Visitor policies cost much the same and differ in their exclusions. Age, pre-existing conditions and pregnancy are the three places where a cheap tariff turns useless.
✓ Verified: 01/08/2026
WHAT TO DO
Visitor policies look alike and cost alike; the difference hides in the exclusions. Three things turn a cheap tariff into a worthless sheet of paper: the guest’s age, pre-existing conditions, and missing repatriation cover.
Comparing tariffs on precisely these criteria works well through comparison sites: Check24↗ and Tarifcheck↗ display exclusions side by side, while Feather↗ serves customers in English — useful when the guest buys the policy themselves.
I chose my mother’s first policy on price and then read the age exclusions. The second cost three times as much and actually applied.
Read the exclusions section rather than the tariff description. It is short, and it is exactly where what will not be paid is written.
Because the likelihood of treatment is higher, and many tariffs cap age explicitly. Separate products exist for parents above a certain age; attempting an ordinary tariff ends in refusal or worthless cover.
Usually not, or only their acute deterioration, and the wording differs between insurers. For older guests this is the decisive point, and it is the wording that must be read rather than the marketing description.
Arranging and paying for a medically necessary return home, including in serious cases. Rare, but the most expensive item imaginable — and the visa rules assume it is covered.
Sometimes, where the price gap is significant, the guest is healthy and the stay is short. But an excess means you bear the first portion yourself — noticeable at a doctor’s visit, barely relevant in hospital.