Affordable living, good weather and a thriving nomad scene can make a destination look perfect, until you get sick. Then the things that made a city attractive suddenly matter a lot less than knowing where to find a doctor, whether you can communicate with them, how quickly you can get help and what that help is going to cost.
For people spending weeks or months away from home, those questions can have real consequences. Delaying medical attention can allow some conditions to worsen or become harder to treat, yet new research from Holafly finds that 47.5% of frequent and long-stay travellers have delayed or avoided seeking medical care abroad even when they felt they needed it. A further 20.3% are not confident they could find a healthcare provider they trust if something went wrong.
To find out where those challenges could be greatest, Holafly analysed 17 countries across seven factors, including access to doctors and hospital beds, emergency care, healthcare quality, insurance requirements, language, specialist waiting times and pharmacy access. Using data from the World Health Organization, World Bank, Eurostat, national health authorities, OECD and EF Education First, the resulting Holafly Plans Healthcare Index 2026 gives each country a deficit score from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater potential difficulty accessing care.
“Healthcare is rarely the first thing people look at when choosing where to spend a few months abroad, but perhaps it should be higher on the list,” said Metin Kastro, COO at Holafly. “For people living across borders, understanding how easily they could get help if something goes wrong is just as important as understanding what everyday life in a destination will look like.”
Here are the countries where accessing healthcare could prove most challenging for digital nomads:
Indonesia
Vietnam
Thailand
South Africa
Colombia
Malaysia
Mexico
UAE
Peru
Bulgaria
Indonesia emerges as the most challenging country overall, followed by Vietnam in second place and Thailand in third. While the UAE has the strongest emergency care score, Germany emerges as the strongest overall performer.
The findings show why simply asking whether a country has “good healthcare” may not be enough for someone living abroad: what matters is the help you can actually access when you need it.
The research forms part of Holafly’s broader work exploring the realities of living and travelling across borders for longer. Holafly Plans, its global eSIM subscription for frequent travellers and digital nomads, provides one plan that works across destinations rather than having to start again every time they move.
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About Holafly
Holafly is the global leader in eSIMs for travellers, offering coverage in over 200 destinations. With an outstanding 4.7/5 rating on Trustpilot and more than 25 million satisfied users, it has become the preferred eSIM choice for international travellers. Its unlimited data and build-in back up plan offering ensures peace of mind anywhere in the world.
