Health Insurance

Having the health insurance is obligatory.

Before you leave, make sure that you are covered by your current health insurance, or take out insurance in Slovakia. What you have to do will depend on your personal situation, the length of your stay and the terms of your current health insurance.

Depending on your situation, you will either continue to be covered by the health insurance of your home country, or you will fall under the regime of the country you move to or work in. In both cases, you will need to make specific arrangements for your continued health coverage.

Health insurance depends on your economic status - whether you are employed, self-employed, unemployed, a student, posted abroad, working across the border from where you live, and so on. You may not choose which country you will be covered by.

The country responsible for your healthcare depends on your employment situation or your place of residence, not your nationality. To avoid potentially serious problems and misunderstandings, find out about the health system in Slovakia before you leave your current country.

There are two types of health insurance in Slovakia:

• mandatory public health insurance: Its holders are entitled to health care provision and all related services in compliance with the Act on Health Care Insurance. Public health insurance covers the following benefits in full or to a partial extent, depending on specific conditions: diagnostics, treatment and preventative care, outpatient and inpatient care including rehabilitation, compulsory vaccination, provision of drugs, medical aid and dietetic food, spa treatment can be provided upon the recommendation of a doctor, where such care is an inevitable component of the treatment procedure.

• individual (commercial) health insurance: Its holders are entitled to health care services in a scope stipulated in the agreement with the Health Insurance Authority. Commercial health insurance is provided in compliance with special legislation (Civil Code). The scope of the health services is stipulated individually either as basic health care available to foreigners who cannot have the public health insurance; or supplementary insurance (more than standard health care) or a combination of both previously mentioned.

There are 3 health insurance companies in Slovakia:

• Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa, a.s. (website in Slovak only)
• DÔVERA zdravotná poisťovňa, a.s. (website in Slovak only)
• Union zdravotná poisťovňa, a. s. (website in Slovak only)

Information for foreigners in English on mandatory public health insurance you can find on the English version of  Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa, a.s. website dedicated to foreigners and Union zdravotná poisťovňa, a. s. section for foreigners or on the website of Migration Information Centre of IOM in Slovakia.

Last modified: 2011-06-01