Are you traveling overseas? Did you get the most important thing needed for travel? Are you thinking about outfits, accessories, and medications? You might be missing out on a crucial component of your travel bucket list – visitors health insurance. Did you know – that different countries across the globe are coming up with travel-related mandates for overseas visitors? So, if you are all set to embark on your first international trip in the post-pandemic world, make sure to confirm if your destination requires visitors health insurance or visitor insurance or not.
You cannot ignore the post-COVID-19 scenario
If you look at the post-COVID-19 panorama, many countries that are now open to international travelers allow them in only if they have sufficient visitors health insurance . Although many countries have not made it compulsory, having visitors health insurance coverage certainly, is your prerogative. It arms you to combat unforeseen and always-unwanted medical emergencies you may come across abroad.
The number of countries requiring overseas travelers to have travel medical or visitors health insurance plans is gradually increasing. It has been on the rise even before the pandemic hit. One of the main reasons behind such a mandate is – not-so-good experiences owing to the unpaid medical bills by international travelers that healthcare facilities go through. If foreigners are covered under visitors health insurance plans, healthcare facilities can deter these negative experiences.
Moreover, many countries have introduced mandatory self-isolations or quarantines, tests, and evidence of visitors health insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment for international visitors. However, the rules and regulations pertaining to the coverage are likely to vary from one country to another.
Some examples for you:
- Are you still unvaccinated and wish to visit Costa Rica? You are likely to need visitors health insurance only because you are unvaccinated yet.
- If you plan to visit Belize, you can buy an insurance plan after arriving at your destination. However, buying a suitable visitors health insurance plan ahead of time is advisable.
- Both the parts of the Caribbean island Saint Martin are under the EU (European Union). Sint Maarten (the Dutch-administered part) requires visitors health insurance coverage. However, Saint-Martin (the French half) does not.
As there are many ifs-and-buts and ins-and-outs associated with having and not having a visitors health insurance plan, make sure to do your homework before jetting off.
Is your destination country on the list?
Let us take a look at the list of countries that require international travelers to have visitors health insurance and find out if your bucket destination is there on the list. Refer to the below table:
Requirements | Visitors Health Insurance | Visitors Health Insurance with COVID-19 Coverage |
| Name of the Countries | Schengen Area The Galapagos Islands Lebanon Russia French Polynesia Cuba Cayman Islands Egypt | Anguilla Chile Costa Rica Curacao The British Virgin Islands Cambodia Israel Nepal Singapore Jordan Turks and Caicos Islands Ukraine St. Maarten Aruba The Bahamas Bermuda Thailand |
The countries that come under the Schengen Area include – Belgium, Italy, Latvia, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Liechtenstein, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain, and Iceland. |
List of Countries That Need Visitors Health Insurance |
| Schengen Area | If you need a Schengen visa, you must submit a copy of your visitors health insurance plan to the European Commission. It must include covered medical emergencies, hospitalization, and return of mortal remains. |
| The Galapagos Islands | As per the Organic Law of the Special Regime for the Province of Galapagos, Article 49, all tourists must produce a copy of valid visitors health insurance plans and abide by all the entry requirements. |
| Lebanon | Foreign visitors need to provide evidence of visitors health insurance coverage, negative COVID-19 test (96-hours before landing at the destination), additional COVID-19 test upon arrival, and mandatory quarantine for three days. |
| Russia | According to the Embassy of the Russian Federation, before you apply for a Russian visa, make sure to buy a visitors health insurance plan. |
| French Polynesia | If you are not a French citizen, you will have to submit a visitors health insurance certificate. Other criteria you need to fulfill – a negative RT-PCR results within 72-hours of leaving your home country, your itinerary, contact point to reach out in case of an emergency, a health declaration form, a valid e-mail id. |
| Cuba | International visitors to Cuba must submit a copy of the visitors health insurance plan to enter the country. If you have more queries, you can get in touch with the Embassy of Cuba. |
| Cayman Islands | To enter the Cayman Islands, visitors must seek permission through the Travel Cayman platform in the first place. During the application process, they should produce proof of visitors health insurance. Plus, they should also submit a negative PCR test report (taken within 72-hours before departing their home country). You will also have to take the test on arrival and after 15-days of arrival. Quarantine for ten days is a must, irrespective of your test reports and status of vaccination. If you are unvaccinated, you must self-isolate until your test on the 15th day. |
| Egypt | All visitors must produce proof of visitors health insurance after arriving in the country. You may visit the website of the U.S. Embassy in Egypt for details. |
Understand the destination’s insurance requirements
Requirements for visitors health insurance are constantly evolving, with a new set of rules being implemented every second day. This constant change is mainly due to the changing behavior of the coronavirus and its cousin variants. Therefore, no matter which country you are planning to visit, make sure to check the visitors health insurance requirements beforehand. And, to choose from a world of visitors health insurance policies, you already have your back covered by the noted and most reliable insurance broking portal – Visitors Guru.
This online platform is easy to use, interactive, and user-friendly. The best feature of this portal is the policy comparison tool. It allows you to keep different visitors health insurance plans – side by side and weigh in the characteristics and choose one that fits your unique insurance requirements. So, be an informed visitors medical insurance policyholder.