also called travel health insurance
Cover focused on emergency medical treatment while travelling, a subset of broader travel insurance.
Cover aimed at emergency medical treatment while you are travelling, a slice of the broader travel insurance world. Some visas require it. But its emergency-only focus leaves real gaps for anyone actually living somewhere, since it is not built for the routine or ongoing care that international health insurance handles.
Someone living abroad for a year buys a cheap travel medical policy to satisfy a visa, then tries to use it for a regular check-up and a recurring prescription. The policy only pays for sudden emergencies, so all the ordinary, planned care they actually need comes straight out of pocket.
Some visas require it, but its emergency-only scope leaves gaps for anyone living somewhere long term.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
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.
Expat insurance · Health system enrollment (abroad) · International health insurance · Nomad insurance · Reciprocal healthcare agreement · Travel insurance
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