sharing initiatives, also known as healthshares, claim to cover the healthcare costs of members based on low monthly premiums. Many have failed and shut down due to the concept generally being an unsustainable business model.

The remaining co-ops that exist do NOT cover care provided outside the US. If you are in one of these co-ops, you are out of luck if you need to get medical attention anywhere but in the US. And sometimes, not even then.

Pro Tip: This is not a legitimate health insurance option for full-time travelers.

However, it was recommended to me by well-intended individuals during our global health insurance search. So I feel obligated to specifically mention it here as something to avoid.

Hybrid Insurance

Safety Wing offers a new kind of health insurance for full-time travelers. In addition to offering travel insurance concepts like emergency evacuation and luggage insurance, it offers basic healthcare coverage all in the same plan.

It’s a pretty revolutionary concept for health insurance for full-time travelers. However, it is missing some key pieces.

They don’t cover major medical issues, like cancer or organ transplants. In addition, they won’t cover pre-existing conditions.

The lack of major medical issue coverage relegates this great concept to good backup coverage.

We use it for travel insurance when we’re on the go for a fast-travel stint to a few different countries. I also used it for our repositioning cruise insurance in 2019.

Conclusion: Health Insurance for Full-Time Travelers

When it comes to the best health insurance for full-time travelers, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all that’s best for everyone. I can’t and won’t tell you what insurance is best.

How could I, since I don’t know what’s best for your family? I just know it takes a lot of research to figure it out!

Many travel bloggers who recommend insurance confuse the two, which means they’re traveling underinsured.

Please don’t make the same mistake if you’re seeking health insurance for full-time travelers, especially without a return plane ticket.

Pro Tip: Coverage for catastrophes is vital whether you’re living at home or traveling abroad long term.