§ Health & insurance

International health insurance

also called global health insurance · IPMI · expat health insurance

Ongoing medical cover valid across multiple countries, closer to a health plan than a trip policy.

Expat insuranceHealth system enrollment…Nomad insuranceReciprocal healthcare ag…Travel insuranceTravel medical insuranceInternational health insurance
Solid lines are terms people actually mix up with International health insurance. Expat insurance · Health system enrollment (abroad) · Nomad insurance · Reciprocal healthcare agreement · Travel insurance · Travel medical insurance

Right, in plain English

Proper, ongoing health cover that works across several countries, much closer to a normal health plan than a holiday policy. It handles routine visits, ongoing conditions and the everyday side of medicine, not just emergencies. Travel insurance, by contrast, is built for short trips and skips most of that.

Someone living between countries for a couple of years needs a regular prescription refilled and a check-up for an ongoing condition. A trip policy would cover none of it, while this kind of plan treats those visits the way a health plan back home would.

Why it matters

It provides real healthcare for long-term life abroad, including routine and chronic care travel insurance skips.

Health cover abroad · 7 terms

Travel insurance covers a trip and assumes you have a home health system to go back to, paying mainly for emergencies, cancellations and lost bags; travel medical insurance is the thinner version focused only on emergency treatment while travelling, and Schengen travel insurance is a travel policy that meets a visa's minimum.
International health insurance and expat insurance are ongoing plans that replace a home health system while you live somewhere else, and nomad insurance is a start-and-stop version sold to people already on the move.
A reciprocal healthcare agreement is not insurance at all but a deal between two governments, which the EHIC and GHIC cards let you use, while health system enrollment is joining a country's public system as a resident.
Home country exclusion and exclusion describe what these policies deliberately leave out.

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