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International health insurance provides comprehensive coverage for the cost of health care to individuals living outside of their home country for a year or more.

Travel insurance only provides coverage for emergency treatment while abroad and is typically limited to 180 days of coverage at a time (although some policies are renewable for up to one year).

Plans typically cover the same things as your home health insurance, such as ambulance, emergencies, hospitalization, surgery, radiology scans, labs, prescriptions, wellness care, mental health, pregnancy, outpatient doctor visits, physical therapy, etc.

Yes! Most plans include medical evacuation (life-flight) for life threatening conditions where the care available locally is not sufficient. This benefit is important to ensure that you or your family can be transported to the best hospital for your needs, even if it is in another country. Additionally, plans frequently cover the cost of staying near a hospitalized family member, healthcare in other countries and even things like cord blood storage for newborns.

Most plans do not cover dental, vision, hearing aids, cosmetic surgery or some pre-existing conditions. They also do not cover experimental treatments or testing that is not medically indicated. However, because different plans work differently, it's best to speak with an expert from TripDoctor to see which plan might work best for your particular needs and get professional help you throughout the application process.

If you did not have health insurance at the time of application, most plans require a 60-day waiting period before full coverage begins. Additionally, plans with pregnancy coverage typically require a 10-12 month waiting period before pregnancy, delivery and newborn care are covered. An expert at TripDoctor can help to make sure you select the best plan for your family planning needs ahead of when you need it.

Most plans cover you worldwide, with some exceptions. There may be additional premiums to extend coverage to countries with high healthcare costs such as the U.S., Japan, Singapore, Switzerland.

In the U.S., the Affordable Care Act outlines rules for health insurance, such as price setting only by age, not gender or pre-existing conditions, no lifetime or annual limits, full coverage for preventative care, etc. international health insurance is not governed by these rules and regulations, so it may require medical underwriting, have limits on coverage, other stipulations that may be unfamiliar to U.S. customers.

If you move abroad, your U.S. based health insurance is no longer under any obligation to cover your healthcare expenses. If you do not alert them to your move, they may continue to accept your premium payments, but if you end up with a large bill or serious disease, they may investigate and learn you no longer live at your U.S. address, which frees them from their obligation to pay claims. As such, it is strongly recommended that once you move abroad you switch to an international health insurance plan, and there is a bonus reason to do this, they are typically less expensive than your U.S. based plan.

U.S. Medicare only covers care within the United States and U.S. Territories. It provides no coverage, not even for emergencies, when abroad. As such, Medicare recipients should always obtain international health insurance or travel insurance when living or traveling abroad. TripDoctor offers travel health insurance plans for seniors that provide good coverage for traveling seniors.

The answer to this varies by country, but typically national health systems only cover healthcare expenses within your country of citizenship. Most EU Citizens can be covered by other EU systems when visiting one of the other member states. Some countries, like Canada, require a waiting period before using the national health system upon returning home. In this case, a returning expat should make sure they retain private insurance through the waiting period.

TripDoctor was founded by expats seeking to help other expats find the best healthcare and health insurance available. We recognize how hard it can be to move to a foreign country. Unfamiliar insurance is difficult to understand and compare in order to figure out what is best for you and your family. We've been on the receiving end of trying to call to make a doctor's appointment only to be unable to communicate with the receptionist. We founded TripDoctor to help expats like us to solve these challenges with excellent customer service from fellow expats.

No. When you purchase insurance from TripDoctor, you will pay the exact same rate as if you had purchased it from the company directly. We never charge extra. And unlike buying direct, you have access to our team of local experts to help you use your insurance by steering you to the best doctors and hospitals in your area and correctly file claims to make sure your care is covered.

TripDoctor receives commissions for our insurance sales. However, as a Broker, our obligation is to you, not the insurance carrier. We work with you to help you choose the right insurance company and policy to meet your coverage needs and budget. If we don't have a product that is right for you, we will refer you to someone who does. We believe great customer service even extends to those who never become our customers.

TripDoctor does not offer its own international health or travel insurance products, we only broker products from reputable established carriers. These policies are underwritten by a variety of carriers, including top U.S. based insurers and even Lloyd's of London.

Yes. All of the policies that TripDoctor brokers are available to purchase regardless of where you now live.

International health insurance is not subject to the same rules of enrollment as U.S. insurance. You can enroll at any time and start on the 1st of the next month. Some policies even allow you to begin mid-month.

These three insurance types are three flavors of the same thing. Travel insurance is for short trips (less than 180 days) away from home, it typically only covers up to $25,000 USD in emergency healthcare costs per trip. Travel medical insurance provides higher coverage ($100,000 - $2,000,000 USD) but is also limited to emergencies. Nomad insurance is renewable travel insurance that can be kept active for up to one year and then auto renewed. None of these provide any coverage outside of serious medical urgent or emergency care.

All three of these types of travel insurance only cover emergency care. This includes the ER visit and any immediate hospitalization care resulting from that visit. Importantly, just going to the ER does not make it a medical emergency. Using the ER for a non-emergency will result in a denied claim. Also, any post emergency care (such as orthopedic surgery following an accident) is not covered. This is often where the bulk of the healthcare costs lie as it can take months or years to recover from serious injuries. Additionally, these insurance types do not cover any preventative care (annual physical, screening tests, vaccinations), outpatient visits or chronic medical conditions.

Travel Health insurance is a great product for those traveling who have a higher risk of emergency medical conditions, such as people over the age of 40 and especially seniors. It provides a much higher level of coverage, ranging from $100,000 - $2,000,000 USD vs. only $25,000 for most travel insurances. It also includes improved coverage for air ambulance evacuation, ensuring that a critically ill patient can be flown back to their home country for hospital care. Regular travel insurance can be added to cover things like delayed or cancelled trips and lost luggage. As with travel insurance, this is not a substitute for comprehensive health insurance as it does not cover any non-emergency care.

Travel insurance is ideal for vacationers and those on short business trips. It typically only covers up to $25,000 in emergency medical coverage, so having comprehensive health insurance at home is a must. This means that your emergency abroad is at least partially covered while any follow-up care (typically where the bulk of the cost lies for serious injuries and illnesses) can be covered by your home country comprehensive health plan or national health insurance plan.

Companies such as SafetyWing, World Nomads, Insured Nomads, Collective Benefits, and easyblue.io offer nomad insurance. This is a form of travel insurance that is auto renewable so it can continue for an indefinite period. It is marketed to "digital nomads"; those who work remotely without a permanent home. It provides the same coverage as travel insurance plus some add-ons to protect things such as personal electronics. Similarly, to travel insurance, nomad insurance only covers medical emergencies. There is no coverage for post emergency care (such as orthopedic surgery following an accident) or chronic diseases. If a customer acquires a preexisting condition (such as depression psoriasis, uterine fibroids, or diabetes) while on nomad insurance, such a condition will be excluded from coverage if they then upgrade to international health insurance. So, while nomad insurance may be more affordable now, it may result in significantly higher healthcare costs in the future and over the lifetime of the insured.