Health insurance options (international and partly in US)

[Stash Man]

I'm planning to FIRE next year and travel abroad (mostly in SE Asia) with a few months in the US here and there.  Wondering what kind of health insurance makes sense.

Questions:
1) As an American, I suppose I have to buy ACA or pay a penalty?
2) Does US insurance cover oversea medical expenses?
3) Any international insurance you would recommend?

Thanks!  I'm blissfully ignorant on this topic and would greatly appreciate any help.

[Stash Man]

Any suggestions?

[bacchi]

I'm planning to FIRE next year and travel abroad (mostly in SE Asia) with a few months in the US here and there.  Wondering what kind of health insurance makes sense.

Questions:
1) As an American, I suppose I have to buy ACA or pay a penalty?
2) Does US insurance cover oversea medical expenses?
3) Any international insurance you would recommend?

Thanks!  I'm blissfully ignorant on this topic and would greatly appreciate any help.

1) The penalty is going away next year for everyone.
2) Not generally. You'll need traveler's insurance. It's usually pretty inexpensive.

[cap396]

We're going to FIRE this summer and also travel the world, with the plan to spend about one month in the US each year.  We are exploring an international policy through IMG and also exploring a health cost sharing ministry, but we are still researching.  I'll be interested to see other responses posted in this thread.

[terran]

In addition to IMG, Cigna and Aetna are a couple of other options I've run across that it could be worth looking into for health insurance while primarily not living in the US.

Please report back with what you learn after getting quotes. I'm a ways off from needing it, but very interested to learn about the cost and what kinds of questions they ask that seem to effect the cost. Age? Health? Country/countries you'll be in? How often and how long you'll be in the US? I'd also be interested in what you learn about deductibles, maximum coverage levels, etc. 

[jim555]

You need to check healthcare.gov and put in your info and look at the plans.  No way to make a generalization since it is based on your location, age, state, county, income, metal level, CSRs.

[pecunia]

You may want to consider insurance as other countries do have diseases which may not be as prevalent in the US and you will be susceptible.  Lots of parasites in this world - human and otherwise.

As a very old song once stated, "Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air."