Medical Insurance for Travel – Price and How to Buy It

Travel health insurance is an excellent option if you desire guaranteed medical coverage wherever you travel since insurance for travel medicine provides you with a high level of medical protection for trips outside of your own nation.

Bear in mind that travelers focusing solely on medical coverage while traveling might look for travelers’ health insurance rather than travel insurance which covers additional situations like lost baggage or delays.

The main purpose for choosing travel medical insurance rather than travel insurance is because of how much money you save. However, we prefer not to take any risks when we travel, so we always travel with the best travel insurance.

However, we decided to create this article because we understand that many travelers feel international medical insurance is not affordable. Travel health insurance is the perfect choice if you are watchful of costs since you will at least have good global medical coverage. With some plans, like the one provided by SafetyWing you pay less than $1.5 daily, so there is no reason for traveling without travel health insurance.

Best health insurance for travel

This article examines what medical coverage for travelers is, how it differs from regular travel insurance, what medical issues it addresses during trips, and typical costs. It will also include a chart contrasting the costs of several types of medical insurance for traveling, a list of the top choices for health coverage while traveling, and tips on purchasing protection for healthcare when touring.

In summary, the best medical insurance options for travel include:

1. SafetyWing – the best overall travel medical insurance
2. Trawick International – an affordable travel medical insurance option
3. World Trips – the finest travel medical insurance for seniors and pre-existing medical circumstances
4. IMG – the most reasonably priced travel insurance covering medical costs only
5. Allianz – a suitable medical insurance for international travel

What is travel health insurance?

You may be questioning yourself, precisely what does travel health insurance entail? International travel health coverage covers medical costs incurred while outside your nation of residence. You will be protected in medical emergencies, if sudden illness arises during travel, if injuries occur, etc.

Protection against costs covered by medical coverage for global travel can involve crisis clinical expenses, crisis dental treatment costs, sudden demise and lack of appendages, crisis clinical evacuation, and repatriation. The best COVID-19 travel medical insurance will likewise incorporate protection for COVID-19 treatment and testing.

Having medical coverage for travel-related medical expenses is particularly helpful in nations with highly costly healthcare without insurance, such as the United States.

Remember that medical travel coverage isn`t the equivalent of general travel insurance. Travel health insurance primarily addresses healthcare-linked costs, which have a significantly higher coverage limit than regular travel insurance. Some travel health insurance plans do encompass certain travel-related situations, such as trip cancellation or lost baggage, but numerous only include medical benefits.

Cost of travel medical insurance

You may be considering, how much does international travel medical coverage cost? Factors, such as age, location of residence, state of residence (if you live in the US), and trip expense, can all affect the valuation of your healthcare for travel.

Probably the most pivotal factors for the expense of your travel medical insurance are the maximum insurance coverage bound and deductible. The maximum coverage bound is the highest monetary amount of coverage the insurance plan will provide you. The deductible is the amount you must pay before insurance starts covering you. Some travel medical insurance plans allow you to choose both amounts, while others have preset maximum coverage bounds and deductibles.

For plans that permit you to opt for the quantity for your maximum coverage boundary, the higher the maximum coverage boundary is, the more expensive the health insurance for travelers will be. With plans that permit you to choose your deductible amount, the lower your deductible, the more expensive your medical travel insurance will be.

Medical only travel insurance comparison

This medical-only travel insurance price evaluation will assist you in contrasting the costs of several travel medical insurance options. To acquire the quotes, I utilized the example of a 30-year-old American citizen residing in Pennsylvania intending to travel to Mexico for two weeks, with a trip expense of $2,500.

Additionally, I opted for the $0 deductible alternative proposed by all plans presenting deductible choices (IMG, World Trips, and Trawick International). SafetyWing incorporates a $250 deductible as an element of its plan. For the plans permitting the selection of the highest coverage limit (IMG, World Trips, and Trawick International), I chose $250,000 (or, in the case of IMG, the closest choice to $250,000).

What is the best travel medical insurance?

Overall, the optimal travel medical insurance is SafetyWing, which offers a high degree of medical-related coverage with some travel-related coverage while still being affordable. They also have an exceptional coverage-to-price ratio and automatic renewal.

Of course, the only way to gain knowledge about how to purchase medical travel insurance is to become informed, so let’s examine travel health insurance providers and their plans .

