Travel health insurance, how does it work?

[The 585]

Can somebody please explain to me how travel health insurance works for Americans living abroad with no predetermined timeline or countries they'll be in? Can it be month-to-month, or is it more cost-effective to choose a one-year-plus plan? What are the best companies to go through for this type of insurance?

Hopefully later this year after I'm fully vaccinated and travel becomes more of a possibility, I want to spend some time living and traveling in Central/South America. Thanks in advance!

[JoJo]

I've had it before when I traveled 20 months, but didn't make any claims (Had a couple medical issues, but the cost was so low in other countries wasn't worth the effort).

Travel insurance covers medical from accidents or emergencies, often includes repatriation, luggage coverage, etc.  It is not health insurance, so you end up with cancer or long term sickness this isn't covered, so for that coverage you need health insurance at home + travel insurance. 

[terran]

I think travel insurance usually assumes you have insurance in your home country, so it's really more of a "get you back home or treated where you are, whichever is cheaper" insurance. If you won't have US based insurance then I think you want more of an expat insurance.

[The 585]

Thanks guys, you're right, I think I was confused with the difference between travel insurance and expat health insurance. But in my limited early research, it seems like something like a plan from World Nomads would fit the bill for both health and trip insurance?

[Bibimbap]

Can somebody please explain to me how travel health insurance works for Americans living abroad with no predetermined timeline or countries they'll be in? Can it be month-to-month, or is it more cost-effective to choose a one-year-plus plan? What are the best companies to go through for this type of insurance?

Hopefully later this year after I'm fully vaccinated and travel becomes more of a possibility, I want to spend some time living and traveling in Central/South America. Thanks in advance!

Are you looking for travel insurance or health insurance? You said travel health insurance but then you said that you want to get insurance from World Nomads, which is not a health insurance.

[The 585]

Can somebody please explain to me how travel health insurance works for Americans living abroad with no predetermined timeline or countries they'll be in? Can it be month-to-month, or is it more cost-effective to choose a one-year-plus plan? What are the best companies to go through for this type of insurance?

Hopefully later this year after I'm fully vaccinated and travel becomes more of a possibility, I want to spend some time living and traveling in Central/South America. Thanks in advance!

Are you looking for travel insurance or health insurance? You said travel health insurance but then you said that you want to get insurance from World Nomads, which is not a health insurance.

Looking for health insurance that covers you anywhere. Are you sure World Nomads is not health insurance? This post by A Purple Life mentions that she uses it as her health insurance and it covers you as long as you're more than 100 miles from your "home residence".

https://apurplelife.com/2020/07/21/my-retirement-health-insurance-plan/

[Bibimbap]

Can somebody please explain to me how travel health insurance works for Americans living abroad with no predetermined timeline or countries they'll be in? Can it be month-to-month, or is it more cost-effective to choose a one-year-plus plan? What are the best companies to go through for this type of insurance?

Hopefully later this year after I'm fully vaccinated and travel becomes more of a possibility, I want to spend some time living and traveling in Central/South America. Thanks in advance!

Are you looking for travel insurance or health insurance? You said travel health insurance but then you said that you want to get insurance from World Nomads, which is not a health insurance.

Looking for health insurance that covers you anywhere. Are you sure World Nomads is not health insurance? This post by A Purple Life mentions that she uses it as her health insurance and it covers you as long as you're more than 100 miles from your "home residence".

https://apurplelife.com/2020/07/21/my-retirement-health-insurance-plan/

Are you going by what the person on this website says or by what Word Nomads say?
They will pay for some health emergency, is that what you want?
https://www.worldnomads.com/usa/help/insurance/emergency-claims/need-hospital-or-doctor
https://www.worldnomads.com/usa/travel-insurance/whats-covered/overseas-medical
https://www.worldnomads.com/usa/help/insurance/buying-travel-insurance/overseas-medical-treatment-hospitalisation

[JoJo]

Yes, it's clear from that blog they don't have health insurance, they are only covered up to limited amounts for emergencies on the road.  They admit that expat health insurance is what they should have, but doesn't really cover them since they are extended time in the US right now.  Note that expat health insurance is not ACA compliant, unless you're out of the country for something like 335 days. 

As a younger person, that is a risk you would have to take, as you wouldn't be covered for things like cancer.  I will admit, I did go without for 2 years pre-ACA when I was 31-32 and only had travel insurance as I traveled around the world.  Luckily, I had no health issues and found a job when I returned and was covered again in a couple months of returning to the US.   Super lucky I didn't have any health emergencies in that time. 

[terran]

Since you're interested in expat insurance, not travel insurance I have a few more thoughts. I haven't looked too far into these as we're still a few years out, but I'd look at Aetna International, Cigna Global, and IMGlobal.

I'd also consider working with a broker. There are some nomadic FIRE Youtoubers who say they've "been thrilled with Tracy Winters at Good Neighbor Insurance." They were foiled from departing for their international travels by COVID, so based on their videos I think they only have experience with domestic insurance so far (a health sharing ministry and an ACA plan), so I'm looking forward to seeing what their experience is with international insurance once they get to depart.

Something to pay attention to is whether the plan covers you in the US at all, or only internationally. From what I've seen the worldwide plans cover you as long as you're out of the US for at least 6 months while the Ex-US plans exclude all care in the US and for some reason Canada. The global plans are obviously more expensive than the Ex-US plans, but even so are cheaper than anything but a heavily subsidized ACA plan.

If you go through with this, please post back with what you learn.

[JoJo]

In addition to the 3 listed in the post above, GeoBlue is another highly rated international health insurance plan.

[Bibimbap]

BTW, a lot of times it's cheaper to just go to a doctor/hospital abroad and pay out of pocket. The healthcare abroad is not as outrageously expensive as in the US and a lot of times on par and sometimes even better. A lot of people from the US travel abroad to get treated and pay out of pocket even when they have insurance in the US. I just did all my dental work in Peru about a year ago. I paid around $100 total for 3 fillings, xrays and cleaning etc. at a private clinic. 

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Prior to our last trip to Europe (France), we read very bad things about WorldNomads from multiple sources. Hence, we took the advice of our friends who travel all the time, as well as many online reviews, and bought a three-week policy from Allianz. It was not cheap.

We have full health insurance, but what you really need is emergency medical evacuation/repatriation in case you get really sick abroad and want to come home at some point. Good luck finding one that will cover COVID-related illness.