Travel Medical Insurance: What the Medical Cover Actually Means

When people say travel insurance, they usually mean the medical part. It is the benefit with the largest number attached, the one embassies ask about, and the only one that can turn a bad week abroad into a debt that follows you home.

This guide takes the medical section apart: what the limit covers, what sits inside it, what the excess does, and where it stops. All figures are from our own schedule, which you can read in full on the travel insurance page.

The headline number

Emergency medical and associated expenses are covered up to EUR 35,000 on the worldwide zone and EUR 30,000 on the Schengen zone, each with a EUR 50 excess. Treatment for COVID-19 is included.

The word that carries the weight is emergency. This benefit responds to sudden illness or injury that happens while you are travelling. It is not a health plan, it is not for routine care, and it is not designed for treatment you already knew you needed before you left. The exact wording sits with your policy.

What sits inside the medical limit

Several benefits draw from, or sit alongside, that main figure:

Read the Schengen column carefully. Four of these are worldwide only. Medical evacuation is the significant one: if you need moving to a facility that can treat you, or home, that is covered inside the worldwide medical benefit and not covered at all on Schengen.

Dental is deliberately small

Emergency dental treatment is EUR 200 worldwide and EUR 150 on Schengen. That is enough for emergency pain relief, not for dental work you postponed before travelling.

This is normal across the industry and worth knowing rather than discovering. If you have dental work pending, deal with it in Nigeria before you fly, then cover the trip.

If you are hospitalised for a long time

Two worldwide benefits exist for the situation nobody plans for. If you are admitted for more than five days, the policy covers a return economy ticket plus EUR 50 per day. A relative can be flown out to you on an economy ticket under emergency family travel, and accommodation for relatives or companions is covered at EUR 40 per person per day up to EUR 200.

Repatriation of remains is covered at EUR 1,500 on both zones. It is an uncomfortable line to read and a worse one to need without cover. Both zones carry it, as the schedule shows.

What the excess does

The excess on emergency medical is EUR 50. On a EUR 4,000 hospital bill that is a rounding error. On a EUR 120 clinic visit it is a meaningful share.

Several benefits carry no excess at all, including COVID-19 quarantine accommodation and the long-stay hospitalisation benefits. Others use a time-based excess measured in hours rather than money. Every excess is published alongside its limit on the cover page, so nothing has to be discovered at claim time.

Where medical cover stops

Be clear about what this benefit is not:

• It is not a health insurance plan. Routine check-ups, ongoing treatment and elective procedures are outside it.
• It is not a substitute for a national or university scheme. If your destination requires one, you still need it.
• It responds to emergencies. Sudden, unexpected, while travelling.
• Exclusions apply, and the policy wording is the full contract. Read it rather than relying on any summary, this one included.

If you have an existing medical condition, ask before you buy rather than assuming either way. Getting a clear answer in advance costs nothing. Getting it wrong costs the claim, so ask before you complete a purchase.

Common questions