Do you really need health insurance?

When you're living abroad or traveling as a digital nomad, it's tempting to treat health insurance as another expense that you can optimize out of your budget. You might think:

"I'm young and healthy, I don't need to worry..."

"Healthcare abroad is much cheaper, I'll just pay out of pocket if something bad happens..."

But here's the reality:

Being healthy doesn't protect you from accidents

Accidents can happen to anyone, anywhere.

Last December, a Genki member who was enjoying nomad life in Bali was bitten by a stray dog. His injuries weren't too severe, but he went to the hospital to get checked out just in case...

The doctor was concerned that the dog might have had rabies (which has a 100% fatality rate, unless treated immediately, before symptoms appear), so they prescribed him an emergency course of the rabies vaccine at a cost of €3,245.

Another Genki member had an acute case of appendicitis in Mexico that required surgery and several follow-up appointments, leading to a €34,708 medical bill.

Healthcare isn’t cheap

While your day-to-day living expenses might be lower in your destination than in your home country, healthcare could be much more expensive than you're expecting.

Especially if you get treated in a private hospital with English-speaking doctors and facilities up to international standards (which may be your only option as a foreigner).

In just the past few months, Genki members in Thailand have received bills ranging from €75,000 to €132,000 from private hospitals. Fortunately, they had insurance, otherwise they would have had to pay these bills themselves.

This happens more often than you'd think. The crowdfunding website GoFundMe is full of donation requests to help cover medical bills for travelers who've ended up in the hospital overseas and are unable to pay the bill.

But even huge medical bills aren't the worst case scenario...

Not having insurance could cost you everything

In the US, Canada, and Europe, hospitals are usually required to treat you in an emergency, even if they're not sure that you'll be able to pay.

But the laws are not the same worldwide. Doctors and hospitals in other countries can refuse to treat people who don’t pay in advance (especially foreigners).

Unfortunately, there are many cases where travelers have had to wait days for treatment while they scrape together funds or wait for a money transfer from home to pay the hospital. Some have even died after having their treatment delayed or denied, because they couldn't pay.