How do nomads get medical care?

How We Handle Our Health + Insurance On The Road

This past month has been rough…

I came down with a bout of food poisoning 🤮 in the middle of our short, spontaneous trip to Orlando, how unfortunate, I know. Now shortly after both Ashley and I have the ‘vid 🦠 … Happy New Years to us! 🎉 🤦‍♂️

But this is great opportunity to answer a questions we are often asked:

How do you do health insurance on the road?

This is such a great question, one that we gave much thought to before we hit the road. Since we are now residents in South Dakota (We will explain why we moved to South Dakota in another post), and travel constantly in different states, most of our doctors visits would be considered out-of-network. Which as you know, isn’t ideal.

The solution for us is in two parts. We have a catastrophic health plan which has a maximum out-of-pocket expense of $15,000 ($7,500 per person), the down side to this is our deductible is the same as our out-of-pocket expense. Yup, that’s right a $15,000 family deductible, and everything other than an emergency outside the state of South Dakota is considered out-of-network. The only up-side to this is that it only costs us around $26 a month, so really this insurance plan is just for a worst case scenario, for example if we both were to ever be hit by a bus (pun intended/knock on wood), the max we would ever be out-of-pocket is $15k… painful, but not absolute bankruptcy.

Now, that covers worst case scenario/emergency plan, what do we do for day-to-day sickness/injuries while never being “in-state”?

Since living on the road, we have had to do several doctors visits. Ash had multiple dermatology visits, and I actually had a house visit…well a hotel visit from an Urgent Care doctor. For these visits we do self-pay, which is typically a lot cheaper than insurance prices, and then we have what is called Sidecar Health. For all the details on this you can check out their website.

But in a nutshell, after receiving care, we pay the doctor directly. After that we submit a picture of our itemized bill to Sidecar Health and they determine our final Benefit Amount for the medical services you received. For example, I had a doctors visit back in June. I paid $86 out-of-pocket/upfront for that visit and my plan paid me back $91.82 (reimbursement and then some) so I technically made money. That money can be made out to you in a check or go as a credit to next months bill. Another example however was my hotel visit. I paid $347 and my plan covered $121.44 so that was a more noticeable expense. A lot of it depends on what services you use. This plan currently costs us $175 a month per person, and Ashley receives a healthcare stipend through her job. We’re not saying it’s all been a perfect solution for everyone, but for us it has actually been great.

Our Sidecar Health plan will cover a max of $15,000 per person and works in any state, so with that combined with our max out of pocket catastrophe plan of $15,000 ($7,500 per person). We feel somewhat secure if anything crazy ever happens. Sidecar is a supplemental insurance and reimbursement plan, and it works great for travelers like us. Where no one is EVER out-of-network, so anywhere we travel, we are COVERED! That makes a massive difference. Everyone is considered in-network and most prescriptions are covered as well.

One other thing to note that we have found super helpful is at-home self tests for various health related items. We have used tests from Everlywell. Ashley had some concerns with her Thyroid this year, per the dermatologists findings, and we ordered an at-home test kit, rather than paying double to see a doctor AND then having to pay for lab work, this was a perfect solution and so easy to do while living on the road. We are also excited as they are now offering Telehealth visits, which will again be perfect while on the go. Their aim is to make Telehealth affordable and accessible, most HSA’s and Insurances will cover it, and self pay will be $59.

This is how we handle our health and health insurance, while being full-time travelers. None of this is sponsored, this is just what we currently use and would recommend to people, obviously everyones situation and circumstances look different and there may be better options out there, but this is our experience and we have been happy with it overall.

If you have any other ideas, suggestions, or questions, we would love to hear them. Please let us know in the comments below. But for now I’m heading to bed and hopefully will be feeling better tomorrow! 🤞