Complete Guide to Digital Nomad Health Insurance in 2025

Discover how travel health insurance can provide peace of mind while you’re living abroad.

Navigating the world as a digital nomad (or family of digital nomads) offers unparalleled freedom, but it also presents unique challenges, particularly concerning healthcare. It’s easy to leave your home behind and consider yourself on a “vacation” of sorts, relying on the medical care you have back at your home base. However, your home medical coverage will not always translate in a different state—and especially not abroad. Enter: digital nomad health insurance.

According to Debbie Zatarain, an ASTA-certified travel advisor who is constantly encouraging her clients to purchase travel health insurance, it’s one of the easiest purchases you can make for your trip. “Many believe they do not need any coverage or that it is too expensive,” she says. “It is actually very reasonable and a small fraction (in most cases) of your overall [travel] cost.” If you’re on the fence, allow us to fill you in on the how-tos and benefits of digital nomad healthcare and insurance.

Debbie Zatarain, president of a travel agency for over 30 years, has seen it all when it comes to healthcare across the United States and abroad—she contributed expertise to this article.
This article was reviewed for accuracy by Amanda Capritto, TravlSync editor and full-time traveler.

Digital Nomad Health Insurance vs. Travel Insurance

Travel insurance AND digital nomad health insurance are good to have for long-term travelers. Photo byOxana Melis onUnsplash.

Travel insurance is a security blanket for travel-related issues like lost luggage and canceled flights, whereas digital nomad insurance or travel health insurance helps with medical coverage while you’re away from home.

Coverage Type

Travel insurance is designed for short-term trips. It offers protection when things go wrong with your travel plans. Let’s say, you lose your luggage or your flight gets canceled—travel insurance can provide reimbursements for significant unexpected costs while you’re traveling.

Travel insurance often offers a small form of medical coverage. If you have, say, a serious accident abroad and wind up in a hospital, travel insurance can cover emergency medical treatment to stabilize you until you return home.

Digital nomad health insurance provides more options for medical coverage, including routine check-ups (if you’re opting for long-term coverage, as a digital nomad would be), ongoing treatments, and preventive care.

Duration

Travel insurance typically covers just a short trip—or at its shortest, a single flight or train ride. Most typical travel health insurance policies are also only valid for short durations, covering just your trip length. However, digital nomad health insurance plans are built for extended periods, often renewable annually to cater to the continuous travel of digital nomads.

What Does Travel Health Insurance Cover?

Travel health insurance, or digital nomad insurance, often covers emergency services like medical evacuation. Photo byTim Dennert onUnsplash.

As with any insurance policy, international health insurance coverage varies between providers. You’ll want to look out for any inclusions you’ll need as an individual, but in general, here’s what you can expect in terms of coverage.

What Travel Health Insurance Covers

Let’s start with the biggest concern—digital nomad health insurance will cover emergency medical treatment, including hospital stays, surgeries, doctor visits for treatment, and emergency room care.

This type of plan will also cover medical evacuation and repatriation. What’s this you may ask? Transport to the nearest medical facility, travel back home, and sometimes even the cost of flying a companion home with you.

You'll also receive some basics like routine check-ups, prescription coverage, annual screenings, virtual care, and even mental health counseling.

What Travel Health Insurance Does Not Cover

It’s important to note that many basic plans won’t provide typical coverage you would receive back home—this includes things like routine and preventative care. Most basic plans also won’t cover pre-existing conditions (and their corresponding treatment), elective procedures, injuries from adventure sports, and dental and vision. However, there is typically an upgrade available that will provide most of this coverage.

How Does Coverage Vary By Provider?

You'll want to look at the fine print of the policies you're considering as they often vary when it comes to what's included and/or excluded, and how the benefits will be administered. Some plans may provide medical coverage for injuries from adventure sports or mental health care, while others may not.

Policies may also differ in how they handle pre-existing conditions, prescription medications, emergency evacuation, and whether care must be received at specific in-network facilities.

Do You Need Digital Nomad Health Insurance?

If you travel long-term, especially internationally, travel health insurance is highly recommended. Photo byZ onUnsplash.

While you don’t necessarily need digital nomad health insurance, Zatarain highly encourages it—especially for those traveling long term.

She’s seen a lot in her experience and notes, “One guest had a dental emergency. Another guest fell off a street curb, broke her ankle, and needed to be airlifted for a specific surgery. A third guest sadly passed away, and his widow needed to make arrangements to have him sent back to the U.S.,” she recalls of some of her clients. “These simple but sad examples would have cost thousands of dollars if they did not have travel health insurance.”

Though some U.S. health insurance policies may offer select international coverage, they often do not provide full protection abroad. So relying on your home base insurance can be risky and may lead to costly medical expenses. In some cases, there may be an option to purchase "add-ons" to extend coverage abroad, but this still may not provide the same depth of coverage as a dedicated travel health insurance policy.

Digital Nomad Health Insurance Providers

While you won’t see the same names you’re used to when it comes to United States health coverage, these companies specialize in health insurance tailored for digital nomads.

