Guide
Health insurance for digital nomads: what each European visa actually asks
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The rule in writing
“Malta’s Nomad Residence Permit requires health insurance covering the EU (including Malta) and the UK, for one full year with the premium paid in advance. Travel insurance is not accepted — but a foreign health policy that meets the requirements is explicitly acceptable.”
Official source: Residency Malta Agency — Nomad Residence Permit health-insurance policy — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“Greece’s national (type D) visas require travel medical insurance with minimum cover of €30,000, valid for the whole Schengen area and the full duration of stay, covering emergency care, hospitalisation, and repatriation.”
Official source: Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mfa.gr) national-visa documentation — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“The elective residence visa is widely handled to the €30,000 Schengen insurance standard — hospitalisation and repatriation cover for the full visa year — though published consulate checklists vary: some ask for cover of 100% of medical expenses, and requirements differ by consulate.”
Based on: Official esteri.it consulate checklists (Chicago, Boston et al., which vary) & widely-applied Schengen standard — Last verified:
Quick check · the €30,000 figure
Several consulate checklists on this page anchor to a €30,000 minimum. Check your current policy's medical cover limit against that figure:
The figure is only one line of the rule: scope, duration, and the exact certificate wording matter too. Run the full policy check, or request a quote and a person reviews the wording for your file.
Why nomad insurance is a visa question first
Most digital nomad insurance content is written about the wrong risk. The products marketed to nomads — trip-shaped, emergency-shaped, cancel-anytime — are built for people who never file a residence application. The moment you apply for one of Europe's nomad visas, the question changes from "am I covered if I crash a scooter" to "does this certificate satisfy the published requirement of this specific country" — and that second question has a checkable answer.
The rules in writing, per route: Malta requires cover for the EU including Malta and the UK, for one full year with the premium paid in advance — monthly-billed products fail the paid-in-advance condition, and foreign insurers are explicitly acceptable. Greece requires at least €30,000, valid for the whole Schengen area and the full stay, covering emergency care, hospitalisation and repatriation. Italy is widely handled to the €30,000 standard, and year-one applications commonly expect zero deductible or co-pay. Portugal's D8 takes the €30,000 Schengen standard at the consulate stage, with fuller cover valid in Portugal expected at the AIMA residence stage after arrival. Spain requires insurance from an entity authorised to operate in Spain, with no deductible and no copayment — a registration test most international policies fail regardless of how rich they are; the Spain hub carries the wording and what to verify before relying on any arrangement.
Where the popular nomad products fail these files
Three failure modes cover most refusals. Product category: subscription travel-medical products are emergency cover with trip framing — several consulates read the benefits table and refuse on category, whatever the limit. Billing structure: Malta's paid-in-advance year fails anything billed monthly, which is precisely the billing model the nomad-insurance industry runs on. Deductibles: Italy's year-one zero-deductible expectation and Spain's no-deductible rule fail products whose pricing depends on excesses.
None of this makes those products bad at what they actually do — cover emergencies for people who stay mobile and never apply for residence. If that is you, buy one with a clear conscience. The mistake is only carrying it into a residence application it was never designed to pass. Our policy check runs whatever you hold against the published rule of your destination in about two minutes.
What we sell nomads, and what we don't
Our plans are annual private health insurance, billed annually, with cover worldwide excluding the United States — a shape that happens to match what the visa files above ask: policy-year duration, prepaid billing, residence-grade benefit tables, certificates that state cover type, territory and dates. Visa-ready plans start from $392 per adult per year on the published 2026 rate card, and the exact price by age is on the pricing page, not behind a call.
What we do not do: cover pre-existing conditions (excluded, stated plainly), cover treatment inside the US, or accept new applicants over the age caps — 70 on the health plans, 80 on Essential. And for a nomad who never settles anywhere and mostly wants emergency cover between countries, a travel-medical subscription is genuinely the cheaper right answer — we would rather say so here than after a quote call. The person our product fits is the nomad who has picked a base country and is filing for its visa.