8 Reasons to Buy Travel Insurance: Why You Shouldn’t Skip Medical Insurance When You Travel (no matter how long your trip)

SPONSORED — If you’re like me, planning for a trip is both fun—and—stressful. There’s that typical pre-trip checklist with all the things you need to do before departure. Booking your flights, finding a cool hotel, reading up on the best things to see & do. It’s all a bit magical.

But then you’ve got to figure out what to pack. How much to budget. There are the last-minute trip cancellations, the lost luggage, the regular hang-ups that can turn a relaxing holiday into anything but.

That’s why it’s important to buy a travel medical insurance before you board your flight. Travel insurance provides the peace-of-mind that you’ll be protected in case the unthinkable happens.

Why Having Travel Insurance is Important

Travel insurance is one of the most important things you can pack for a trip—and thankfully it’s easy to pack because it can be booked online! There have been countless times while traveling that I was thankful to have travel insurance.

In the past, I’ve had to use it when dealing with emergency medical situations in Spain, the fear of terrorism while traveling in the Middle East, and dealing with various travel hassles (lost luggage) in Southeast Asia.

Choosing the Best Insurance

Unfortunately, finding and buying travel insurance is often a pain. Researching plans, providing a detailed travel itinerary, or maybe even providing all your current & existing medical information in a form to wait for an approval. I get it: it’s often a needlessly complicated process.

But that’s where SafetyWing comes in. Signing up for insurance before a trip is so easy with SafetyWing. It’s just a handful of clicks and then you’re protected!

Policies are administered by Tokio Marine—the largest insurance provider in the world, but what sets SafetyWing apart from other travel insurances?

When you use SafetyWing, you subscribe to their policies with a start date and can cancel at any time. And unlike other travel insurance policies, there is no cap on the duration of a travel. That makes the policies from SafetyWing some of the best available for digital nomads.

8 Reasons to Buy Travel Medical Insurance

1. It’s easier to buy than you think

Having a proper travel insurance for your travels is so much easier than you probably think. For frequent travelers, it’s sometimes a hassle to buy a new policy for each individual trip, which is why the SafetyWing process (a subscription model) is so much easier.

With a subscription-based travel insurance policy, you get the peace of mind of constant coverage while abroad. SafetyWing makes it easy to book travel insurance before your trip or even once you’re already on the road. Easy!

2. It’s actually affordable

Travel insurance is always more affordable than travelers believe. Especially when you buy an annual policy to cover medical, personal liability, and travel assistance. Annual policies provide the best deals for frequent travelers and digital nomads.

With SafetyWing, there’s a $250 deductible and $250k maximum limit. Policies are as low as $37 for 4 weeks of coverage!

3. Worldwide coverage (and limited home country coverage, too)

When living abroad as a digital nomad, it’s important to have an insurance policy that can work everywhere. Some travel insurance providers only provide coverage out of your home country, but as a digital nomad, we sometimes end up visiting friends and family at home. It’s important to make sure you’ve got coverage for those home trips.

When living abroad, my trips home to America were always stressful because I didn’t know what insurance I needed for those short trips to visit family, so having a policy that covered me was important.

With SafetyWing, coverage is available for 180 countries, and includes limited coverage for your home country as well. For USA travelers, it includes up to 15 days of coverage in the USA for every 90 days. Other countries are granted 30 days of coverage at home per 90 days.

4. You can buy it even while traveling

Buying travel insurance is easy, and even easier when insurance providers allow you the option to buy new policies or renew subscriptions while you’re still traveling. That’s useful for travelers who extend their trips or lazy travelers (hi) that might skip that step when planning a trip!

5. You never know when you might need medical help

Traveling is fun and exciting (and sometimes a bit risky), but it’s important to have insurance coverage for accidents and unexpected emergencies. Whether it’s renting a motorbike in Vietnam or a cycling tour in Berlin, it just makes sense to have medical coverage for your travels.

