How Nomad Citizen replaced the best employer insurance Casey ever had, then beat it
Interviewed 23 June 2026
Where are you based right now?
I'm based in the Loire Valley region of France. In total I've spent about 18 months out of the last two years there, and continuously it's been about a year.
What do you do for work, and how does location independence fit into it?
I've been working as a teacher in a French high school for the past school year, and I just renewed my contract for another year. There's no location independence or mobility with this job, but I wouldn't say that's a drawback. I've really loved it.
The reason I'm in France is that I want to settle here, or at the very least somewhere in the EU. With the languages I speak being English and French, France was the obvious choice. I'm pursuing long-term permanent residency.
How would you describe yourself?
I'd say expat fits right now, but the intention is to ultimately become an immigrant. I intend to stay in France, or at the very least the EU, for as long as I possibly can.
Is there anything you're particularly proud of or working on right now?
I'd say I'm proud of pursuing this new direction in my career. I spent 10 years working in a completely different sector (finance) and decided to make a huge change in my life. I chose to do it because I wanted to fit my work better into the life I wanted to live, and this new career path has succeeded in allowing me to do that.
I'm very happy, not only for having had the courage to do it, because for a lot of people, leaving behind a well-established career is extremely scary and intimidating, but also for the other life goals and dreams that it's helped facilitate.
What do people get wrong about making this kind of move?
This is actually going to run counter to a lot of what people will find online, specifically about relocating to France. Even in so much as it was objectively a lot of work and stressful — all of those things are true — when you actually go through the experience, you find it's still not as bad as it's often made out to be in blog posts and online circles.
French bureaucracy is at times as bad as it's made out to be. Very true. There's a lot of paperwork. But I would read all of these things online and it made it seem like this completely insurmountable barrier, this wall that you just cannot get through. I did not find that to be the case. I don't find myself to be particularly clever, and if I can figure it out, anyone can. If I can make this happen, anyone can.
What made you choose Nomad Citizen?
The answer is really simple. It was a more holistic product for not much more money. I could pay a certain amount and get just SafetyWing health insurance, which is a really great product in itself, but for just a little bit more I get all these extra features that come with Nomad Citizen like income protection, all of that.
And then there's the long-term vision. The things that are coming with Nomad Citizen and Plumia and everything connected to that — I'm very optimistic and very bullish on all of it. I have this long-term vision of all of these things coalescing at some point in my life and the great benefits that will bring, not just for me but for so many other people.
Coming from the finance and insurance world, I know it pretty well. To my knowledge, there's nothing else that comes close to the value for the dollar.
What has Nomad Citizen helped you solve in your life?
It's made my healthcare so much easier. I'm a Type 1 diabetic and I have a lot of medications that I take every day. When I was in the US with employer insurance, I had very good coverage, some of the best you can have in the US market. And it was still a very complicated, difficult process. Still extremely expensive. There were all these hoops to jump through, prior approvals, everything else, just to get the medication I need to continue to live every day.
When we added the further complication of living with one foot in the US and one foot in France, that just added a whole lot more to it. I am eligible for French social security, which is great, and when I'm in France I can use that. But I'm not always in France, and even then there are certain things that aren't covered. That's where Nomad Citizen fills in those gaps.
When I'm back in the US, it's better than any insurance currently available in the US, at least to my knowledge, by several orders of magnitude. To the point that when I go to the pharmacy or to the doctor and try to explain how my insurance works and what it's going to cover, they don't believe me. They try to help me find workarounds to make things more affordable, but I tell them I don't need to worry! My insurance has got it covered, and they find that pretty unbelievable.
Just simplifying my life in that context and taking all of that mental energy away has been the biggest benefit.
If someone asked you whether Nomad Citizen was right for them, what would you say?
I think I'd say one of two things depending on who I'm talking to.
If I'm speaking to someone who I think will identify with SafetyWing's long-term vision — the country on the internet, all of that — I give them the full spiel and try to articulate the whole thing. Sometimes it's not so concise.
But if I'm speaking to someone who might not necessarily connect with the long-term vision, I just sell it as what it is: very good health insurance that is very efficient, relatively affordable, and doesn't have any geographical constraints. You can buy this product and use it wherever you are. If you're looking for something for that use case, I think it's the best product out there.
What is the most useful part of Nomad Citizen to you?
Two things. First, for someone with chronic illness, the reliability and comfort of knowing that my healthcare is going to be covered is paramount. When I had commercial US insurance, they would reject claims for medications that cost thousands of dollars a month because I hadn't been prescribed the particular brand on their formulary. That's life-threatening in some instances. Being able to rely on my insurance to cover me is life-changing for someone like me.
Second, the mobility. The fact that I can take this insurance and it will work in one country, and if I go to another and have a medical need, it will work there too. The flexibility and freedom that allows and not having to worry about that is also very life-changing.
Have you had any other memorable experiences with SafetyWing?
I can't really think of anything off the top of my head, but I think that's telling in itself. When I've needed to use the insurance, it's been so easy and straightforward and fast, like claims approved, reimbursed quickly, that I just don't have to think about it. I've honestly forgotten about most of the times I've used it because of how easy and uneventful those experiences were.
I think that's the most impressive part. I don't have to think about it. I keep going back to my experiences with US insurance, where I could tell story after story of the ordeals I had to go through to get my insurance to do what it's supposed to do. Simply not having to expend that energy and that time is the most remarkable thing about it.
J.S. Suh
Head Writer
Oversees copywriting at SafetyWing, ensuring we stay true to our voice.
J.S. Suh
Head Writer
Oversees copywriting at SafetyWing, ensuring we stay true to our voice.
