Health insurance in your country of residence
Health insurance in your country of residence
- If you receive a pension from the country where you live,you and your family are covered by that country’s health insurance system -inregardless of whether you also receive a pension from other countries.
- If you do not receive a pension or any other income from the country where you live,you and your family can receive care in the country of residenceif you are entitled to care in the country that pays your pension.
Examples from reality
Find out which system you are covered by
Nicolas has lived and worked in France most of his working life –
except for a few years in his youth when he worked as a waiter in Italy.
When Nicolas retires, he moves to Italy.
His pension will therefore consist of two parts: an Italian pension for the years
he worked in Italy and a French pension for the years of work in France.
As Nicolas lives in Italy AND receives a general pension from there, he is covered by the Italian health insurance system.
He can therefore no longer be part of the French system.
Ask for an S1 certificate (formerly E106) from the social insurance office in the country you are moving from.
Submit the S1 certificate to the host country’s social insurance office. The certificate confirms your right to health care in the country where you live.
Health insurance in the country where you worked
You and your family are in principle only fully entitled to medical care in the country where you live. But if the country that pays your pension is in the list below, you and your relatives have the right to care in both the country that pays your pension and the country where you live:
| Austria | Germany | Netherlands |
| Belgium | Greece | Poland |
| Bulgaria | Hungary | Slovenia |
| Cyprus | Iceland | Spain |
| Czech Republic | Liechtenstein | Sweden |
| France | Luxembourg | Switzerland |
Warning
If you have paid social security contributions in a country that is not on the list, you are only entitled to complete health insurance in the country where you now live.
You are a retired frontier worker
If in your most recent job you worked in one country and lived in another (and you retired due to age or disability), the following applies:
Continued treatment
If you started a medical treatment in the country where you worked, you may continue it even after retirement.
This also applies to your relatives if the treatment was started in one of the following countries:
| Austria | Greece | Netherlands |
| Belgium | Hungary | Poland |
| Bulgaria | Italy | Portugal |
| Cyprus | Latvia | Romania |
| Czech Republic | Liechtenstein | Slovakia |
| Estonia | Lithuania | Slovenia |
| France | Luxembourg | Spain |
| Germany | Malta | Switzerland |
To be able to continue treatment that started in the country where you worked, you must submit an S3 certificate to the health authorities in that country.
Healthcare in the former country of work and the current country of residence
If you were a frontier worker for at least two of the five years before retirement, you are entitled to health care both in your country of residence and in the country where you worked.
Both you and your relatives are entitled to care in the country where you previously worked if both that country and your current country of residence are included in the following list:
| Austria | Germany | Spain |
| Belgium | Luxembourg | |
| France | Portugal | |
If you travel to your previous country of work to receive care and the authorities in that country are no longer responsible for your care costs, you must submit an S3 certificate to them. You can get an S3 certificate from your insurance office.
You are looking for a job
If you receive unemployment benefits from one EU country and move to another to apply for a job there, you must obtain a European Health Insurance Card (EU card) for yourself and your family members before moving. With the card, you and your family are entitled to necessary medical care (eg emergency care) during the time you receive unemployment benefits.
If you are not insured in an EU country and move to another EU country to apply for a job, the social insurance institutions will decide which system you will be covered by. You will probably need to get health insurance in the new country.
Read more about your social insurance abroad.
Healthcare systems are different
The EU countries themselves decide who should be entitled to benefits and care.
To avoid problems and misunderstandings, you can read more about the social insurance system in your host country or contact the national contact point.
Examples from reality
Find out what applies in the new country
Susanne spent her working life in Germany and moved to Spain after retirement. When she became ill, she hired a private home care company, as there is no public home care insurance in Spain.
Her German home care insurance paid part of the cost, but Susanne had to pay much more than she would have had to do in Germany. This was due to the differences between the German and Spanish benefit systems.
Differences in the assessment of workability
If you are applying for an invalidity pension or invalidity benefits, each country in which you have worked can be examined. One country may make the assessment that you are unable to work, while another may come to the opposite conclusion.
