Best Travel Medical Insurance For Visitors To The USA Of 2024

• Atlas America – Best Overall
• Patriot America Lite – Best for Cost
• Patriot America Plus – Great for Trip Interruption Insurance
• Safe Travels USA Comprehensive – Best for Deductible Choices
• Seven Corners Travel Medical Basic – Best for Urgent/Emergency Care Reimbursement

Medical insurance for visitors to the USA provides short-term medical coverage. If you get sick or injured during your trip, the best travel medical insurance policies provide high levels of compensation for medical bills.

These policies—also called visitors insurance— are designed for non-U.S. citizens traveling to the U.S., typically for trips up to 364 days.

If you’re an American traveling internationally, you can also buy travel medical insurance, often as part of comprehensive travel insurance policies that cover trip cancellation, trip interruption, travel delays, medical costs and much more.

There are two main types of  travel medical insurance for visitors to the USA: fixed and comprehensive.

Fixed Medical Insurance

Fixed travel medical insurance is also called a fixed benefits policy or a limited policy. Fixed benefit plans are more affordable but have limited coverage.

These plans have a maximum fixed coverage amount for each medical service or condition. Deductibles apply for each event. For each injury or illness, you pay an initial deductible and the limited medical plan pays for the rest of the expenses covered by the policy.

Fixed medical insurance usually doesn’t include trip interruption coverage.

Comprehensive Medical Insurance

Comprehensive medical insurance policies are more expensive but provide more generous coverage than limited plans—for example, maximum coverage limits can be millions of dollars.

There are no sub-limits for coverage with comprehensive visitors insurance policies. You’re covered for medical costs up to the policy maximum, minus your deductible and coinsurance.

Trip interruption, trip cancellation and travel delay benefits can be found in some comprehensive visitors insurance plans.

Comprehensive travel medical insurance for visitors to the USA generally covers inpatient and outpatient services, urgent care and emergency medical services, emergency dental care and other healthcare, such as:

• Emergency medical evacuation
• Emergency medical treatment for pregnancy complications
• Mental disorders
• Prescriptions/medication

Visitors to the USA need travel medical insurance if they want to recoup money they pay for medical costs if they get ill or injured in the United States. Health plans from other countries aren’t usually accepted in the U.S. For example, travel medical insurance is a common type of travel insurance for parents visiting the U.S. whose adult children live here.

You also need travel medical insurance if you are a U.S. citizen traveling internationally. It’s important to consider medical insurance for trips abroad because U.S.-based health insurance plans may have limited or no coverage in other countries.

You can buy visitors insurance online from a visitors insurance comparison provider such as VisitorsCoverage, and many travel insurance companies also sell visitors insurance online at their websites.

You can generally choose from several policies that have a range of coverage and costs, from budget plans with low benefit limits to more expensive policies with  more generous coverage.

Insurance company	Examples of visitor insurance policies offered
IMG Global	Patriot America Plus, Visitors Protect Insurance and Patriot Platinum Medical Insurance
Seven Corners	Travel Medical USA Visitor Basic and Travel Medical USA Visitor Choice
Trawick International	Safe Travels USA Comprehensive
USI Affinity	Visit USA-HealthCare Visitors Insurance (Budget Plan, Standard Plan and Superior Plan)
WorldTrips Travel Insurance	Atlas America

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To identify the best medical insurance for visitors coming to the USA, we scored only comprehensive travel medical plans on the following criteria:

Cost (50% of score): Plans with lower costs were awarded the most points. We analyzed average rates for:

• A 70-year-old traveler from India coming to the U.S. for 90 days, with coverage of $100,000 with a $250 deductible (or closest deductible).
• Two travelers ages 60 and 65 coming from India to the U.S. for 30 days, with coverage of $50,000 with a $100 deductible (or closest deductible).

Trip interruption benefits (10% of score): Points were awarded if policies included $10,000 or more in trip interruption benefits. If a visitor has to cut their trip to the U.S. short and return home, this coverage can pay the costs. To make a claim for trip interruption, the reason must be listed in the policy.

Choices of policy maximum coverage amounts (10% of score): Points were awarded if the policy had maximum medical coverage amounts of $500,000 and up.

Urgent care out-of-network reimbursement (10% of score): Policies that cover out-of-network urgent care at 100% (after copay) earned points.

Emergency room out-of-network reimbursement (10% of score):  Policies that cover out-of-network emergency room care at 100% (after copay) earned points.

Emergency dental care (10% of score): Points were awarded if emergency dental care coverage was $300 or more.