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Schengen travel insurance for travelers over 65

Last updated: October 2, 2026 · By the SchengenCompare editorial team

The legal requirement doesn't change with age, but two things do: the price, and how much the bare minimum actually protects you. Worth thinking through both before you buy the cheapest option on the list.

Why the price jumps

Every insurer on our comparison table prices by age bracket, and the jump after 60 is the steepest step in the whole scale. A traveler aged 65-69 can pay roughly double what an 18-39-year-old pays for the identical trip; past 70, it can climb to two to three times as much. This isn't arbitrary: older travelers file medical claims more often, and the claims tend to be larger, so the pricing reflects real risk, not a penalty for age on its own.

What a 30-day policy actually costs at 60-69 vs. 70+

Base per-day rates from our own price estimator, run for a 30-day trip, one traveler:

Source: this site's own RATES pricing model (index.html), cross-checked against each provider's stated age rules in our internal fact table · Verified 2026-10-02 (AURAS added; its age steps are measured live, the 60-69 and 70+ columns are the site's bucket approximations of them)

Two providers stop selling to travelers past 69-70 outright (Heymondo, SafetyWing), and Europ Assistance cuts off at 74. If you're buying for someone in their mid-70s or older, AXA, EKTA and AURAS are currently the only three of the six that will sell a policy at all — EKTA's real coverage at that age is far below its advertised limit (see below), and AURAS's price rises in steps from 66 (about 1.2× at 66, 1.4× at 76, 1.6× at 86) while its $3,000 per-event claim cap and exclusions for pre-existing and chronic conditions still apply at any age.

Is the €30,000 minimum actually enough?

Legally, yes: it satisfies the visa requirement everywhere. Practically, it's worth thinking about what it would actually cover. A broken bone or a short hospital stay fits comfortably within €30,000. A cardiac event requiring intensive care and an air ambulance home does not; those costs can run well past the minimum, and the difference comes straight out of pocket if the policy caps out. Many families buying for a parent or grandparent choose €50,000 to €100,000 in cover specifically for this reason, even though the visa itself doesn't demand it. The extra cost per day is usually modest relative to the gap in protection.

Pre-existing conditions: read this part carefully

Standard Schengen visa insurance is generally built to cover sudden, unforeseen medical emergencies, not the ongoing management or flare-up of a condition the traveler already had before buying the policy. If there's a known heart condition, diabetes, or other chronic issue, don't assume it's automatically included. Check the policy wording specifically for how it defines and handles pre-existing conditions; some insurers offer optional add-on cover for a stabilized condition, others exclude it outright. This is worth a direct question to the insurer before buying, not an assumption based on the marketing page.

Buying on behalf of someone else

If you're arranging insurance for an older parent who isn't comfortable with the online checkout process themselves, most providers let you buy the policy under their name while you handle payment and the account. Just make sure the certificate lists the traveler's name exactly as it appears on their passport, not yours.

What to actually compare

For older travelers, weigh cover limit and how pre-existing conditions are handled more heavily than the daily rate. AXA and Europ Assistance both offer higher default cover tiers that tend to suit this situation better than the cheapest budget plans. Run the numbers for your traveler's exact age and trip length with the price estimator before deciding.

AURAS prices older travelers more gently, but read the exclusions. AURAS charges the same flat rate from 18 to 65 and then adds roughly 10% of the base price for every five years after, which is a gentler curve than EKTA's override table or Europ Assistance's. It is the same non-EU underwriter as EKTA, though, and the policy excludes pre-existing conditions (anything that showed up in the previous 24 months) except life-threatening emergencies, excludes complications of many chronic conditions, and caps any single claim at $3,000. See the AURAS review before relying on it for an older traveler with health issues.

Watch for age-based override tables on budget plans. A provider's advertised cover limit isn't always what an older traveler actually gets. EKTA, for example, overrides its standard program limits with a separate age-based table once the insured is 60 or older: a 65-year-old buying its Gold plan (advertised at $150,000, no deductible) is actually capped at $9,000 with a 20% deductible. That's not the plan's headline figure. Always check whether an insurer's cover limit changes with age before buying on price alone; see our EKTA review for the full age-override table.

Bottom line

The visa minimum is the same at any age; what changes is whether it's actually enough. For a healthy traveler on a short trip, the standard plan is fine. For anyone with a real health risk or a longer stay, it's worth paying more for higher cover and clear pre-existing condition terms.

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