[gnode]

In this case I presume you'd not be paying for US insurance, as you'd expect to be backpacking for many months more.

[ghaff]

But the expectation of most travel insurance is that you also have regular health insurance.

If you think you've found a neat hack like:

-- Skip buying regular health insurance

-- Buy a $300 12-month travel insurance instead

-- Spend the savings traveling around for a year while being fully covered for medical expenses

You're probably missing something.