HEALTH
Well Cared For — Even Without Fear.
For many, the question of healthcare is the biggest worry about living across countries. We’ll tell you how we answered it for ourselves — with real experiences instead of guesswork.
“The first dentist visit was the moment of truth — and it turned out differently than we feared.”
Our Decision
Deliberately Without Health Insurance
We deliberately decided against health insurance — after exactly the kind of weighing-up we describe on the Protect page: where we live, paying out of pocket for a doctor’s visit is often cheaper than any monthly premium. This is our path, based on our own math — not automatically yours.
The Real-World Test Came Quickly
Lived It: Tooth Pain
Already in the first year, sudden tooth pain hit — the moment when a decision like this has to prove itself. We paid for the treatment out of pocket and were very positively surprised by how little it cost. For us, that was the confirmation to keep going exactly this way.
The Local Pharmacy
Active Ingredient Over Brand Name
We simply buy medication at the pharmacy. We’d brought our German ones along — here they’re just called something else: the pharmacist looked at the package insert and gave us the Turkish version with the same active ingredient. Since then we know: it’s not the brand name that counts, but what’s actually inside.
What This Doesn’t Mean
Honestly Weighed
Our experience is not a recommendation to go without coverage. A serious illness or an emergency is a completely different calculation than tooth pain — everyone has to assess that risk for themselves, depending on country, family, and health. What we can offer you: our lived experience, so you can do your own math with real numbers instead of fears. How a real emergency with our son turned out, we tell in the Journal.
Do your own math — with real, lived experience.
Country, family, health, risk tolerance — your answer will look different from ours. But it’ll be a better answer once you know what it’s really like.
Personal experience report, as of July 2026 — not medical, insurance, or legal advice. Costs and availability vary by country and treatment.
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