Yes, travel insurance is close to essential for a trip to Goba, the gateway town for Ethiopia's Bale Mountains National Park, and the honest core of the answer is altitude and remoteness rather than everyday danger. Trekking onto the Sanetti Plateau, one of Africa's highest all-weather roads, and into the wider Bale range routinely reaches altitudes above 4,000 meters, and a routine city-trip policy may not automatically cover trekking at that elevation.
Goba itself has only basic local medical services, and anything beyond minor treatment typically means transfer to Addis Ababa, the country's real medical hub several hours away by road. Confirm your policy explicitly covers medical evacuation and altitude-related treatment, since a transfer from the Bale Mountains back to Addis Ababa is the part most likely to involve real cost and coordination, not routine local care.
Trekking and wildlife-watching for endemic species like the Ethiopian wolf are the genuine draws here, and both carry real risk from altitude, remote terrain, and limited phone signal across the plateau. Check that your policy names high-altitude trekking specifically rather than assuming general hiking cover applies above 4,000 meters, and confirm any altitude ceiling in the wording before you commit to a multi-day route.
It is also worth checking current government travel guidance for the wider region before departure, since conditions across parts of Ethiopia have varied over time - this is a routine precaution rather than a reason to avoid Bale specifically, which remains a well-established trekking destination. Check whether your existing health cover extends abroad and to Ethiopia specifically before assuming it applies here.
Keep any clinic paperwork, guide or park-permit documentation, and receipts for evacuation or emergency transport, since claims from a remote trekking base like Goba rely heavily on documentation. Many policies require notice before major expenses like evacuation are incurred, so review the claims process in your policy wording before you travel into the mountains.