@aspiringnomadWe also have universal coverage in one country. Good to fall back on but I find coverage kind of weak in some areas.
There are two types of internal insurance: Global health Insurance and Travel Health Insurance.
Global Health Insurance:
This is a typical health insurance policy. Covers pretty much anything and is renewable yearly. It excludes most preexisting conditions at time of purchase but once anything that happens after you have the policy is covered. And when you renew the policy those conditions are covered.
Mine has a $1000 deductible with $5 million coverage. We paid $2300 for a family of 4.
Travel Health Insurance:
The difference is that this is not guaranteed renewal and any illness you have for the year will not be covered when you renew (it will be a preexisting condition). Overall policy and coverage is not as robust as Global health Insurance. Usually a bit cheaper.
Travel Insurance:
Typically to cover trip cancellation and repatriation is seriously ill or dead. Some will have some limited health coverage. These are not health coverage even if they are marketed at such.
If I was actually living in a country with universal I would purchase a local policy that provides for the gaps in coverage. They are pretty cheap.
But we are not and we travel and move around a lot. So I just bought the global policy.
I looked at the Travel Health Insurance but found the price difference to be minimal. It wasn't worth the financial risk of going into health care bankruptcy.
Also, depending on your state and current income levels you could qualify for ACA. Seems like ACA will be around for a while as all of the morons who wanted to kill it are quitting congress.
You can use ACA as a fallback if you get seriously ill.