While there are many types of insurance you might buy as a digital nomad or long-term traveler, the most essential is usually travel insurance—specifically a comprehensive “travel health insurance” policy. Show
Some of us may also need global primary health insurance (often called expat health insurance). To help you determine the right type of insurance for your situation, I’ve created a short, interactive quiz. No personal data or contact details required! In short, as long as you’re covered for long-term health care in your “home country” or somewhere else where you have the legal right to live indefinitely, a travel health insurance plan that covers medical costs in case of accidents and serious illness abroad is what you’ll need. And that’s what I’ll cover in this article.
Should you insure your stuff? 🎒While some insurance is important, I’d recommend against getting too much insurance. Keep in mind that, on average, getting insurance doesn’t pay off financially. The insurance companies need to collect enough in premiums to cover not only claims (legit and fraudulent) but also their own staff, marketing, and profit margins. My personal policy is to insure against the unlikely events that would ruin me financially. Yes, it sucks having to pony up $2000 for a new MacBook Pro if it were to get stolen or destroyed. But is it worth paying $500 dollars for certain every year, just in case? Only if you cannot possibly manage to save up a few thousand dollars as a buffer or make do with a less expensive laptop for a while in case it breaks and can’t be fixed at a reasonable price. If someone stole all the belongings that I travel with—including the clothes I was wearing and the phone in my pocket—it would cost me about $6000 to replace it all with brand new items. While painful, I have enough of a buffer that it wouldn’t put me in debt. And the likelihood of it happening in the first place is quite slim. Hence, I won’t waste any money insuring my possessions. The alternative: Self-insure for the little things 💰Most people are paying way too much in insurance premiums. I can appreciate that you might value the extra peace of mind that comes with knowing that you’re covered no matter what happens. But if you start doing even rudimentary back-of-the-envelope calculations, it becomes clear that you’re throwing money out the window. Instead, consider this approach. Get quotes for insuring everything you instinctively want to insure. Missed flight connections. That camera you bring along but almost never use. Your smartphone. Your laptop. Baggage delays. Petty theft. And, of course, emergency travel health insurance. Get quotes for everything with zero deductibles if possible. Let’s say your total yearly premium comes to $3000. Then look at what you would be paying if you only get insurance for the stuff that would ruin you financially. In other words, probably only emergency health insurance. Pick the highest deductible you’re comfortable with. At the very least a couple of hundred dollars per year. Remember, your goal is to never actually have to use the insurance, so it’s better to pay less every year and potentially a bit more in the year where you actually need to rely on your policy. Say you end up with a premium of about $500 per year. As you’ll see later, that’s a very easily attainable number. Now, buy the cheap insurance with the high deductible. Every year, put the money you saved ($2500 in this example) on a high interest savings account (or even better, a low-cost index fund or ETF) earmarked for situations where you would have relied on the expensive, all inclusive insurance. Now sit back and watch your own personal insurance fund grow ever larger year by year. Whenever you need to pay for something that would have been covered by the more expensive insurance (including deductibles), just withdraw the money to cover it from your own insurance fund. As an added bonus, you don’t even have to fill out lengthy claims forms, go hunting for old receipts for your valuables, and fight with claims agents that are trying their very best to find loopholes to avoid paying you what you’re rightfully owed. Getting the right insuranceLet’s take a look at the different types of insurance you should consider getting for your trip. Travel Health Insurance 🏥Even if you’re covered for health expenses in your home country, it’s important to be covered for emergencies abroad. What would happen if you’re in the US, or Japan, or Australia (or even countries where health care is cheaper), and you get a debilitating disease or end up in an accident that has to be treated locally? You’ll very quickly end up with medical bills in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. Unless you have insurance, that is. A good emergency medical travel insurance will take care of any costs of any life-threatening treatment you get locally. It’s important to note that most travel health insurance policies are not “primary” health insurance policies. They rely on you being entitled to treatment somewhere and will ship you there if needed for long-term care. So even if you get travel health insurance, it’s important that you make sure you’re covered for long-term treatment at “home”. If that’s not the case, you should check out my upcoming article on all types of insurance for nomads, including worldwide primary health insurance. Make sure you’re subscribed to Nomad Gate to get notified when it’s ready.