One time, while hiking up Gibraltar in southern Spain (alone), I ended up getting a really bad allergy reaction and my eye puffed up to a massive size. The allergy/irritation only started to happen while I was on the bus back from Gibraltar to my hostel in Cadiz – a several hours bus journey!

I spent most of the bus ride terrified, unsure how to react… I sat in a panic and waited and when the bus got to Cadiz, I got off near the hospital and went straight there. It didn’t take too long to get seen by a doctor, where I got yelled at for not speaking enough Spanish. But with my travel medical insurance, I was promptly seen at the hospital, given a prescription, and filled it quickly at a pharmacy open-late.

Having the travel medical insurance allowed for me to be reimbursed for some of those expenses, and the peace-of-mind that no matter how scary the situation was, I knew I’d be safe in the end.

6. It covers sports & activities

When traveling, we tend to take more risks and go on more adventures. Group tour activities such as running tours, canoeing, kayaking, cycling, or safaris are all popular things to do in so many destinations around the world. While touring is fun, having a travel insurance policy that covers those kinds of non-professional activities is so important.

There’s a special joy to trying new things when traveling. I love taking tours I normally wouldn’t take, such as kayaking in Thailand, or bungee jumping in Italy. But I would never take those leaps (literally) without first having insurance that I know covers the experience.

SafetyWing covers over 90 different sports & activities (non-professional, non-organized) for travelers. View the full Description of Coverage for more info.

7. Coverage for travel delays & lost luggage

With travel insurance, you get the peace of mind for medical coverage, but policies often include additional coverage for the specific needs of travelers. We all know that travel delays and cancellations are inevitable. It’s just a part of traveling (especially for digital nomads).

That’s why having a travel insurance policy which protects your rights is so important. Lost luggage from a flight can mean lost time & money while traveling—when you should be relaxing on holiday.

8. Natural disasters can strike anytime

It’s rare for disasters to happen while traveling, but anything is possible. Make sure you buy a travel insurance that can provide for all kinds of emergency situations, especially natural disasters. You never know when a volcanic eruption could disrupt travel, or when emergency evacuations may be necessary due to hurricanes.

I traveled to the Caribbean during hurricane season one year. My weekend trip was just following one of the most horrific hurricanes to hit the region in years, but with my hotel resort open and unaffected, I still took the trip. But you can bet I had booked travel insurance in case there was an emergency evacuation—and it’s a good thing I did because not just two days after my trip ended (and I was home) another hurricane had hit the islands!

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Using SafetyWing While Traveling

SafetyWing insurance provides coverage for unexpected illness or injury, including eligible expenses for hospital, doctor or prescription drugs. This means that if you get ill or injured, they will cover eligible medical expenses. For a complete list of exclusions and limitations, check out the full Description of Coverage.

SafetyWing provides travel insurance coverage for those traveling outside their home country (with limited home country coverage). It does not cover routine checkups and preventative care. In addition, it provides emergency travel-related benefits such as emergency medical evacuation, bedside visit, travel delay, and lost checked luggage.

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What makes SafetyWing different from other providers?

Completely reliable. SafetyWing is a Y-Combinator company and the policy is administered by Tokio Marine, one of the largest insurance companies in the world.

Extremely flexible. Works like a subscription: choose your start date and cancel any time. There is no cap on the duration of a travel.

Great value. Starting from $37/4 weeks for a travel medical coverage. This is 1/3rd price compared to the biggest competitor for a similar coverage.

Worldwide coverage. SafetyWing has worldwide coverage and also a limited home country coverage.

Can be purchased almost anywhere (even while traveling). It is available for purchase in 180 countries and can be purchased when already traveling.

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It’s quite easy to let fear of a strange place, the political tension of a region, or a fear of falling ill control our travel adventures. But when you’ve got the right tools, the world doesn’t have to feel so scary. So, make sure you buy travel insurance before your next trip. But never think it’s too late to buy, either! Better safe than sorry.

Learn more about SafetyWing here.