Malta is a safe country with good healthcare, so many visitors skip travel insurance. Some of them regret it. The state hospital is good and the private clinics are quick. That is not the reason to buy cover. The reason is the flight home on a stretcher, the week you never took, and the diving accident that your policy quietly excluded.
This page lists what a policy for Malta should cover, and the two exclusions that matter most here.
What a card does not cover
A health card is not insurance
A European or UK health card gets you treated in the Maltese state system on the same terms as a resident. It is worth carrying. It stops there.
It does not pay to fly you home and it does not pay for a private clinic. It also does not refund the days of your holiday spent in hospital.
How healthcare works here
Diving is usually not included
Malta is one of the best dive destinations in the Mediterranean. Standard policies often exclude scuba diving, or cover it only to a shallow depth and only with an instructor.
If a dive is anywhere in your plans, check the depth limit and the qualification wording before you buy, not after. The same applies to jet skis, quad bikes and anything hired with an engine.
Diving in MaltaGet a quote
Repatriation is the expensive part
A medical flight home from Malta runs into tens of thousands, and it is the single line on a policy that justifies the whole premium. Everything else is inconvenience; this one is the part that can follow you for years.
Check the medical limit rather than the headline price. A cheap policy with a low ceiling is not cheaper, it is smaller.
Know before you go
Buying a policy
Annual cover is the better value if you travel more than twice a year, and single-trip cover is the better value if you do not. Buy it when you book the flights rather than the week before you travel. Cancellation cover only works from the day it starts.
We link to EKTA, who sell medical cover by the trip and quote in a couple of minutes. They also cover travellers from outside the European Union, whom many insurers refuse. They are not the only option. Compare the medical limit and the excess against any cover your bank or card already gives you before you buy.
Read these lines before you pay
- The medical limit
- The number that matters. Anything under a million is thin for a repatriation, however cheap the premium looks.
- The excess
- What you pay before the policy does, per claim and sometimes per section. A low premium with a high excess is a policy you will not bother claiming on.
- Pre-existing conditions
- Declare them. An undeclared condition is the most common reason a medical claim is refused. It does not have to be the condition that put you in hospital.
- Activities
- Diving, watersports, quad biking and hiring anything with an engine are all commonly excluded or restricted. Malta is a place where people do all four.
- Alcohol
- Almost every policy excludes injury sustained while drunk, and the wording is broader than people expect.
- Cancellation cover
- Starts the day you buy, not the day you fly. Buying at the airport protects almost nothing.
If the problem was your flight rather than an illness, that is a separate right and a separate claim: see flight delay compensation.