Best Travel Medical Insurance Plans for Visitors to the USA
The top visitors insurance plans come from IMG, Seven Corners, and World Trips. These plans offer high limits for medical emergencies and access to high-quality medical care for foreign nationals traveling in the U.S.
See a complete breakdown of these plans and more in our full review of the Best Travel Medical Insurance Plans for 2026.
What is Visitors Insurance?
Visitors insurance is short-term medical insurance that covers unexpected medical care for people visiting the United States for 365 days or less. Medical care in the USA is notoriously expensive, and these policies are designed to cover high emergency healthcare costs while in the States, which your home country health insurance may not cover.
Visitors insurance differs from typical travel insurance plans in that they don’t offer broad coverage for disruptions like Trip Cancellation, but they excel at providing medical protections that foreign-bought plans typically lack. Some Visitors Insurance plans also offer modest coverage for benefits like Baggage Loss insurance and Trip Interruption insurance.
Visitors Insurance Topics
- Do Visitors to the USA Need Travel Insurance?
- Advantages of Buying U.S.-Based Travel Insurance
- What Does Visitor Insurance Cover?
- How Much Does Visitor Health Insurance Cost?
- Travel Insurance Considerations When Visiting the U.S.A.
- How Visitors Insurance Varies From Regular Travel Insurance
- Why Use Squaremouth to Buy Visitors Insurance?
- FAQs: Visitors Insurance
Quote, Compare, & Buy Visitors Insurance
Compare top plans & providers to find the best travel insurance for medical care in the U.S. Compare Visitors Insurance
Do Visitors to the USA Need Travel Insurance?
Travelers to the U.S. should consider purchasing medical travel insurance to protect against the high costs of an unexpected medical emergency
A hospital stay in the U.S. can cost over $3,000 per day on average, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Medical Evacuation expenses can be even more expensive, costing between $20,000-$200,000 according to the U.S. Department of State.
Additionally, health insurance from a foreign country may not cover medical care in the U.S., and many U.S. hospitals require proof of insurance for non-emergency treatment.
Only J-1 and J-2 Visa holders are legally mandated to have health insurance, but it’s still very useful for the following groups:
- F visa holders (your school may require you to enroll in college plan)
- Visa waiver travelers
- B-1 and B-2 visitors, and other business travelers
- Parents and other relatives visiting family in the U.S., especially those with elevated health risks and pre-existing conditions
- Senior travelers
Advantages of Buying U.S.-Based Travel Insurance
You may be able to purchase travel insurance in your home country, but purchasing a U.S.-based plan has a couple advantages:
- Many U.S. insurers partner with healthcare providers via a PPO network to offer discounted services.
- These in-network providers will usually directly bill the insurance company, which means you can avoid having to pay upfront and file a claim for reimbursement.
What Does Visitor Insurance Cover?
The primary purpose of visitors insurance is to cover unexpected medical expenses, although plans may offer additional benefits like Lost Luggage and Trip interruption coverage. When comparing plans, keep a close eye on Emergency Medical, Medical Evacuation and Repatriation coverages.
Plans may include the following benefits:
Emergency Medical, arguably the most important benefit of visitors insurance, covers the cost of treating unexpected illnesses and injuries during your trip, including doctors and emergency room visits and hospitalization. Plans may offer pre-existing condition coverage, although often with a significantly lower limit.
Plans typically charge a deductible and a copay, based on the type of expense, and may charge coinsurance if a provider is outside of its PPO network. There’s also an overall limit to this benefit, which is often based on age
We recommend at least $100,000 of Emergency Medical coverage for people visiting the United States.
Limits vary by age range, with the lowest limits for people over 80:
- Under 70: $50,000-$8,000,000
- 70-79: $50,000-$100,000
- 80+: $10,000-$20,000
Plans may also cover additional emergency services, such as bedside visits, emergency room reunions, and return of minor children.
Plans on our site offer very high limits for Medical Evacuation & Repatriation ranging between $250,000 and $1,000,000.
Emergency Medical Evacuation and Repatriation are key benefits of visitors insurance. Medical Evacuation covers transportation to the nearest adequate medical facility, including air transport from remote locations when necessary. Emergency Medical Repatriation covers transport to a hospital in your home country if additional treatment is needed or you need to recover after your initial treatment.
Only some plans include Repatriation with their Medical Evacuation benefit, but it can be valuable if you have a condition that requires long-term treatment that could exceed your Emergency Medical benefit limit.
We recommend at least $250,000 in Medical Evacuation coverage for tourists visiting the U.S.
Plans also offer reimbursement for other types of evacuations, like natural disasters or political evacuation due to civil unrest or government warnings, either as a standard benefit or as an add-on. Coverage ranges from $10,000 - $150,000 depending on the evacuation type and the plan. This benefit can be worth it if you’re traveling to an area at risk of a disaster, since air evacuations can easily cost more than $10,000.
