As far as I and many of my senior nomadic friends are concerned, the biggest problem with all 3 of these companies you mention is - and I quote right off of their website .....
"Unfortunately we don't offer travel health insurance for ages 70+"
This leaves a whole lot of us stuck with the only option of paying literally 100's if not 1000's of $$ to be covered just for a short getaway, of 2-3 weeks, not a typical nomadic excursion of 3-4-6 months. None of these companies care about your overall health, just that you have reached the milestone of REALLY OLD AT 70 and you should either stay home, stop traveling, or rob a bank so you can afford to pay their premium. NOT FAIR!!!
I also appreciate your careful research but think there’s a huge hole for us older folks who FINALLY have the time, desire and means to travel but are the most likely demographic to have health issues, sudden or otherwise. We just have to take our chances and pray we don’t tumble over pretty cobblestones or drop a sharp knife into our bare foot (as I once did in Kobe).
This is SUCH an important topic – thank you so much for writing about it! Something to consider when you take out travel insurance: check to see whether the policy covers flying a family member over to fly to you, should you be hospitalised – and then tell your family (and send them a copy of your policy).
I am South African, and a few years back my brother was hospitalised for three weeks after a car accident in the USA left almost everything on the left side of his body broken. His insurance covered all medical bills, and flew a nurse from South Africa to Michigan to travel back with him (business class), but no-one knew that insurance would have paid for a family member to go and spend those three lonely weeks with him.
Thank you SO much for your research. We have decent insurance COBRA’d through my husband’s former employer & we can sign up for the Italian system soon (🤞🙏) But. Our son just turned 26, lives in CA & spends a lot of time back in Italy with us. It’s been a nightmare figuring out how to get him
covered. This (& an earlier post of yours) has been an enormous help.
Hi, this article was super helpful! I'm interested to hear if you have any suggestions for someone with pre-existing conditions that have been treated within the past 6 months. What should they do? Thanks!
We're in our first month of full-time world travel and have experienced the hardest time finding coverage. We tried Cigna Global but it was quite expensive and very difficult to activate while abroad.
We just signed up for Genki through your link. Thanks so much for this information!
Thanks for the well-reasoned article. I paid out of pocket for medical care in Spain this year, and it was a lot more affordable than _having_ health insurance in the US. I would never want to go back to the US for health care, but I do understand your perspective on this topic. When I was a resident of Mexico I purchased World Nomads for my trips to the states, but since I'm no longer a resident of any country, I can't do that anymore. I just invite friends and family to visit me instead. 😁
The other important thing about World Nomads is that they explicitly state you have to first be covered in your country of residence. (Or at least that's how it was when I purchased it from 2018 to 2021). This might be relevant to some of your readers.
Great, detailed article. But as you can see from the many comments we need a similar article on travel insurance for those over 70. PLEASE, PLEASE , PLEASE do this and I pinky promise to upgrade! Another similar comparison on emergency evacuation policies would be helpful too.
Interesting read, had not heard of Genki--new companies are invariably the cheapest, as claims haven’t pushed up the costs of their doing business. Re Nomads, as you say the policy changes depending on where you are from, which, while confusing this can be beneficial. The $100,000 limit on medical is true for Americans, but for Australians it is $5,000,000--quite a difference. When I was hospitalized in Oz Nomads stepped in and paid the lot--I didn’t even have to get my wallet out, was around $25k for memory. But, importantly, this was before the company was sold to NIB, and I’m not sure how that would go now. But yeah, the whole industry is a rats nest and very difficult to do simple research and on comparisons--no doubt by design.
Which is Better: SafetyWing, World Nomads, or Genki?
As far as I and many of my senior nomadic friends are concerned, the biggest problem with all 3 of these companies you mention is - and I quote right off of their website .....
"Unfortunately we don't offer travel health insurance for ages 70+"
This leaves a whole lot of us stuck with the only option of paying literally 100's if not 1000's of $$ to be covered just for a short getaway, of 2-3 weeks, not a typical nomadic excursion of 3-4-6 months. None of these companies care about your overall health, just that you have reached the milestone of REALLY OLD AT 70 and you should either stay home, stop traveling, or rob a bank so you can afford to pay their premium. NOT FAIR!!!
Thanks for the article and the extensive research. It infuriates me that so little travel insurance is available to older people.
I also appreciate your careful research but think there’s a huge hole for us older folks who FINALLY have the time, desire and means to travel but are the most likely demographic to have health issues, sudden or otherwise. We just have to take our chances and pray we don’t tumble over pretty cobblestones or drop a sharp knife into our bare foot (as I once did in Kobe).
This is SUCH an important topic – thank you so much for writing about it! Something to consider when you take out travel insurance: check to see whether the policy covers flying a family member over to fly to you, should you be hospitalised – and then tell your family (and send them a copy of your policy).
I am South African, and a few years back my brother was hospitalised for three weeks after a car accident in the USA left almost everything on the left side of his body broken. His insurance covered all medical bills, and flew a nurse from South Africa to Michigan to travel back with him (business class), but no-one knew that insurance would have paid for a family member to go and spend those three lonely weeks with him.
Clearly a quandary for those over 69 and want to travel with insurance.
Thank you SO much for your research. We have decent insurance COBRA’d through my husband’s former employer & we can sign up for the Italian system soon (🤞🙏) But. Our son just turned 26, lives in CA & spends a lot of time back in Italy with us. It’s been a nightmare figuring out how to get him
covered. This (& an earlier post of yours) has been an enormous help.
Hi, this article was super helpful! I'm interested to hear if you have any suggestions for someone with pre-existing conditions that have been treated within the past 6 months. What should they do? Thanks!
I assume this has been added since this article was published, but I see now that genki has a plan with NO age restrictions! (Genki resident)
We're in our first month of full-time world travel and have experienced the hardest time finding coverage. We tried Cigna Global but it was quite expensive and very difficult to activate while abroad.
We just signed up for Genki through your link. Thanks so much for this information!
Thank you very helpful to start my research 😊
Thanks for the well-reasoned article. I paid out of pocket for medical care in Spain this year, and it was a lot more affordable than _having_ health insurance in the US. I would never want to go back to the US for health care, but I do understand your perspective on this topic. When I was a resident of Mexico I purchased World Nomads for my trips to the states, but since I'm no longer a resident of any country, I can't do that anymore. I just invite friends and family to visit me instead. 😁
The other important thing about World Nomads is that they explicitly state you have to first be covered in your country of residence. (Or at least that's how it was when I purchased it from 2018 to 2021). This might be relevant to some of your readers.
Too bad about the age limit - I just turned 69. Do you know of any companies that cover us very WISE ones?
Great, detailed article. But as you can see from the many comments we need a similar article on travel insurance for those over 70. PLEASE, PLEASE , PLEASE do this and I pinky promise to upgrade! Another similar comparison on emergency evacuation policies would be helpful too.
Interesting read, had not heard of Genki--new companies are invariably the cheapest, as claims haven’t pushed up the costs of their doing business. Re Nomads, as you say the policy changes depending on where you are from, which, while confusing this can be beneficial. The $100,000 limit on medical is true for Americans, but for Australians it is $5,000,000--quite a difference. When I was hospitalized in Oz Nomads stepped in and paid the lot--I didn’t even have to get my wallet out, was around $25k for memory. But, importantly, this was before the company was sold to NIB, and I’m not sure how that would go now. But yeah, the whole industry is a rats nest and very difficult to do simple research and on comparisons--no doubt by design.
Now the age limit is yet another barrier for me to travel. Sigh.