Insurance

The verdict

Genki splits the problem in two rather than selling one product to everybody. Traveler is monthly travel health cover, capped at twelve months in total; Native is a long-term international health policy you can keep for life once you are on it. That makes Genki the better answer of the five if you expect to stop being a tourist, and the Premium tier of Native covers maternity, dental and mental health. You need to be under 55 to join Native and pass a medical questionnaire, and cover in the USA is heavily restricted, so it suits European long-term travellers far better than anyone heading for New York.

Genki is the European answer to SafetyWing, and the two are worth comparing side by side because they solve slightly different problems. Genki Traveler is the direct equivalent: monthly billing, worldwide cover outside your home country, a small deductible, and up to a million euros…

The verdict

This is conventional trip insurance rather than a health plan, and that is the point of including it: it covers your baggage, your cancelled flights and your interrupted trip as well as your body, which the pure nomad health products largely do not. It suits defined trips of up to twelve months where the gear matters as much as the medical cover. It is not for settling somewhere, and it is not a substitute for ongoing healthcare. Be careful reading reviews of it, because cover and even plan names change depending on which country you buy from.

World Nomads is the one most travellers have heard of, and it does a different job from the rest of this list. It is travel insurance in the old sense: medical emergencies, yes, but also a stolen laptop, a cancelled flight, a trip cut short…

The verdict

This is full international private medical insurance, not travel cover, built in modules: you choose a core inpatient tier and add outpatient, dental, vision and evacuation on top. It is the only one here with no upper age limit on joining or renewing, and the Platinum tier pays inpatient treatment with no annual cap. That makes it the grown-up option for older remote workers and higher earners who want something they can keep. It is an annual contract at a serious price, with medical underwriting rather than instant sign-up, so it is the wrong shape for anyone wanting a cheap month-to-month plan.

Cigna Global is what you buy when the monthly nomad plans have stopped being enough: an international health policy you hold like any other, rather than travel cover you renew between trips. It is sold in modules. The core covers inpatient and daypatient treatment, capped…

The verdict

IMG is an old underwriter rather than a nomad brand, and its appeal is that you can tune the policy rather than take what you are given: four coverage maximums from $50,000 to a million, and a deductible you set anywhere from zero to $2,500. Patriot is travel medical, renewable up to twenty-four months; their Global Medical line is separate and is the one for living abroad. It suits people who are happy reading a policy wording and want the premium shaped to a budget. If you want one headline price and a two-click sign-up, buy elsewhere.

IMG has been underwriting international medical cover since long before anyone used the word nomad, and Patriot is its travel medical plan. The useful part is the configurability. Most plans on this page give you a tier and a price; Patriot gives you a coverage…