It protects you from medical expenses.
There are often two different types of health insurance you can consider buying -- international travel insurance and student insurance in the country where you will be going.
An international travel insurance policy is usually purchased in your home country.
It generally covers a wide variety of medical services and you are often given a list of doctors in the area where you will travel.
The drawback might be that you may not get your money back immediately.
On the other hand, getting student health insurance in the country where you will study might allow you to only pay a certain percentage of the medical cost at the time of service.
So you don't have to have sufficient cash to pay the entire bill at once.
Whatever you decide, obtaining health insurance is something you should consider before you go overseas.
