When planning a trip to any country, you need to take care of lots of things, one of them being a travel medical insurance. Many countries nowadays require you to have travel insurance, no matter if you have a visa-free entrance or not. It’s just an important step to guarantee your safety in a foreign country if something happens. Here, I am reviewing some of the best budget travel insurance companies and explaining why you need them.
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But before I get into reviewing companies, let’s talk about travel medical insurance first.
What is travel medical insurance?
Travel medical insurance or travel insurance is a service for travelers who need short health insurance coverage while traveling for pleasure or business anywhere outside their home country. In other words, this ensures to protect your health and cover your medical emergencies if needed.
Note that most domestic health insurance companies don’t include travel medical insurance service and won’t be covering your dental or medical expenses abroad. Moreover, you might not be able to leave the visiting country until you clear your medical bills before returning home. So having a travel medical insurance is an absolute necessity.
What does travel insurance cover?
This solemnly depends on the travel insurance company, it’s travel insurance policies, and what package you have. However, these are the most frequent medical emergency examples travel insurance can cover:
- Being injured
- Toothache
- Food poisoning at a restaurant
- Going to the Emergency Room
- The need for an ambulance
In addition to the typical medical emergency coverage, right and comprehensive travel insurance may also cover:
- Trip cancellation insurance for any reason
- Baggage insurance be it delayed, lost, damaged, or stolen
- Trip delay
What doesn’t it cover?
Again, this also depends on the company. Most of the companies may cover trip cancellation, BUT the reason for the cancellation is essential because not everything is covered in the end. Some of the reasons for typical trip cancellation coverage may be:
- Injury or illness of insured, family member, travel companion, or business partner
- Natural disaster at the destination country
- Bankruptcy or financial problems of travel company
- Terrorism at the destination country
- Home or business vandalized, damaged, or burglarized
- Victim of illegal assault before the trip
- Theft of passport or visa before the trip
- Traffic accident before the trip
- etc.
How much does it cost?
Just like it’s coverage, the travel insurance cost relies on various factors, including the company and the package you have; therefore, the rates change regularly. With that said, the travel insurance cost can depend on trip length, traveler’s age, gender, and the medical coverage amount, to name a few. However, below are some of the best budget travel medical insurance companies with price points and advantages. So keep on reading.
Top 4 Budget travel insurance companies
SafetyWing – one of the best travel insurance for digital nomads and anyone in general
SafetyWing is a relatively new addition to travel medical insurance companies and prides itself on being the world’s first international travel medical insurance for digital nomads and remote workers anywhere in the world. It’s a Y-Combinator company whose policy has been administered by one of the biggest insurance companies – Tokio Marine.
Starting from only $37/4 weeks, SafetyWing travel medical insurance includes:
- Accidental injury or illness which includes charges for hospital, doctor, or medicine.
- Emergency medical evacuation
- Natural disasters
- Trip delay
- Baggage insurance for lost checked-in luggage
What’s not included in SafetyWing travel medical insurance:
- Routine check-ups
- Cancer treatment
- Pre-existing conditions
- For a full list of exclusions refer to the Description of Coverage document
How does SafetyWing stand out from others?
The company has an extremely flexible payment option: you choose a start date, and it automatically renews until you cancel, like a subscription-based service. There is no limit on the duration of your travel.
It has a cheap travel insurance plan: With only a $37/4 weeks package, you get worldwide travel medical insurance if you are between 10-39 years old. The price increases a bit for those who are over 40 years old. Children between 14 days and nine years old can travel with an adult on a group policy at $0. And if you plan a trip to the US, it adds an additional $31/4 weeks to your travel insurance cost, but it still is a relatively low price compared to other companies.
Their customer service and support are always available, 24/7, whenever you need them, while Tokio Marine handles all the claims.
Besides worldwide coverage, SafetyWing travel medical insurance also includes limited home insurance coverage. The insurance is available in 180 countries, and unlike many other services, you can buy travel insurance online if you are already traveling.
Additionally, if you’ll be with a group, you can purchase travel medical insurance on behalf of the whole group.
If you have additional questions, check out their travel insurance FAQs.
Allianz Global Assistance – a best budget travel insurance for US citizens
Owned by Allianz SE, Allianz Global Assistance is one of the biggest travel insurance companies offering cheap travel insurance plans for US citizens traveling internationally. The company has a wide range of services, such as single trip travel insurance, multi trip travel insurance, and rental car insurance.
The price of the travel insurance plan depends on which product you’ll be buying. For instance, the single trip travel insurance cost relies on the duration of the trip, age of the traveler, destination country, and state residence. While multi trip insurance cost depends on the start and the end date of your travels, the total cost of your trip, and the state of residence. Additionally, they have upgrades to each insurance plan so you can check them out and see whichever suits your needs best.
World Nomads – adventurer and backpacker travel insturance
Created by travelers for travelers, World Nomads is another popular travel insurance service that offers reasonable prices. They provide a wide range of travel insurance coverage, including:
- Basic emergency overseas medical and dental coverage
- Baggage protection
- Pregnancy (for citizens of certain countries)
- 24/7 customer assistance
- Stolen credit cards and passports
- Medical transportation
- Emergency evacuation
- etc.
The list is long, so check here to see the full options and exclusions.
World Nomads travel insurance cost depends on your country of residence, destination country, a period of traveling, and age. In
STA travel insurance – student travel insurance
Generally, STA is an online travel agency offering great travel packages and flight deals. Their budget-friendly prices make it an ideal student travel insurance.
The company provides backpacker and student travel insurance coverage at low prices, making it ideal for those students taking a gap year, or teachers who travel a lot. Click here to get a quote from them.
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