How to choose travel insurance that covers you as an older traveler
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Most people assume the health cover they already have will follow them when they travel. In every one of the five countries covered here, it will not, at least not fully. This article walks through what a travel insurance policy needs to include, what changes once age or a health condition enters the picture, and what to do if a claim gets refused. None of it comes from an insurer or a comparison site. Every fact below traces back to a government body or a regulator in the country it applies to.
Why your home health cover won’t follow you overseas
Whatever country you call home, the system that covers you there will not reach you once you cross a border, though exactly how it falls short is different in each place.
United Kingdom
A UK Global Health Insurance Card, or the older European Health Insurance Card if yours hasn’t expired yet, gives you access to state-provided healthcare in the EU, Switzerland, and a small number of other countries, on the same terms as a resident there. It is not a substitute for travel insurance. It doesn’t cover private hospital treatment, repatriation, or extras like mountain rescue.
Australia
Medicare does not pay for medical treatment overseas, and neither does your private health fund. Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements with 11 countries: Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Even in one of those, the agreement only covers essential treatment in a public hospital. It does not cover private care, medical evacuation, or repatriation, which is why travel insurance is still recommended even when you’re heading to one of the eleven.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation does not cover treatment you receive overseas. If you’re injured abroad, ACC can only help once you’re home for further treatment, not with the cost of care while you’re still away. ACC also only covers accidental injury, not illness, so something like a heart attack or a stroke sits outside ACC entirely, wherever it happens to you.
Canada
Your provincial or territorial health plan may cover nothing, or only a small part, of your medical costs outside Canada, and it never pays a foreign hospital up front. That is true even for a same-day trip across the border into the United States, not only for longer international travel.
South Africa
South Africa has no public scheme, and no private medical scheme, that extends to cover you once you leave the country. Both are built around the South African hospital network. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s own advice for citizens travelling abroad is to take out insurance that covers hospital treatment, medical evacuation, and repatriation, and it specifically flags that a pre-existing condition or a higher-risk destination may call for more cover than a standard policy gives you.
What a policy needs to cover
Regardless of where you live, a policy worth having should cover:
- The full length of your trip, including any maximum single-trip or annual limit on an existing multi-trip policy
- Treatment in both state and private hospitals
- Emergency transport such as an ambulance, which is often billed separately from other medical costs
- Medical evacuation and repatriation, including a family member’s flights to reach you or bring you home if needed
- Every place on your itinerary, even a country you’re only passing through
- A 24-hour assistance helpline with a real person on the other end of it
Cruises need an extra look. Reaching a hospital is harder mid-voyage, so both UK and Australian guidance treat cruise cover as something to check specifically rather than assume comes with a standard policy. If a cruise is part of your plans, our guide to choosing a small-ship cruise covers what else to check before you book.
Declare every condition, not just the serious ones
Every source checked for this article agrees on this without exception. If you don’t declare an existing medical condition, including one still being investigated but not yet diagnosed, the insurer can refuse the entire claim, not just the part connected to that condition. This holds whether the condition is long-standing, like diabetes or high blood pressure, or something recent you’re still waiting on test results for.
Buying cover later in life
The UK is the one country in this research with a formal, government-backed system built for this. Under an agreement between the UK Government, the Association of British Insurers, and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, an insurer that turns you away because of your age has to refer you to another provider or a signposting service. It cannot simply leave you with nowhere to go.
Separately, and specifically for medical conditions rather than age on its own, UK insurers must point you toward a directory of specialist firms if you’re declined, cancelled, or offered only a medical exclusion or a loaded premium above a set threshold, currently £200, raised from £100 on 1 January 2026. Two directories meet the regulator’s criteria and cost nothing to use:
- MoneyHelper’s travel insurance directory, run by the public Money and Pensions Service: moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/insurance/use-our-travel-insurance-directory
- BIBA’s Find Insurance service: insurance.biba.org.uk/find-insurance, or by phone on 0370 950 1790
No equivalent formal system turned up for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or South Africa in this research, checked with a second, dedicated search specifically for this question, not just the first pass. If you live in one of those four countries, don’t assume a safety net like the UK’s is waiting for you. Independent specialist brokers who work with hard-to-place cases do operate informally in some of these markets, particularly New Zealand and Canada, but they are private businesses rather than anything a regulator vets or lists, so treat finding one the same way you’d treat any other insurer: with the questions below.
Questions to ask before you buy
You don’t need to be an insurance expert to buy well. You need clear answers to a short list of specific questions. A good insurer will answer every one of these plainly. A vague answer to any of them is a reason to ask again or look elsewhere.
- What is the maximum age this policy covers, and what happens the year I go over it: does cover stop, does it need renewing differently, or does the price simply rise?
- Exactly which of my medical conditions have I declared, and does the insurer’s written confirmation list each one by name, not just “pre-existing conditions noted”?
- If I’m declined, cancelled, or offered a medical exclusion or a loaded premium, will the firm point me to a named specialist directory, and which one?
- What is the actual limit on emergency medical treatment and medical evacuation or repatriation, as a number, not just “comprehensive cover”?
- Does this policy cover a family member’s flights to reach me or bring me home, and is that a separate limit?
- Is this a single-trip or annual multi-trip policy, and if annual, what is the maximum length of any one trip it allows?
- Does it cover every country on my itinerary, including places I’m only passing through?
- Is a cruise specifically included, or does it need a separate add-on, and does that change if the ship calls at a port a long way from a hospital?
- If my claim is refused and I disagree, which free ombud or complaints body handles this insurer?
A reader who gets a clear, specific answer to each of these has done the real work of choosing a policy. A vague answer to any of them is worth pushing back on, or taking your business elsewhere.
EKTA Traveling is one provider you can run through this checklist when you’re ready to compare policies.
What a real claim can cost
Three real, government-published figures make the case better than a general warning would:
- United Kingdom: breaking a leg in Spain and needing hospital treatment and possible evacuation can cost £25,000 or more. A quad bike accident in Greece needing surgery and evacuation can cost £80,000 or more. A stomach infection treated in a US hospital with possible evacuation can cost £150,000 or more
- Canada: one traveller whose policy lapsed three weeks before an accident left her family to raise $300,000 CAD over three days to cover treatment and evacuation
- Canada: a traveller who went into early labour on a trip and needed an emergency caesarean and medical repatriation was left with a $75,000 CAD bill, because her policy, like most, did not automatically cover pregnancy-related conditions
If your insurer says no
Every one of the five markets has a free, independent complaints body that can review an insurer’s decision, once you’ve been through the insurer’s own internal complaints process first.
| Market | Free complaints body | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Financial Ombudsman Service | Free service, reviews travel insurance complaints once the insurer’s own process is exhausted |
| Australia | Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) | Free and binding on the insurer. Explicitly handles disputes over a travel claim refused for a pre-existing condition |
| New Zealand | IFSO Scheme or Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) | Two approved schemes exist. Check which one your insurer belongs to before lodging a complaint |
| Canada | OmbudService for Life & Health Insurance (OLHI) | Free, covers travel insurance specifically, oversight from the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators |
| South Africa | National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO) | Free, but only for insurers that are FSCA-regulated, and only after the insurer’s own internal process |
None of this guarantees a smooth claim. It gives you a clear footing to ask the right questions before you buy, spot a policy with a real gap in it, and know exactly where to go if something still goes wrong.