Plans can reimburse you for the cost of a return ticket home in case you need to end your trip early for a covered reason, such as the death of a close family member, or a break-in or destruction of your principal residence. Unlike typical travel insurance, Visitor Insurance generally limits coverage to the cost of your return travel and won’t reimburse your trip costs.
While hazardous activities are typically excluded from coverage, some plans offer a Sports & Activities benefit that will cover certain hazardous activities like skiing and scuba diving.
Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) coverage provides a lump sum payment in case you sustain a severe injury resulting in the loss of life or limb during a covered trip.
Visitor Insurance plans on our site offer 2 forms of this coverage:
- Common Carrier AD&D covers accidents on a common carrier like an airplane or a cruise ship.
- 24-hour AD&D covers accidents that happen at any point on your trip.
Benefit amounts can range from $2,500 to $100,000 depending on the plan, your age and type of injury.
All plans on our site offer a Lost Luggage benefit, which covers the replacement cost of items lost by a common carrier in transit. Plans may also cover the damage of luggage and replacement fees for passports, visas, and other travel documents. There is a strict $50 per-item-limit for the plans on our site, and an overall benefit limit ranging from $250 to $2,000.
Our Visitors Insurance plans offer a 24-hour toll-free hotline to assist with emergencies during your trip. You can use this number to coordinate Medical Evacuation and Repatriation, find emergency care, for translation and interpreter services, and to get help with other travel emergencies like lost travel documents and emergency cash replacement.
What Isn’t Covered by Visitors Insurance?
Each Visitors Insurance plan has its own list of excluded services, activities, and conditions. Be sure to check your plan certificate closely, as details vary greatly with each policy.
Common exclusions include:
- Routine checkups and preventive care
- Sports and hazardous activities, unless listed under a plan’s sports and activity coverage
- Cosmetic and elective procedures
- Pre-existing conditions unless otherwise stated in the policy
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Alcohol and drug use
How Much Does Visitor Health Insurance Cost?
Travel insurance costs visitors to the United States an average of $6.55 per day.
This number is based on internal Squaremouth data that takes into account policy sales from the past 12 months for non-U.S. residents visiting the United States. Our data shows these travelers had an average premium of $190 and an average trip length of 29 days.
That said, the cost of visitor insurance can vary widely depending on multiple factors, such as the length of your stay in the United States, the type of coverage you purchase, and especially your age. According to our internal data, the average premium for our top plans ranged from $97-$181 for people under 65 and between $231-$567 for people over 65.
| Avg. Premium for Visitors Under 65 | Avg. Premium for 65+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Seven Corners Travel Medical Choice | $97 | $352 |
| Seven Corners Travel Medical Basic | $121 | $397 |
| WorldTrips Atlas Premium America | $181 | $231 |
| WorldTrips Atlas America | $124 | $567 |
| IMG Patriot America Platinum | $146 | $357 |
| IMG Patriot America Plus | $164 | $445 |
| IMG Patriot America Lite | $118 | $368 |
Travel Insurance Considerations When Visiting the U.S.A.
- Having Adequate Enough Limits for Emergency Medical & Medical Evacuation:
Adequate limits for Emergency Medical and Medical Evacuation is one of the most important factors. We recommend at least $100,000 in Emergency Medical and $250,000 in Medical Evacuation. You may want higher limits if you are at higher risk of a medical emergency. Some plans allow you to increase your limits as high as $8 million for an extra fee. - Policy Conditions For Medevac Repatriations:
Not every plan includes repatriation to your home country in case of a medical emergency. This benefit can be especially valuable if you have a high chance of an emergency condition that could require expensive longer-term recovery. - Affordable Deductible & Copay Obligations:
All visitors insurance plans on our site have a deductible, which is the amount you have to pay out of pocket for medical services before insurance kicks in. While $250 is a standard deductible, you can pay more to lower your deductible or choose a higher deductible to reduce your premium. You also may have to pay a copay for some services. Emergency room copays can be particularly high, ranging between $100 and $250 on our plans. - Exclusions:
Carefully read the list of exclusions to make sure the plan doesn’t exclude any condition that you have or activities that you may participate in on your trip. - Adventure Sports Coverage:
If you are planning activities like skiing, cycling, or scuba diving, make sure the plan includes adventure sports coverage and that all your trip activities are listed in the coverage.
