How much does expat health insurance cost?
Nobody gives you a straight price for expat health insurance. Here’s how to work out yours.
If you’ve started pricing health insurance for living abroad, you’ve hit the wall everyone hits: ask “how much?” and you get “it depends.”
Annoying — but it’s the honest answer. And once you know what it depends on, you can ballpark your own price before filling in a single form.
Five things move the premium:
● Your age — the biggest driver. A healthy 30- and 60-year-old can pay multiples apart on the same plan.
● Whether you want US cover — US costs are so high that “including USA” can add 20–40%. Don’t need it? That’s your biggest saving.
● How much cover — inpatient-only (hospital, surgery) is the cheap core. Add outpatient, dental, maternity and it climbs.
● Your deductible — a higher excess lowers the premium but raises what you pay when you claim.
● Your medical history — pre-existing conditions may be covered, excluded or loaded, depending on the insurer.
The real choice isn’t “cheap vs expensive.” It’s how much risk you carry yourself versus hand to an insurer.
And the trap to dodge: the cheapest quote often gets cheap by excluding the exact thing you’re most likely to claim for. A policy that won’t pay is the most expensive one of all.
Decide what you actually need first, then compare insurers on price for that level of cover — not the other way round.
ABOUT EXPATINSURE
We’re an independent broker, regulated in the UK, Cyprus and US to arrange international health insurance. We compare the major global insurers — Cigna Global, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AXA, Allianz Care and Bupa Global — side by side, and we’re one of only a handful of brokers anywhere with a comparison site that shows live prices instantly. Quotes take seconds, and cover can be arranged in under 24 hours where needed, subject to underwriting.
Posted Jul 23, 2026, 10:18 AM UTC · locked