Insurance
International health insurance for people who live abroad
Travel or nomad. Not the same thing. Start with how long you stay. We map 73 countries.
How long are you staying?
- Up to ~90 days
Travel insurance
Short trips (under 3 months), vacations, weekend trips, gig travel.
See if this is you - Long, multi-country
Nomad insurance
Long-stay nomads, perpetual travelers, slowmads who change country every few months.
See if this is you
One cover cuts across these: medical evacuation insurance, the benefit that pays to move you to care, or home, and the one most often underfunded by a visa-minimum policy. Staying longer than a year? Run live prices.
The one question that separates them
It is not where you are going. It is how long you are staying, and whether you still have healthcare somewhere else. A two-week trip is travel insurance, and those policies cap out around 90 days. Nomad insurance is for long stays and several countries a year. A year-long visa usually wants cover that lasts the whole permit, which a trip policy cannot do. If the trip is two weeks and you already have cover at home, a travel policy is the right product and this page is the wrong one.
What each type leaves out
Cover fails on what it excludes. That is where the types differ.
Travel insurance does not cover
- Routine care, chronic-condition management
- Maternity, mental-health
- Trips longer than the policy's max (often 90 days)
Nomad insurance does not cover
- Treatment in your home-country tax residence (often excluded)
- Long-term chronic-condition management on the cheaper plans
- Routine preventive care (varies by plan)
The same policy is a different bet in a different country
Cover that is enough in one country is thin in the next, because of the system underneath it: whether foreigners can use public care, whether private hospitals want payment before they treat you, whether a serious case is flown out, and what any of it costs. We have mapped 73 countries, 73 of them with local treatment-cost benchmarks. The blunt version is the cost of going uninsured.
If you already have a medical history
This is the variable that decides which carrier can take you. The benefit table can look the same and the underwriting answer will not.
- Some underwrite you and cover a declared condition at a higher premium.
- Some exclude the condition permanently and insure everything else.
- Some apply a waiting period and cover it after claim-free years.
- Some decline the application.
Not declaring feels harmless when the condition is under control. A non-disclosure can be used to challenge a later claim, including one that has nothing to do with it. Declare everything, and get the exclusion in writing.
Healthcare by country
Twelve countries people actually compare. The full list of healthcare guides stays on the destination index, not on this page.
Common questions
Travel insurance is built around a trip. It covers emergencies while you are away, plus cancellations and luggage, and it usually stops at 90 days. Health insurance is built around a person. It covers routine and ongoing medical care wherever you live, with no trip length to expire. If you are away for a fortnight, you want the first. If you have moved abroad, you want the second.
It depends on how you actually live rather than how you describe yourself. If you keep moving every few weeks and still have healthcare at home, travel or nomad cover is usually enough. If you have left home behind, spend months in one place, or need a policy that satisfies a visa, you need proper health cover. Nomad insurance sits between the two and is designed for people who are neither tourists nor settled residents.
Often yes. Most nomad visas require cover for the full length of the permit, which a 90-day travel policy cannot provide, and a few will only accept an insurer licensed in that country. Check the requirement for your specific visa before you buy a policy, not after.
We do not publish premiums, and you should be wary of sites that do. Pricing depends on your age, your medical history, the countries you want covered, and whether the plan includes the United States, which can double a premium on its own. Any single figure quoted without those inputs is marketing rather than a price.
Nothing. We are an independent matching platform and the insurer pays us a commission when a policy is placed. You pay the same premium you would pay going direct, and we are not tied to a single carrier, so we have no reason to push you toward one.
This page explains the product type. It does not state a premium and does not name an insurer. How we measure cost.
In 3 steps
- 01
Fill out
The form only asks what changes the plan.
- 02
We find your match
We compare the panel against your route, stay and visa.
- 03
Become a member
If the offer fits, you take it out directly.
Have a look if this page was not the question you came with.