How Visitors Insurance Varies From Regular Travel Insurance
How Visitors Insurance Varies From Regular Travel Insurance
Visitors Insurance plans have many unique qualities compared to regular travel insurance. As mentioned, plans are typically focused on medical benefits, and tend to have longer coverage periods of either 180, 364, or 365 days. Plans typically have a lower Emergency Medical limit for seniors, ranging between $50,000-$100,000, and only $10,000-$20,000 for people aged 80 and older. Plans may also offer a separate, lower coverage limit for pre-existing conditions, with very low limits for seniors over a certain age.
All the Visitor Insurance providers on our site are PPO-based, which means that your coverage and method of billing is based on whether you use an in-network or out-of-network provider for medical care.
How PPO Coverage Works for Visitors Insurance
A PPO network is a group of healthcare providers that the insurer contracts with to provide care at negotiated rates. You may receive discounted care with these providers, who can bill the insurer directly so you don’t have to pay for care and wait for reimbursement. Our insurers will generally cover 100% of your eligible care with these providers (minus copays and deductibles), whereas you’ll have to pay for 20% of your care for out-of-network providers.
All the insurers on our site use the United Healthcare network. You can call the insurer to get a list of providers, or find in-network providers on their sites:
- https://www.sevencorners.com/about/assist/find-providers
- https://www.worldtrips.com/find-a-doctor
- https://www.imglobal.com/member/login
Once you find an in-network provider, you can simply present your insurance card to receive care. The provider will submit a claim to your insurance, who will reimburse the claim and send you an explanation of benefits, similar to regular health insurance.
You aren’t required to use an in-network provider. In an emergency you may not have time to confirm that a provider is in-network. However, out-of-network care will cost more, and you’ll have to pay up front and submit a claim for reimbursement. Confirming if a provider is in-network is preferable when you have time to do so. You can call the provider’s 24 Hour Assistance hotline if you need to find care quickly.
Regardless of whether you use an in-network or out-of-network provider, you should save all your medical bills and receipts in case you need to submit them for your claim
Comprehensive vs. Limited/Fixed-Benefit Plans
All the Visitor Insurance plans on our site are comprehensive plans, which means they pay 100% of your costs for covered in-network care, minus copays and deductibles, up to your overall plan maximum. While comprehensive insurance plans charge higher premiums than fixed-benefits plans, they provide stronger protection since they don’t have a cap on services. They may also include other travel benefits like baggage insurance and trip interruption.
A limited or fixed benefits plan, in comparison, will only pay for services up to a set amount in exchange for a lower premium, meaning you will pay for everything that exceeds the cap. These plans can be risky in the U.S., given the high cost of emergency care.
Why Use Squaremouth to Buy Visitors Insurance?
Why Use Squaremouth to Buy Visitors Insurance?
U.S.-based travel health insurance gives you access to PPO networks and in-network discounts, but finding a U.S.-based plan can be challenging because only a handful of providers offer coverage to foreign visitors.
As one of the largest travel insurance marketplaces, Squaremouth makes it easier by enabling you to compare coverage from multiple providers to find coverage that best meets your needs. Through our Zero Complaint Guarantee, our licensed insurance adjusters can advocate on your behalf in case your claim is delayed or denied. Get quotes for your upcoming visit today.
Visitor Insurance FAQ
Review answers to frequently asked questions regarding visitor insurance.
Travel insurance isn’t mandatory for most travelers to the U.S., although health insurance is mandatory for certain types of Visa holders. Given the high cost of healthcare in the U.S., travel health insurance is highly recommended for any short-term visitor to the country.
Yes, some visitors insurance plans offer pre-existing condition coverage. Benefits may be limited for certain age groups or health conditions, so be sure to read the plan certificate closely before you purchase.
We recommend at least $100,000 in Emergency Medical and $250,000 in Medical Evacuation coverage for visitors to the U.S.
A PPO is a network of providers that some Visitors Insurers partner with to provide discounted services and direct billing. Using an in-network provider can save you money, because care costs less and the provider will cover a higher percentage of your bill (usually 100%). It’s also convenient, because the provider will bill the insurer directly, rather than requiring you to pay for care and seek reimbursement from your insurer.
All the visitors insurance plans will cover care with any doctor or hospital. However, you’ll pay less and won’t have to deal with the claims submission process if you use an in-network provider.
We recommend purchasing coverage as soon as possible ahead of your trip to avoid a pre-existing condition from occurring that could be excluded from your coverage.
No, the plans on our site require you to purchase coverage ahead of your departure date, although you may be able to purchase a Visitors Plan after landing from other insurance companies.
Yes, many visitors insurance plans allow you to extend coverage up to the plan’s maximum coverage period.
Yes, visitors insurance can cover a long-term visit up to 365 days. If you are staying longer than this, you may need to consider purchasing expatriate or domestic U.S. health insurance coverage.
No, pregnancy and childbirth is generally excluded from visitors insurance, although some plans may cover pregnancy complications in limited situations.
Last updated: September 30, 2026