World Nomads: tailored to independent travelers and adventurers and covers over 250 activities, including adventure sports
SafetyWing: specializes in global travel medical insurance for digital nomads and remote workers with subscription-based policies
Atlas Travel Insurance: specializes in short-term travel medical insurance for individuals traveling outside their home country
Allianz Global Assistance: specializes in business coverage and provides comprehensive coverage that includes trip cancellation and interruption
Insured Nomads: policies are designed for global travelers and remote workers. Their plans cover medical emergencies, evacuation, repatriation, crisis response, and mental health
IMG Global: offers a variety of international medical insurance plans for travelers, expatriates, and digital nomads
Heymondo: specializes in travel health insurance with a focus on digital nomads and long-term travelers
Travelex Insurance: offers a variety of travel insurance plans, particularly for family travel
AIG Travel Guard: provides a range of options for add-on coverage for customized plans, like coverage for pets and weddings

How to Choose a Digital Nomad Health Insurance Plan

The right plan for you depends on your travel plans, activities, length of stay, and more. Photo byRaimond Klavins onUnsplash.

Choosing the right insurance is a very personal process, so you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions before picking a policy. How long will you be traveling? Do you have the funds while traveling to pay out of pocket for medical care? What activities will you be doing? Will you be working? After you’ve answered those questions, here’s what you’ll need to consider.

Coverage Area

Confirm that the policy you’re considering provides medical coverage in every country (or state) you plan to visit—not just your primary destination. Some plans may exclude high-cost regions or charge additional fees to include them. Others may cover certain regions of a country or exclude a country altogether.

Length and Flexibility of Coverage

Digital nomads often travel indefinitely, so frankly, your typical vacation policy won’t cut it. You’ll want to look for month-to-month billing, easy extension policies or renewable long-term coverage.

Pre-Existing Conditions

If you’re dealing with any chronic conditions, pay extra attention here. Many basic travel health insurance policies do not cover pre-existing conditions or they require a long waiting period before covering them. Look for policies that offer riders or upgrades to include ongoing treatment, or at the very least, a limited coverage for flare-ups while you’re traveling.

Emergency vs. Routine Care

Many people are often more concerned with emergency care than routine care while traveling. But if you’re traveling long-term, you’ll want to consider both, and find a plan that includes both medical and emergency care.

Medical Evacuation and Repatriation

If you’re traveling to remote locations, you’ll need emergency evacuation to your nearest facility—something not all policies offer. You can also look for policies with repatriation coverage, which sends you directly home for treatment.

Another Option: Health Sharing

Health sharing is an affordable alternative to travel health insurance, but is typically faith-based. Photo byAleh Tsikhanau onUnsplash.

If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option, health sharing could be your answer. Health sharing programs are not insurance per-say, but more-so cooperative cost-sharing. This means members contribute monthly to cover each other’s medical expenses.

What Is Health Sharing?

Health sharing plans are typically run by nonprofit or religious organizations. If you choose to become a member, you’ll pay a monthly “share” instead of a premium. The collective funds will then be distributed to help cover medical expenses incurred by other members (including yourself, if needed). Though they don’t have as many regulations as insurance, these programs still offer structured benefits and guidelines for sharing costs.

Why Consider Health Sharing

These programs are attractive for their lower cost (approximately 30 to 50% less than traditional insurance policies) and freedom to choose your provider, as opposed to being tied to in-network doctors and facilities.

Limitations to Consider

Health sharing plans do not typically cover pre-existing conditions (without a long waiting period) and may have limits with emergency evacuation or maternity care. But the biggest one: They typically require members to follow certain lifestyle or faith-based guidelines to be a part of the program.

FAQs

Who needs to buy international health insurance?

Anyone traveling or seeking digital nomad accommodations for an extended period should consider purchasing international health insurance—especially if the travel time is longer than 30 to 90 days. This includes digital nomads, expats, remote workers, and long-term travelers. U.S. health plans typically will not cover medical care internationally or they will only reimburse for emergency care.

Is travel healthcare worth it?

If you’re traveling long-term, yes. It provides peace of mind and financial protection in case of unexpected illness, injury, or emergency evacuation. Without it, you could be spending thousands for something that could only cost you tens or hundreds with coverage.

How much does digital nomad health insurance cost?

As with most insurance policies, what you pay will vary based on coverage level, age, destination, and provider. Generally, you can expect to pay $40 to $250 per month. More basic plans start around $45/month for younger travelers, while full-coverage international health insurance for older travelers can be over $200/month.

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Article By: Lauren Keary

Lauren Keary’s passion for travel began during college when she sailed on Semester at Sea to 17 different countries. Since then, that number has grown to over 40. This passion for travel has also taken a foothold in her career, as she previously worked as a travel writer for BuzzFeed and the Evening Standard full-time, writing additional travel content for TripSavvy, Outside, and San Diego Magazine in her spare time. When she’s not writing about her adventures, you’ll probably catch her out on a hike with her dog Rusty, or looking for the best new coffee shop in town. But let’s be clear, she’s always going to be that friend in the friend group who’s catching flights (not feelings), so you’re much more likely to see her at 30,000 feet.