There’s a lot to consider when it comes to what kind of insurance you want to get, how you want to insure your stuff, and how much coverage you want to get. Here I’ll walk you through my thinking and my personal recommendations when it comes to nomad travel medical insurance. I use SafetyWing – here’s my referral link.
Of course we never want anything bad to happen, but it’s important to think about the worst-case scenario, and make sure you’re prepared. You’ll find all my recommendations for managing financial-ish as a digital nomad here.
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For health and medical insurance, it’s really going to depend on your age, how healthy you are, what other coverage you may have, your home country, your tolerance for risk, and how risky your activities are. Of course – even if you’re the healthiest and most careful person in the world, anything can happen at any time. Trust me, I know – I tore my ACL in the Swiss Alps.
So when it comes to medical insurance, especially as an American, I don’t mess around. The United States has one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world. The U.S. spends almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product on health insurance – nearly twice as much as Germany, and nearly three to four times as much as South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan. I’m telling you this so you know that, if you’re also from the U.S., coverage at home versus abroad is a whole different ball game.
I strongly recommend making sure you have health insurance wherever you are in the world.
Yes, in some countries, the cost of health care is low, and you might be very happy just paying out of pocket for some things. I paid out of pocket to go to the dentist in both Peru and Vietnam, and it cost me a fraction of what it would have in the U.S. Some digital nomads even incorporate medical tourism into their travels. Turkey and Malaysia are gaining popularity for their VIP checkup options – you pay about $800 and spend a full day at the hospital getting every test under the sun, with a focus on preventative health. It’s on my list to do this some day!
But your whole life really can change in an instant, and you don’t want to be on the hook for what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, what coverage should you choose?
I’ve used SafetyWing since 2019. When I first became a nomad, they were one of the only insurance companies marketing to digital nomads. They’ve continued to evolve their offerings and improve over time.
SafetyWing has been my choice because it’s super affordable, covers all the basics, and is simple and easy to use.
I have the Nomad Insurance policy, which has global coverage in 180+ countries.
My coverage includes:
- Travel medical: Any medically necessary services, treatments, equipment or prescription drugs (inpatient or outpatient) for illness or injury that happened during your trip. Hospital charges including intensive care unit (ICU), nursing services, local ambulance & emergency transport.
- Emergency evacuation: Emergency ground and/or air transport to transfer you from one healthcare provider to another so that you can receive medically necessary treatment that you can’t receive from the first provider. Up to $100K.
- Home country coverage: For every 90 days of active coverage, you are covered for up to 15 days of emergency medical treatment when you get sick or injured while in your home country.
- Sports & activities: Medical treatment of injury caused while participating in amateur/non-professional sports and activities that were not the purpose of your trip. Excludes certain high-risk activities unless you buy the adventure sport add-on, which covers many of them. I did buy the adventure sport add-on, because I love adventures sports! On this list, I know I’ll do (and have done) – motorbiking, gokarting, mountaineering, paragliding, quad biking, skiing, scuba diving, and rafting.
- Driving accidents: Medical treatment if you are injured while driving or riding a motor vehicle, including a motorbike, moped, car, or electric bicycle. Applies only when you are properly licensed, while wearing appropriate safety equipment, and not intoxicated or partaking in a race.
- Lost checked luggage: Reimbursement for the cost of lost checked luggage minus any repayment you received from the airline or cruise line. Luggage must be lost for at least 10 days. $500 per item of luggage up to $3,000 per policy term.
- Travel delay: Reimbursement for meals and accommodations for an unplanned overnight stay for up to 2 days when your trip is delayed by at least 12 hours. Only applies for delays caused by the transportation company, a traffic accident, a labour strike, or loss of passport. Up to $100 a day for up to 2 days.
- Trip interruption: Cost of a one-way air or ground transfer back to your home country due to an unforeseen event like a death of a family member or damage to your home country residence. Up to $5,000.
- Emergency dental: Necessary treatment to resolve sudden onset of pain. You must get treatment within 72 hours of the first symptom to receive reimbursement. Dentures or dental appliances are not covered. Up to $1000.
- Repatriation of remains: Costs to prepare your remains and transport you by air or ground to your home country. Coverage also includes expenses incurred by the receiving funeral home costs and the cost of local burial or cremation in your home country. If your family or a friend chooses to bring back your remains on their own, their flight expense is not covered. Up to $20K.
Here are the pros and cons of SafetyWing, in my opinion.
Cons:
- Only 15 days of coverage in the U.S. every 90 days is super annoying. If it’s a year where I’m taking FEIE (Foreign Earned Income Tax Credit) I could be in the U.S. for 35 continuous days, but I don’t want to be there without insurance coverage.
- SafetyWing used to have adventure sports and activities included in their low coverage rate, so it’s annoying that I have to pay extra now.
- Some of the coverage amounts are quite low – such as $100/day for 2 days for a travel delay.
- Note that it doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, cancer treatment, durg or alcohol related accidents, general check-ups or preventative care. They do now have insurance products that cover preventative care – but not if you’re from the U.S. 🙃🫠
Pros:
- Super easy to sign up
- Set it and forget it – renews automatically
- Super user-friendly
- Great customer service – you message their chat, and actual, helpful human being responds quickly
- Easy claims submission – I submitted a claim recently, and it was much easier to submit than most insurance claims processes
- Incredibly affordable
SafetyWing starts as low as $56.28 / 4 weeks if you’re 18-39 years old.
I pay about $79 per month, because I also have the adventure sports add on and electronics coverage – which is only up to $1K.
So as you can see, SafetyWing covers more than just medical – they call themselves travel medical insurance.
Personally, I don’t think the travel part of the coverage is amazing, but you may have additional coverage elsewhere.
Overall, SafetyWing is my pick because of:
- Affordability
- Ease of use
- They treat you like a real human being
- It covers all the basics I need – though at some point, I am probably going to upgrade to something with more U.S. & preventative coverage, so I can get regular check ups
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I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card (all my recommendations for financial products for digital nomad are here), which also has some travel protections, such as for travel delays and trip interruption.
You also want to think about what you’ll do if your stuff is stolen. Note that SafetyWing doesn’t cover theft of your items (except for the add-on electronics coverage that is only up to $1K.) I know if my laptop stops working or is stolen, I need to get on a flight and replace it ASAP (and $1K wouldn’t be enough to cover its replacement cost).
And my things might be stolen – stuff happens. I don’t have specific insurance for my stuff – it’s a big risk (thieves, please ignore this section). If you have home / property insurance, that can often give you some coverage as well, or you can ask to extend it.
Ultimately, if all my stuff is stolen, I might have to pay out of pocket to replace it all – but that’s not a sure thing. Sinking $ into an insurance company every year, which may or may not pay my claims after a lotttt of paperwork is a sure thing. I may yet get additional travel insurance, so if you have any recommendations, let me know!
What do you use for travel and medical insurance as a digital nomad? Do you use SafetyWing? Let me know if you sign up and if you use my referral code. Hit me up on Instagram @t.prad and let me know what your experience has been like and any questions you have.
Disclaimer: You’ll find some affiliate links throughout the site – along with real talk about what I do/don’t like about the product/service. I don’t recommend things I don’t like. If you decided to act on my (free!) advice (you’re welcome 💁🏽♀️), this means I’ll get back some coffee money on my efforts – so it’s a great way to show your support for this multicultural creator 🙂
