Your Guide
Mose Hayward
Travel Nerd
I’ve had a travel companion slip and fall, shattering an ankle. And I’ve had several more come down with serious infections. Fortunately, I’ve never had something so serious myself, but I’ve accompanied a number of travel buddies to foreign hospitals, put my language skills to the test, and seen the value each time of them (thankfully) being well-insured for accidents and illness. So I’ve always been insured myself as well, wherever I wander.
Finding travel medical insurance that actually fits my transient lifestyle was previously a massive headache. Traditional policies are built for two-week vacations, not a life spent constantly crossing borders.
I’ve been hopping between countries for decades and hopping between insurers as well. Then I tried SafetyWing. Moving between Mexico, Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal, Peru, Turkey, and Serbia over the course of three years, I kept my SafetyWing insurance subscription going every time I was outside of my residence country. I went dancing a lot everywhere, took long-distance buses around Brazil, and partied with old folks in Belgrade. All the while, my insurance was taken care of.
I used SafetyWing precisely because of its subscription function. Here is a straightforward look at how SafetyWing Nomad Insurance actually works on the ground.
SafetyWing: In a Nutshell
I actually used SafetyWing as my travel medical insurance for years. Here are the key points to know:
- Unlike most travel insurance, it’s built for the needs of the constant wanderer.
- It’s extremely well-priced (specifics depend on your age and situation).
- It’s easy to turn off and on as needed or to just leave running (set and forget).
- The Essential plan does not cover pre-existing conditions or standard checkups—it’s purely for the unexpected, but quite complete in that sense.
This review mainly covers the Safety Wing Essential plan, which is what I used. There is also a Complete Plan, which I’ll mention a bit too; it is more expensive and offers full health insurance including for routine care in your home country.
What is SafetyWing Essential Travel Medical Insurance? At its core, SafetyWing Essential is a safety net built specifically by and for digital nomads. It understands that travel isn’t always a discrete trip with a set end date; for many of us, travel is a way of life. Instead of demanding an exact itinerary, it functions as a global policy. You turn it on when you leave your home country, and it covers you almost anywhere in the world. It operates on a recurring four-week billing cycle, meaning you can treat it like your Netflix subscription—let it roll when you are abroad, and pause it when you are back home. For anyone like me looking for long term travel insurance, this structural flexibility is the main draw. You can keep it running without thinking about it or sign up for discrete periods spent outside your home country.
What is Covered (and What Isn’t): Be aware that the SafetyWing Essential plan discussed here is travel medical insurance; it is not health insurance.
What does that mean in practice? It is there for the unexpected. If you get hit by a scooter in São Paulo, come down with a viral infection in Mexico, or break a leg on a road in Turkey, it covers the hospital stays, doctors, and prescription drugs for that acute emergency. Crucially, it also covers COVID-19 just like any other illness. You’re covered if your luggage gets lost or even if you need an emergency medical evacuation. Optional add-ons can cover adventure sports and electronics theft.
What isn’t covered? Routine check-ups, preventative care, cancer treatments, or pre-existing conditions. If you just want to visit a local clinic for a standard physical, you are paying out of pocket.
How to Purchase a Policy: The signup process is frictionless. You go to their site, punch in your details, and you can be covered in minutes. I typically did this the day before leaving my country of residence.
How to Cancel: Canceling is just as easy as signing up, which is rare in the insurance industry. There is no need to call a retention department or wait on hold. You log into your dashboard and hit stop. Because it bills every 28 days, your coverage simply ends at the close of your current billing cycle.
Choosing a SafetyWing Plan
The Essential Plan (The Disaster Net)
This is the plan I relied on. It is travel medical insurance, full stop. For just a few bucks per day (pricing depends on age and situation), you keep from going bankrupt you catch a serious illness or get in an accident. It also bundles in coverage for lost checked luggage and travel delays.
What it won’t do is pay for a routine physical, therapy, or a dental checkup and cleaning. It is strictly for acute emergencies. Furthermore, if you get a new illness on this plan, it is covered for that policy period, but once the 364-day maximum resets, it becomes a “pre-existing condition” and is excluded moving forward. This is the exact plan you want if you are living out of a suitcase across multiple continents but could still go back and rely on a home base for your routine healthcare.
The Complete Plan (True Health Insurance)
The Complete plan is actual global health insurance. It costs a few times more, but also includes routine check-ups, mental health support, wellness therapies, cancer treatments, and maternity care.
Crucially, it is renewable indefinitely—meaning if you develop a chronic condition while on the plan, they cannot classify it as a pre-existing condition the next year. So even if you are healthy now, you might consider the complete plan if it would be difficult to get on your home country’s insurance upon coming down with a condition and ending your travels and your travel medical insurance.
The Complete Plan also removes the 30-day limit on home country visits that the Essential plan enforces, and upgrades the travel protections to cover things like stolen wallets and higher-value electronics. The catch? It requires a 12-month commitment. You cannot simply toggle it on for a six-week stint in Peru and turn it off when you get home. It is for full-time nomads who have completely severed ties with a national healthcare system.
The Reality Check: My Experience
Over my three years of navigating different time zones, SafetyWing nailed the administrative side of keeping me insured. It was incredibly easy to use and flexible. I only paid for it when I was actually living or traveling outside of my home country. The dashboard is clean, and managing the subscription is painless. I don’t think I could have found a cheaper solution or an easier one for my case.
Fortunately, my experience with SafetyWing was purely administrative. I never had to actually file a medical claim.
The interface for making a claim looks straightforward on their website. I cannot personally vouch for their payout speed or how they handle the friction of a medical emergency. As with all insurance companies, you’ll find a mix of experiences reported in forums, with the complaints being vocalized the loudest (people don’t take to these forums to talk about being covered in exactly the way that they expected). Looking at the overall mix, I felt safe enough being covered by them—as safe as I’d feel with any other insurance, at least.
There is another important issue for me. I am not currently using SafetyWing, and the reason is simple: the platform does not currently support my official country of residence. Due to international insurance regulations, they restrict coverage for residents of certain countries. Even though the coverage is marketed heavily toward borderless living, rigid legal borders still apply. I would still be a customer today if they supported my residency.
SafetyWing provides excellent user experience and unparalleled flexibility as international travel medical insurance for long-term travel. Just be fully aware of the residency restrictions, understand exactly which plan is right for your needs.
