The digital nomad lifestyle is one of the most exciting ways to live your life and luckily it’s now more achievable than ever. Many freelancers and remote workers now have the freedom to travel full time and indefinitely as they can work anywhere where there’s an internet connection.
While it may seem like the perfect lifestyle (and it almost is) there are still complications and boring real-life stuff that you need to take into account before you hit the road to live your dream life of being a digital nomad like getting the correct visa and making sure you’re covered in case of a medical emergency.
Finding the right travel insurance for digital nomads is one of the most important things to consider. The benefits of having comprehensive travel medical insurance are, in my opinion (and after experiencing a few mishaps including airlines losing my bags and being hospitalised abroad), always worth the investment.
Read More: Why I travel full time and how I afford it
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Travel Insurance for Digital Nomads and Remote Workers
However, until now, there has been a bit of a gap in the market that left remote workers and digital nomads like myself falling through the cracks.
You see, most travel insurance policies are aimed at tourists just taking short trips, not nomads wandering the world for an indefinite period of time! They often have strict policy rules that require you to be in your home country when you sign up for travel insurance and you have to pre-determine your travel plans – like where you are going and for how long.
This means that many digital nomads such as myself have had to go without the travel insurance that we needed because we didn’t qualify – only to later wind up in a hairy situations and having to fork out our precious travel funds to pay to sort it out!
I know it’s not fun or nice to think about getting injured or sick abroad but I’ve been traveling full time for over 10 years now and things often happen on the road that you’d never have anticipated. It’s horrible being sick and alone abroad, but even more stressful if you have no insurance or money or support to get things sorted.
SafetyWing – Travel Insurance for Digital Nomads by Digital Nomads
Luckily, I discovered SafetyWing! SafetyWing is a digital nomad and remote worker specific travel medical insurance company that has finally made having travel insurance for digital nomads much more affordable, flexible and easy to manage.
SafetyWing is made by digital nomads especially for digital nomads. It’s the world’s first international travel medical insurance developed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and remote workers travelling or living abroad worldwide.
There are two options:
- Nomad Insurance Essential Plan – A travel medical insurance covering unexpected injuries and illnesses, including hospital visits, doctors fees, and even emergency medical evacuations.
- Nomad Insurance Complete Plan – A full global health insurance option covering both travel related emergencies and preventative and routine care, serious conditions such as cancer, support for mental health diagnoses, maternity care and more.
So you can choose the right one for you depending on your needs and budget.
One thing I love the most about SafetyWing is the option to have re-occurring, month-to-month, cancel-anytime travel medical insurance payments – for me this is a huge game changer!
This really suits the adventurous and unpredictable nature of my digital nomad and travel blogging lifestyle, as I can never quite be sure where I will be and for how long! It was also hard on my budget to fork out for the expensive premiums for long term travel insurance and hard to arrange insurance as I didn’t really know how long I would be gone for and where I would end up.
You see, in the past I’ve bought travel insurance for 6 months or so (luckily my insurance was still valid when I was hospitalised with typhoid fever in India), but then I’ve extended my trip or decided to visit another destination and then haven’t been covered (like when I had a nasty eye and ear infection in Bali and had to find an English speaking hospital and pay for the treatment myself.)
Now SafetyWing has made it pretty much illogical not to have travel insurance as a digital nomad or remote worker. Even if you’re already abroad – its not too late – you can start a policy anytime!
Why Digital Nomads and Remote Workers Need Travel Insurance
Even though life as a digital nomad or remote worker is super exciting is can be difficult to access the healthcare you need while abroad and there are also SO many things that could go wrong.
Some of the most common reasons digital nomads and remote workers need travel insurance include:
- Accidents & sustaining an injury – you don’t want to think about it, but it happens. Life on the road can be thrilling when times are good, though none of us are exempt from the risk of accidents or getting injured. Whether it’s taking a fall on a scooter in Southeast Asia or taking a rickshaw across town, you just never know, and it’s wise to be covered for hospital visits, long term inability to work and even needing to catch an emergency flight home.
- Getting sick – there are plenty of illnesses you can pick up on your travels, particularly if you like to frequent places in developing countries where there are lower health standards. And there are still many diseases out there for which there is no vaccine available. If you catch a mosquito borne virus such as malaria or dengue fever, you may need to see a doctor and even spend some time recovering in the hospital with medication. A great thing about my travel insurance is that when I was sick in the hospital in India with typhoid fever my insurance company flew my Mum out to look after me.
- Lost or stolen possessions – be it your passport, your laptop, or your entire bag, you’ll be more than thankful to be able to replace these items especially if you make a living by working online as a digital nomad.
- Lost or delayed baggage by airlines – this has also happened to me, more than once, and take it from me, missing bags when you arrive at your destination isn’t how you want to start off your trip. It’s nice to know you can go and get the essentials till your bag reaches you or replace everything if it’s really gone AWOL!
- Trip delays or cancellation – if you get sick or wind up in hospital and can’t travel, you’ll be thankful to have the ability to cancel or postpone your onward travel plans and get reimbursed on flights and accommodation costs.
Having travel insurance gives you that peace of mind that if something happens you’ll have support and won’t be out of pocket. 
Reasons I Love SafetyWing
I find the Nomad Insurance Essential Plan works well for me – the key benefits of this travel medical insurance policy for digital nomads versus other travel insurances are:
- Affordable low price of $56 for 4 weeks (*price is higher if you are travelling in the US)
- You can sign up for SafetyWing insurance even if you are already abroad – most travel insurance companies don’t let you sign up once you’ve left your home country so this is a big plus.
- Choose set dates or easy monthly payments. Safety Wing is like a subscription, so you don’t have to fork out a large chunk of money to cover your whole trip at once, the insurance automatically extends every 28 days until you pick an end-date.
- You can choose your start date and cancel any time, there is no cap on the duration of a trip and you don’t even need to know how long you’ll be travelling or what destinations you’ll visit – it’s perfect for digital nomads like me who want to be spontaneous and go with the flow.
- Add-ons are available for electronics theft, adventure sports, and USA coverage.
- Available to purchase insurance in 180 different countries around the world (not just your home country)
- The SafetyWing team are always available to help you. They offer 24/7 human support and come with a network of medical partners.
- Includes an additional and unique to SafetyWing feature of 30 days’ coverage in your home country (within every 90 day period), so you’ll also be covered for those sporadic home visits too (or 15 days for every 90 days if your home country is the US)
- Free additional coverage for young children from 14 days up to 10 years (1 child for each paying adult in the family, maximum 2 children), which is amazing for families who love the travel life too!
- SafetyWing is a Y-Combinator company and the policy is administered by Tokio Marine, one of the largest insurance companies in the world.
I know it’s not fun or nice to think about getting sick or things going wrong while you’re living your dream digital nomad lifestyle, but unexpected things have happened to me and most of my friends who travel long term.
There’s no doubt that you do need travel insurance. Luckily, with SafetyWing, getting travel insurance for digital nomads just got much easier and more affordable. Check out www.safetywing.com for more info.
By the way: This post was brought to you in collaboration with SafetyWing and contains affiliate links.