Emergency Evacuation 🚁Many travel health insurance policies come with built in emergency medical transportation or emergency medical evacuation as it’s often called. There are also standalone evacuation memberships, which tend to be quite a bit more expensive for similar coverage. What exactly is covered by such policies, what limit is sufficient for your needs, and do you actually need it? Usually, an emergency evacuation policy will kick in when the initial hospital or medical facility is not suited to provide the appropriate care for your medical emergency. The decision to move you elsewhere will usually be made by the local doctor and your insurance company’s medical advisor. While the policy will cover transportation to a suitable hospital, the medical costs on arrival are not covered—unless part of a travel health insurance policy. In other words, the standalone evacuation memberships usually only cover you until you’ve reached the hospital. Due to their nature, emergency evacuation policies are most essential if you’re often hiking in remote areas, traveling or staying long-term in less developed countries, etc. If you’re spending most of your time in large cities in developed countries, it’s less important. In that case you should just make sure you’re covered for individual trips you make where it can come in handy. The policy limits usually range from $25,000 up to millions or even unlimited. Since evacuation costs can get really high in extreme cases, I’d recommend a policy with at least a $100,000 limit. Perhaps even more if you’re traveling in very remote and underdeveloped areas. Travel Insurance 🛫Although all the different types of policies we have covered so far could fit under the umbrella term travel insurance, in this section I am referring to things like delayed or lost baggage, missed flight connections, car rental insurance, and so on. If you have it included in a credit card or similar for free, then of course it’s worth having. Rental Car insurance can save you some money as well, but make sure to read the fine print. Many travel health insurance policies include some coverage for these things as well, so if you’re anyway getting that kind of insurance (which you should) and the price differential is small, it can be worth to get it bundled. As you’ll see below, my recommended all-in-one insurance (SafetyWing) is actually cheaper than the already affordable health-only insurance from IMG. If on the other hand you’re not covered through your credit cards or other insurance you already have, spending money on a dedicated travel insurance is usually a terrible deal bordering on pointless. There are a few reasons why this is the case:
Let’s take one example; missed flight connection insurance. Most policies require from two to four (!) hours in between flights to be valid. Ask yourself, how often are you traveling with connecting flights on separate tickets? Perhaps some times, but likely not that often. And how many flights are more than two to four hours delayed? Only about 0.1% to 1.5% of flights, depending on airlines (US airlines generally coming out behind). Assuming you mostly fly on through tickets and only have a handful of risky connections on separate airlines per year, that’s a very slim chance (perhaps 1-2%) that you will miss a flight connection on separate tickets in a given year. And even if you did, the expected cost of an average replacement ticket is only a few hundred dollars. That means, even with as much travel as most nomads do, the expected financial loss of missed connections is only a few dollars per year. So skip the insurance, and put the money saved into your own self-insurance fund. Things to note when picking your policy
The Showdown 🥊In the rest of this article I will compare some of the most popular and well-suited insurance policies for digital nomads and long-term travelers who already have some sort of primary health insurance cover at home. I’ve included policies that meet these basic requirements:
Note that all prices are rounded to the nearest dollar. Let’s go! SafetyWingThis relative newcomer is my personal top choice, and what I’m personally using. And while SafetyWing is still a startup (launching about two years ago), their insurance policy is backed by Tokio Marine, one of the most solid insurance companies in the world. So in the unlikely event that something were to happen to SafetyWing, you would still be taken care of by Tokio Marine. Their long term goal is to offer a complete suite of products to build a country-independent social safety net for freelancers and digital nomads, which I think is really cool! In addition to the travel health insurance described here, they also recently launched a complete worldwide primary health insurance called Remote Health, so if you don’t have health coverage in your home country, check that out! However, their first product (which is what I describe in this article) is marketed as a “digital nomad travel insurance”. And compared to the alternatives, it is both a really good value and offering some genuinely useful features that I know many of you will appreciate. In many ways it’s even more comprehensive than the competitors, but still only a fraction of the price. Some highlights:
Some things to note:
Pricing for a 35 year old nomad who’s already traveling:
For recurring policies longer than 28 days, payment is only due every 4 weeks, so you don’t have to pay for a long policy in advance, unlike virtually any other insurance company. Full policy wording World NomadsThey might have been innovative a decade ago, but today I sincerely believe most bloggers are only recommending them due to financial incentives (they pay bloggers—including me—for referrals) or plain ignorance. Or perhaps a combination of both? What they offer might have been revolutionary 10 years ago (travel insurance that could be purchased and renewed while already traveling), but today there are better alternatives available. I’m really not sure what World Nomads offer that can justify the more than triple price, but my hunch is that it’s mostly due to brand recognition rather than any tangible benefits to you as a customer. If you get their most expensive package, you do get pretty good extreme sports cover, although they have recently become much more restrictive here than before—without that being reflected in the price. Highlights:
Things to note:
