Long-stay health insurance: why travel cover stops at 90 days
The difference between travel medical insurance and international health insurance, and the three things to confirm before you buy either.
Most travel insurance stops covering you after 90 days. This single detail catches out almost everyone who moves abroad rather than travelling, and it is buried in the terms of policies routinely sold as suitable for a year overseas.
The problem is that the two products look similar at the point of purchase and behave completely differently once you are living somewhere.
Travel medical versus international health
| Travel medical | International health | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Emergencies while away from home | People actually living somewhere |
| Routine care | Usually excluded | Usually included |
| Pre-existing conditions | Commonly excluded | Covered after a waiting period |
| Trip length cap | Often 90 days | None |
| Renewal | Re-underwritten | Renews without re-underwriting |
| Visa acceptance | Sometimes refused | Usually accepted |
The two caps that matter
Policies carry two separate duration limits and people usually only check the first. The per-trip cap is the maximum length of a single continuous stay, commonly 90 days on travel cover. The total annual cap is the maximum number of days abroad in a policy year, which can be lower than you expect even if the per-trip cap looks generous.
A policy advertising twelve months of cover can still refuse a claim in month four if the per-trip cap is 90 days. Check both numbers in the policy wording, not the marketing page.
Confirm these three things in writing
Whether it is accepted for your visa type
Requirements vary by country and visa. Some authorities accept only resident health insurance.
How pre-existing conditions are handled
Travel policies commonly exclude them outright. International health plans usually cover them after a waiting period.
Whether cover continues if you move country
Some policies are tied to a named country of residence and lapse if you move.
What this means practically
If you are away for under three months and returning home afterwards, travel medical cover is usually the right product and the cheaper one. If you are living somewhere for a year or more, you need international health insurance, and buying travel cover instead is a false economy that tends to surface at the worst possible moment.
The middle case, three to twelve months, is where most students sit and where the mistakes happen. Check both duration caps before assuming a travel policy stretches that far.