Hi everyone, i landed in Mexico yesterday, I am here for 3 weeks, and am normally a resident in Germany. Does anyone have suggestions for a travel health insurance that I can start after my trip has started?

Is this the Nomads Insure advertising channel?

Hey! How are you? Anyone has had any experiences with the recommended provider? (SafetyWing)

Please, who is this broker?

You basically have to guess where you'll be sick more often or less often than the average of your age group.

If more often, you put those values low, if less often you put them high.

It's also a question of financial stability and comfort. If you have some money in your account then paying for the first 1,000 Bucks a year safes you 1,200 Bucks a year in premiums (rule of thumb). If you have less medical bills than that then you safe money for sure. But also you'd need to keep track of your expenses and store the bills to file them in case you exceed the agreed deductible amount.
Shared cost/co-pay is just another version of a fixed deductible. Some providers offer that. Others don't.

I filed a claim at Genki

Learned a very big lesson

I bought insurance the day before my trip starts

A few days into the trip, I got really sick from the flu and decided to see a doctor thinking they would reimburse me but my claim got denied for the ff reason 🤯

The first 14 days of coverage are limited to accidents and life-threatening emergencies.
Invoices from treatment 18.01.2025 do not fall within the insured period and are not eligible for reimbursement.

Guys do you know if there is a way to have a surgery done to the jaw (for functional reasons) using insurance? Like in a legit way
I always thought I had to pay for it in cash to do it good with a private clinic, but maybe I can use an insurance? any advice would be really appreciated, i've been needing this thing for all my life

I doubt an international health insurance would cover that, as they would most likely consider it a prior condition, not something that occurred during their insurance period.

I'm from italy, this was covered by public health

This happens a lot. The Mawista was a better fit for me then Genki and they have a 7 days warmup period.

I've made some similar experiences in the past, although with a relatively expensive treatment (~$25k).
Since then I've become obsessed with reading insurance contracts down to the last tiny letter, which sounds extremely boring, but at some point it almost became a hobby of mine to find all the ways how they can try to get out of paying.

When do you want to start with us...? 😉

lol, i'm a customer of yours already

I mean working with us. 😄

ah, you mean as employee 😊️️️️? thanks

I understand there is a warmup period for a health insurance

But this one is made for traveling specifically so it’s really insane to me that it doesn’t help if i get sick in the first 14d of my trip dpodcbfrqicf

Hey there 👋
Are you chatting about Genki Explorer, our travel health insurance?

The 14-day waiting period only applies if you sign up outside of your home country. And even if you sign up abroad, there's no waiting period if you have another health insurance that covers you up to the day before coverage with Explorer begins.

So the waiting period only applies to people who start our insurance while already abroad AND uninsured.

And even in the waiting period accidents and life-threatening emergencies are still covered.

Yes, that’s good to know

I am speaking with them and sent them my flight tickets and my insurance from my resident country, and told them I bought the insurance while I was in my resident country.

But they said my case is not considered an emergency and therefore not covered

Our friend dpimcibqplkw is the founder of Genki. 😉
I guess he can address your case and escalate it to the highest levels if your claim is valid.

Did you contact our customer support already? They typically help in such cases - with the customer but also behind the scenes.

Yes, and they’ve said the same thing

I think I found you in our support system. Will investigate 🙏

are there insurance products which specifically insure against unexpected complications that may arise as a result of an operation?

take this scenario:
a person has a normal international health insurance, but due to a pre-existing condition they have an exclusion in the insurance
they have a health problem related specifically to that issue which is excluded from their normal international health insurance
a doctor or hospital is making them an offer for an operation, with a price that the person can pay themselves out of pocket
however, with every operation there is a risk of unexpected complications, like for example due to an infection, which will require further treatments and which can unpredictably raise the total cost of the treatment

are there insurance products which the person could buy which would only insure against potential unexpected complications and the cost of their treatment?

Hey Mauro!
If that said treatment or surgery is subject to the exclusion caused by a pre-existing condition then this exclusion is related to all further consequences of this condition. So the answer (on the international market for nomad insurance) is: No.

A system that covers pre-existing conditions is national health systems aka government organized social security systems which on the one side force every resident to contribute and on the other side defy mechanics of the market by granting coverage to everybody (including all their conditions).

Hi, thanks for your reply.
I'm aware that a normal health insurance is always going to deny those claims if they can associate them with an exclusion.
My question was basically if there isn't some other type of insurance which the person could buy on a per-operation basis, only to insurance against unexpected complications of that specific operation.

Maybe somewhere as a localized product specific to a certain geography. But on the international market: Not that I have ever heard of something like that.