I’ve used World Nomads a bit in the past (with BUPA Global as the insurance provider) and while the claims involved lots of paperwork they usually were handled fairly. Payouts aren’t super quick, and I had to send them a few reminders before the claims were settled. The only time I had an issue (which was at least partly my fault) was when I waited until only a few days before the expiry of my current insurance policy before extending it. In that brief time window a close relative first got very ill and later passed away. Since the relative became ill before I had ordered the extension (even though I was unaware of it until a few days after and she only passed away into my new policy period, since it was no longer “unexpected”), they refused to cover my round trip tickets back to Europe so I could attend the funeral. According to the policy wording they were of course in the right, although someone more understanding could have used their discretion to decide otherwise. Anyway, with the auto-renewal feature that SafetyWing offers this would have been a non-issue. Note that pricing for World Nomads depend on your country of residence. To get the long term discounts you have to order and pay for the whole period in advance. Extensions are charged at non-discounted prices and will start a new policy period. If you’re at all unsure about how long you need your policy, you’re much better off using SafetyWing’s subscription feature or another insurance provider with cheap extensions (also like SafetyWing, and IMG below). Base price of a Standard/Explorer plan for a 35 year old traveler from the UK (prices converted from GBP at the time of writing):
Base price of a Standard/Explorer plan for a 35 year old traveler from the US:
The policy wording varies depending on your country of residence. To see the full policy wording, you have to request a quote where you enter your country of residence. On the next page look for the section “View full description of coverage,” and click the View button under the heading of the plan you are interested in. True TravellerThis is a popular provider, particularly in the UK. Their insurance is only available to residents of the UK and other countries in the EEA. Their cheaper plans are quite affordable—especially if you pre-pay for a year or more—but they are also quite limited and restrictive in what they cover. Adding various extras will quickly increase your premium. Some highlights:
Things to note:
Base price* for a 35 year old nomad who is already traveling (prices converted from GBP at the time of writing):
*Their pricing changes massively depending on which extras you include. A 7 day policy ranges from £34 to £361 depending on your selections. A 52 week plan can get as pricy as £1511 with all extras selected. In this table I’ve included their mid-range package (“Traveller”), with zero extras and a £75 deductible per claim. Policy wording IMG Travel Health InsuranceThis is an affordable travel health insurance, which does not include any non-health related benefits (unlike the previous options). IMG is a financially solid company, with some of the best prices out there. For a reasonable health-only policy it’s a popular budget option, but be aware that they have a reputation for slow claims handling and sticking to the letter of the policy wording beyond what some people would find reasonable. Some highlights:
Things to note:
Pricing for a 35 year old single traveler (travel health only, $500,000 limit, $250 deductible):
Policy documents:
Other insurance providers worth looking intoAllianzWhile not available everywhere, Allianz is an insurance company with a good reputation and (sadly also) premium prices. They tend to be a bit pricier than the options we’ve looked at so far. Click here to see if they offer their travel insurance product in your home country. Note that they often require you to purchase your insurance before departing on your trip, making it a poor choice for most nomads. GenkiGenki is a travel health insurance product, so it doesn’t come with any typical non-health-related insurance benefits, however we feel it deserves a mention as it is designed specifically for digital nomads. While it still has few public reviews on websites like trustpilot.com, it is backed by both Dr-Walter and Allianz, so we see it as a trustworthy newcomer to the travel health insurance market. They offer their product for travel to every country on the planet – upon questioning them on this, they said “Even North Korea” 😆. It is based on a monthly subscription, and you can choose to be covered with their “Worldwide” plan or “Worldwide excluding Canada and the US”. It’s a little more expensive than some of the travel insurance products available starting at €35.70 per month, however it has quite extensive coverage. Covid-19, travel costs for family members to visit your hospital in case of a medical emergency, mental ilness, sports-related injuries (only one’s that are not considered dangerous activities – hiking, surfing, skiing, snowboarding, biking, kayaking etc. are covered), pregnancy (except pre-existing), and emergency dental care are all included in their list of benefits. Finally, in most cases there is no overall limit in medical cost cover, and they offer 24/7 emergency assistance and direct billing. They will cover emergencies in your home country as well for up to 6 weeks per 180 days. Common questions (FAQ)
Tips that will make your life a lot easier in a pinch
I hope you enjoyed the article! Hopefully it can save you both money, hassle, and maybe even your life. Feel free to add any questions and comments (particularly your own first-hand experiences with different providers) in the community thread or below. Cover image credit: Harlie RaethelWhat is the longest travel insurance cover?Long-stay travel insurance is cover that protects you on longer-term trips. Most standard travel policies will only cover you for holidays of up to 31 days – although some single-trip policies will cover a three-month stay. Long-stay travel insurance generally covers trips lasting up to 18 months.
Who is the best company for travel insurance?Best Travel Insurance Companies of 2022. Best Overall: Travelex.. Runner-Up, Best Overall: Allianz Travel Insurance.. Best Value: InsureMyTrip.. Most Comprehensive Coverage: World Nomads.. Best for Seniors: HTH Travel Insurance.. Best for Cruises: Nationwide.. Best for Medical Coverage: GeoBlue.. What is considered long term travel?Long-term travel is defined as travel lasting 30 days or more.
Can you buy travel insurance for the whole year?Annual travel insurance policies are designed to be a cost-effective way for travelers to purchase medical coverage and other travel insurance benefits for multiple trips throughout one year. Annual policies are a cost-effective way to get most travel insurance benefits on one policy for several trips.
|