Travel, international or local health insurance?

Checkpoints

Travel: temporary trips
International: living abroad
Local: cover from the destination country

Overview

Travel insurance or international health insurance?

The terms are not defined by law, so the policy terms count, not the product name.

Type	Meant for	What you check
Travel	Meant for temporary trips; most policies cover up to 70 days. For longer trips there are long-stay plans.	Duration per trip and countries where the cover applies
International	Meant for people who live abroad for longer or permanently. The area of cover can include several countries or the whole world.	Area of cover, scope of benefits and conditions according to the policy terms
Local	Cover in the destination country, for example through a local provider or the employer. Scope and requirements depend on the destination country.	Requirements of the destination country, benefits and what applies during visits to Germany

Trip or move

When is it a trip, when is it a move?

According to the Verbraucherzentrale (German consumer advice centre), the distinction between temporary and permanent stays abroad depends on whether a new main residence is established abroad, that is, whether the centre of your life relations moves to another country.

For a move abroad, travel health insurance is generally not enough, because it is meant for temporary trips. According to Stiftung Warentest, anyone travelling abroad for more than ten weeks needs long-term cover abroad. Anyone who moves their home base abroad also needs cover that is meant for living there.

For travel health insurance and cover abroad, contract terms can be agreed; health insurance that can replace statutory cover, by contrast, is in principle open-ended (§ 195 VVG, German Insurance Contract Act). Whether an international plan is open-ended is set out in its policy terms.

The Stiftung Warentest test concerns plans for long trips that can be taken out without a health assessment. It does not concern international health insurance for emigrating.

Six starter questions for the conversation with providers

Neither “international is better” nor “local is enough” applies across the board. Health information belongs only in the application.

Purpose: Am I moving my home base, or am I travelling?
Duration and countries: For what period and which countries should the cover apply, including visits to Germany?
Terms: What is the product meant for according to its policy terms, and what is excluded?
Destination country: What requirements does the destination country set, and who confirms them with binding effect?
Family: Who is moving with me, and is every person included?
Germany: What changes in Germany: membership, contract, way back? More: PKV and Anwartschaft.

More answers: Is travel health insurance enough? · The difference in one answer

What this page does not do

No insurer names and no prices as long as we cannot back them up.
No test seals and no grades. Stiftung Warentest is only a source.
No scare scenarios, only questions and sources.
No individual advice. This is general information.
No promotion of emigrating: the page only puts health insurance in context, for people who are leaving anyway.

Who is writing here

Tassilo Peter Seitz is a shareholder of Verus Vorsorge GmbH and advises in German and English (insurance broker licensed under Section 34d (1) of the German Trade Regulation Act (GewO)). How we work and how we are paid is explained on the page How we work, how we earn.