How much does international health insurance cost?

Here is the whole ladder on our 2026 EU-region rate card, which applies across all eight European destinations we cover.

• Essential Health, from $392 a year. Accident and emergency treatment in state hospitals only, and generally not enough on its own for a visa file.
• Major Medical, from $721 a year. Hospital cover: inpatient treatment, surgery and emergencies.
• Standard, from $1,133 a year. Adds everyday outpatient care, prescriptions and tests.
• Comprehensive, from $1,525 a year. Adds dental, wellbeing check-ups and family extras.
• Fully Comprehensive, from $1,906 a year. Full-cover private room and the largest limits.

Every figure is per person, per year, for the EU region, billed annually, starting at adult age 18. Your own price rises with age. Children aged 0 to 17 pay one flat rate per plan, so a family total is not five times an adult price.

You will see averages quoted for this category. They are close to meaningless, because an average blends a 25 year old with a 60 year old, hospital-only cover with full private cover, and Europe with regions that cost far more to insure. The number that matters is yours. The full age-banded table, with worked figures at 40 and 55, is on what expat health insurance actually costs in 2026; this page explains why the number moves.

Four things do nearly all the work, and a fifth matters if you are insuring a household.

• Age. Rates are set for each year of age, not in broad bands, so a birthday between quotes changes the figure. Each adult in a household is priced on their own age.
• Cover level. The gap between state-hospital emergency cover and a full-cover private room with routine dental is most of the spread between $392 and $1,906.
• Billing frequency. Paying once a year is the cheapest way to hold the same policy. See the next section, because this is where quotes are most often misread.
• Region. Territory is priced. Our card has one EU-region price covering all eight destinations, and treatment is covered worldwide excluding the United States. A plan built to include US treatment is a different product at a different price.
• Household shape. Adults are priced individually by age; children aged 0 to 17 pay one flat rate per plan, which keeps a family total more predictable than adding adult prices together.

What does not move the price is the country you are moving to, at least not on this rate card. France and Portugal draw on the same EU-region figures.

Most people search for a monthly figure, and most insurers quote one. Two different monthly numbers are in circulation and they are not the same thing.

The first is the annual price divided by twelve, shown for comparison and labelled billed annually. The second is the actual monthly instalment you pay if you choose monthly billing, which carries an instalment loading. Twelve of those instalments come to more than one annual payment for the identical policy.

So a monthly figure is only meaningful with the billing basis attached. The pricing calculator shows the annual price and the monthly-billing price for your age, side by side, rather than making you work backwards from one to the other.

All eight destinations we cover sit in the same EU region on the rate card, so moving your plan from a French address to a Portuguese one does not change the premium. What changes between countries is what the visa or permit rule requires you to hold, and what the public system covers once you are actually resident and enrolled.

That is a rules question rather than a pricing question, and it is answered country by country: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Germany and Austria.

A premium is only honest alongside its exclusions, so here are ours.

Pre-existing conditions are excluded, including conditions you did not know you had. Treatment is covered worldwide but excludes the United States, which matters if you are American and expect to fly home for care. Evacuation and repatriation is an optional benefit at an additional premium, not part of the figures above. Essential Health, the $392 line, covers accident and emergency care in state hospitals only and is generally not enough on its own for a visa file.

On eligibility: new applicants are accepted up to age 70, and up to age 80 on Essential Health. Policies run in 12-month terms and renew at the anniversary, when the price is set by your age at that point rather than the age you first bought at.

The from-prices on this page are the entry point at age 18. The pricing calculator gives your household's exact 2026 figure by age and tier in a few seconds, and the comparison page shows what each tier buys.

Before anything is final, a specialist confirms your eligibility and checks the certificate wording your consulate expects. Request a quote and the team follows up by phone.