Ic, thanks. I guess it's maybe too much of a niche-thing

Haha! Funny! That seems to be specifically designed for all the guys coming to Türkiye for their hair transplants (going wrong)! 😃

yeah, in this case it's pretty specific for complications as a result of medical tourism to Turkey for plastic surgery.
i was looking for something like that, but it would have to cover complications caused by a spinal surgery in Switzerland, so far i haven't found such a product.

Keep in mind: Insurance is not social welfare.
It's a business that builds and manages (big enough) randomized groups to cover each member against the consequences of an impactful incident which happens with a statistical probability but similarly uncertain for each member.
So the risk you seek to cover is basically un-insurable as the probabilities are adverse to any mathematical model. Or as the industry calls it: There is a negative risk selection among clients. Only individuals with a high risk would buy the product. So the numbers won't ever add up.

that explanation is surprising to me, i thought that this business model should make sense:

let's say 1 out of 10 operations result in complications, the statistical average cost of the treatment for the complications is $10k if they do occur.
this means that at average the insurance company would have to pay out $1k per operation which they insured ($10k/10=$1k).
if they'd sell that insurance to individuals at a price of $2k per operation, at average they'd earn $1k per operation, and the individuals would be insured against an unexpected bill of $10k.

Plus margins, cost of distribution and management, marketing etc.
Usually insurance in these numbers would sell if it costs 50$ and the risk is 100K. That would be a no-brainer for many.

But at these odds: Would you buy the product? If your odds are 1:10 and you could save 2K with not buying it and having (only) a 10K risk?
Most people would rather gamble.

Insurance is rather a thing for events of a low probability but a massive (existential) impact.

You don't buy health insurance to cover you for the Thai motorbike accident of which the treatments cost you 1,000 USD. But you buy it for the long-term diseases that are rare but can cost you (literally) an arm and a leg.

I'm catching up on the chat. What became of this?

I feel it's important for Nomads to understand what went wrong here.

Our support is helping Trisha where they can. We can't publicly share any updates on cases about particular customers due to data privacy.

@thetrishalim it would be great if you can keep everyone here informed.

Genki support reached out to the claims team to reconsider my case, and I’ve sent them a medical report.

Waiting to hear back

Will update here :)

How to know if it's the first time I get dengue? I'm starting to have fever etc, i don't know what else could be
Also, which insurance can i get fast? I'm not insured

I wish you a quick recovery from that!

And then take out insurance ASAP for future cases. No insurance will cover symptoms that already occured before the start of the coverage. Even travel insurance taken out while already traveling usually has waiting periods at the beginning.

how much may i pay in the case it gets worse and i have to be hospitalized?

Depends on the country you're in.
But I wouldn't run wild on those thoughts.

If you really feel that bad consult a doctor and ask for local advise rather too early than too late. This will allow early counter-measures and help contain the cost risk.

i'm in phuket, thailand

Just ask your accommodation provider. Those locals have the best local knowledge and experience.

I need an insurance that's reliable

We're independent brokers specializing in this matter. I'll contact you directly.

Great news 🎉

They’re reimbursing me

Genki support has been extremely helpful for following up with the insurance provider. Thank you yjrhkmejubjz

Great, thank you for the update!

I apologize that it wasn't done properly from the start.
We're already looking into how to make the explaining, checking, and waiving of the waiting period easier for everyone involved.

Hey folks,
I’m looking for recommendations on an international health + travel insurance plan that meets a few key criteria:
- Covers both health and travel insurance in one plan
- Comprehensive health coverage, including long-term conditions—not just emergencies
- Travel coverage for things like flight cancellations, delays, lost luggage, theft, and other travel mishaps
- Coverage at home (Morocco) for at least 6 months per year, since I don’t have local health insurance and will be using this as my primary coverage
- Lifetime coverage, so if I develop any medical conditions, they’ll be covered long-term

I’ve researched a few options like SafetyWing, Genki, and Cigna Global. They all seem to have their pros and cons, but I’d love to hear from real users rather than influencer ads.

If you’ve used any of these (or have a better suggestion), I’d really appreciate your insights!

Thanks in advance!

Maybe some general advice on insurance.
Anything that you are insuring yourself against, you know that the insurance company has calculated that the premiums you are paying them are greater than the risk of the thing occuring the average payout. So my general approach is, that for events I could easily cover myself, I am not going to insure myself against. Therefore I have no travel insurance that would cover lost luggage, flight cancellations or delays.
With health insurance I have a very high deductible, which brings my monthly costs down by a lot. I only want them to cover me for catastrophic events that could finanically ruin me.