Jun 4, 2023Liked by Brent Hartinger, Michael Jensen
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.
Jun 4, 2023Liked by Brent Hartinger, Michael Jensen
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.
I really appreciate your perspective on this, as you mention things I had interpreted differently. What an eye opener!
I think I've gotten around the World Nomads challenges you mention by purchasing monthly, or just for the duration I absolutely know I will be in/out of country, and where I'll be, which is easier to figure if I've booked that lodging already.
But, of course, sometimes I have no idea where I'm going.
But I only purchase for what I know, when I know it. Sometimes that means purchasing at the last minute, which I really need.
For instance, I needed OR, ID, MT coverage one month, then CA for several after that.
I just assume all travel insurance is ER only, and that they will take forever to reimburse, which has proven true.
My World Nomads, in USA, is now averaging around $120/month for a 55 yo (used to be less, though maybe that was because I was in Europe?).
I am definitely more closely comparing WN to Genki now, thanks to your concerns!
Dang, maybe I should have gone with Genki. I have the SafetyWing Nomad Insurance subscription because it's got some travel insurance type protections in addition to medical - like you said, lost luggage and Trip Delay (if you have an unexpected flight delay of more than 12 hours, they'll put up to $100 per day towards your overnight hotel). But upon further reading of my policy I've realized they don't have any kind of trip PROTECTION, meaning reimbursement of cancelled or rescheduled flights.
The one time I've had to make a trip insurance claim (World Nomads), it was because an airline went bankrupt and just cancelled all of their future flights entirely, and they couldn't refund any customers at all. I was stuck abroad with no flight, had to get a 10 hour overnight bus and then purchase a new flight home from a different city. World Nomads reimbursed me for the extra costs I had to pay, more than $600. This is the type of issue I'm worried about running into and I'm bummed that my Nomad Insurance with SafetyWing doesn't seem to cover that type of thing. What do you guys do for that stuff? Do you buy Genki and also buy separate travel insurance like with World Nomads? Or when you purchase flights do you get the extra trip protection the airlines always try to sell you during checkout?
Thank you so much for your continued delving into nomad healthcare. I think I have used all of your articles to backup my own research. Genki was my choice for 2024 also. Here’s hoping they will figure out people over 69 are worthy of insurance by the time we get there!
Thank you for the well written and comprehensive article - I just became a subscriber. This article made me consider Genki, but it has been two weeks since I emailed dr-Walter about coverage and no reply. Have you heard reports from people that filed claims?
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.
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.
I really appreciate your perspective on this, as you mention things I had interpreted differently. What an eye opener!
I think I've gotten around the World Nomads challenges you mention by purchasing monthly, or just for the duration I absolutely know I will be in/out of country, and where I'll be, which is easier to figure if I've booked that lodging already.
But, of course, sometimes I have no idea where I'm going.
But I only purchase for what I know, when I know it. Sometimes that means purchasing at the last minute, which I really need.
For instance, I needed OR, ID, MT coverage one month, then CA for several after that.
I just assume all travel insurance is ER only, and that they will take forever to reimburse, which has proven true.
My World Nomads, in USA, is now averaging around $120/month for a 55 yo (used to be less, though maybe that was because I was in Europe?).
I am definitely more closely comparing WN to Genki now, thanks to your concerns!
Dang, maybe I should have gone with Genki. I have the SafetyWing Nomad Insurance subscription because it's got some travel insurance type protections in addition to medical - like you said, lost luggage and Trip Delay (if you have an unexpected flight delay of more than 12 hours, they'll put up to $100 per day towards your overnight hotel). But upon further reading of my policy I've realized they don't have any kind of trip PROTECTION, meaning reimbursement of cancelled or rescheduled flights.
The one time I've had to make a trip insurance claim (World Nomads), it was because an airline went bankrupt and just cancelled all of their future flights entirely, and they couldn't refund any customers at all. I was stuck abroad with no flight, had to get a 10 hour overnight bus and then purchase a new flight home from a different city. World Nomads reimbursed me for the extra costs I had to pay, more than $600. This is the type of issue I'm worried about running into and I'm bummed that my Nomad Insurance with SafetyWing doesn't seem to cover that type of thing. What do you guys do for that stuff? Do you buy Genki and also buy separate travel insurance like with World Nomads? Or when you purchase flights do you get the extra trip protection the airlines always try to sell you during checkout?
Thank you so much for your continued delving into nomad healthcare. I think I have used all of your articles to backup my own research. Genki was my choice for 2024 also. Here’s hoping they will figure out people over 69 are worthy of insurance by the time we get there!
Thank you for the well written and comprehensive article - I just became a subscriber. This article made me consider Genki, but it has been two weeks since I emailed dr-Walter about coverage and no reply. Have you heard reports from people that filed claims?
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.