1. SafetyWing, the best overall travel medical insurance

SafetyWing is the finest travel clinical protection generally. Their Nomad Protection plan offers a elevated amount of protection for health related costs, especially for its cost, and even involves some travel-related coverage. That’s why SafetyWing has the finest protection-to-cost percentage of all the plans we’ve reviewed.

What’s even better regarding SafetyWing insurance is that if you opt for the recurrent plan, after you pick a commencement date, your insurance will instantly renew every 28 days until you choose an end date, so you won’t have to worry about not having coverage or forgetting to renew.

Additionally, SafetyWing is unique in that coverage is provided in your home country for 30 days (15 days if living in the US) after traveling abroad for 90 days. This means secondary or even primary medical coverage is given if sick or injured after travel. This is regarded as one of the best long-term travel insurance.

With SafetyWing, no matter your location, you won’t need to worry about medical coverage. The only downside is a $250 deductible that can’t be avoided. If this is acceptable, it provides the best solitary medical travel insurance.

2. Trawick International, a cheap travel insurance for medical only

If you desire low-cost medical travel coverage, Trawick International is an excellent selection. Their Safe Travels Outbound Cost Saver and Safe Travels Outbound plans let you choose your maximum coverage limit and deductible, permitting you to easily adjust the price of the plan as per your wants and needs.

Trawick International’s travel healthcare plans generally provide medical-relevant insurance. They do offer some basic travel-related coverage, for instance baggage loss insurance or trip cancellation coverage (restricted to inhabitants of a few states).

Ultimately, Trawick International is the insurance offering coverage for medical travel needs and some basic travel protections for those seeking such options.

3. World Trips, the travel medical insurance for seniors and travelers with pre-existing conditions

Global Journeys offers one of the ideal travel healthcare insurance plans for older adults and insurance coverage for voyagers with previous medical conditions. For voyagers under the age of 80, the Worldwide International plan provides protection up to the maximum limit for pre-existing health issues. The plan also offers considerable coverage for unfortunate demise and dismemberment and common transportation unfortunate demise for voyagers over the age of 65.

World Trips offers two distinct travel medical insurance plans: Atlas International and Atlas International Premium. Both plans enable travelers to select their coverage limit and deductible amount. While both plans deliver excellent medical expense coverage, unlike SafetyWing, they do not cover certain travel-related costs such as lost baggage.

For that reason, World Trips is a suitable choice provided you do not necessitate or desire travel-related protection.

4. IMG, the cheapest medical-only travel insurance

Seeking the most cost-effective medical-only travel coverage? IMG is the travel healthcare insurance option for you.

Their Patriot International and Patriot Platinum International plans both allow you to choose your maximum coverage limit and deductible, adding adaptability to the travel health insurance purchasing process.

IMG’s plans offer significant medical-related coverage, especially for medical evacuation and accidental death and dismemberment, but their travel-related coverage, especially for baggage loss, is not as comprehensive as SafetyWing’s.

Ultimately, IMG is the best option if you want low-cost medical travel protection and aren’t concerned about comprehensive travel coverage.

5. Allianz, a good medical insurance for international travel

Allianz is a reliable choice for medical protection for travel. Their OneTrip Emergency Medical plan provides good coverage for health-related costs and some limited coverage for travel-related expenses.

However, the OneTrip Emergency Medical plan has rather modest coverage for its cost, since it’s one of the priciest plans yet still has much lower medical coverage than other travel health insurance, particularly SafetyWing. It also doesn’t permit you to select your maximum coverage limit or deductible, so there’s no cost flexibility.

What does travel medical insurance cover?

As mentioned earlier, insurance that solely covers medical expenses is entirely different from conventional travel insurance. Both types of coverage may overlap in certain areas, like medical costs, but insurance for travel-related healthcare primarily addresses health-related costs, while travel insurance addresses travel expenses and has a lower limit for medical costs.

Below is a chart that juxtaposes travel medical insurance coverage to travel insurance coverage.

Is medical insurance for travel worth it?

If you’re not interested in obtaining travel insurance for your next trip, you should at minimum secure travel health insurance. For one, health insurance for travel tends to be much cheaper than travel insurance.

More importantly, having travel medical insurance guarantees that you won’t need to pay for medical expenses out of your own finances if you get harmed or fall ill while you’re traveling.

With SafetyWing’s travel health insurance, if you’re traveling long-term you have the choice to opt-in for recurring updates, meaning you’ll receive automatic renewals and coverage in your home country, in addition to excellent medical coverage for an affordable price.

If you have any additional questions about travel health insurance, please leave a comment below – I’d be pleased to answer any inquiries!