Health insurance in Slovakia for people displaced from Ukraine by war
Health care types and conditions available to citizens of Ukraine who have come to Slovakia after being displaced by war.
What types of health care are available to all displaced people from Ukraine?
All citizens of Ukraine who come to Slovakia after being displaced by the war in Ukraine (adults and children) are currently guaranteed urgent health care for at least 30 days.
Urgent health care (neodkladná zdravotná starostlivosť) is health care provided to a person in the event of a sudden change in the person’s health condition that poses a direct threat to their life or one of the basic life functions, where failure to provide immediate health care could seriously endanger their health, cause them acute and unbearable pain or cause sudden changes in their behaviour or activity under the influence of which they would pose a direct threat to themselves or their surroundings.
Urgent health care includes health care for birth. Urgent health care includes the treatment of persons identified as a possible carrier of a rapidly spreading, life-threatening infection, and the diagnosis and treatment of persons with rapidly spreading, life-threatening infections.
Urgent health care includes urgent transport of a person to a health care facility, urgent transport between health care facilities, urgent transport of the donor and recipient of a human organ transplant, the urgent transport of medical professionals involved in the removal of a human organ and the urgent transport of a human organ for transplantation.
Urgent transport is provided by ambulance services. Urgent transport includes the transport of persons whose health condition requires the provision of health care during transport.
When are citizens or Ukraine entitled to full health care in Slovakia?
You, as a citizen of Ukraine are entitled to full health care in Slovakia:
- if you are granted asylum;
- if performing gainful activity – if you, a citizen of Ukraine, are employed and you are paid at least the minimum wage, or you have self-employed status in the territory of the Slovak Republic;
- in the case of a child aged 0 to 18 years, at least one of the parents must have public health insurance in Slovakia.
If any of the above situations apply to you, you are automatically entitled (and obliged) to have public health insurance in Slovakia.
To enrol for public health insurance, you must lodge an application with a health insurance company within 8 days from the start of entitlement to public health insurance.
You must submit an application to a public health insurance company for yourself and any child of yours aged 0 to 18 years within 8 days of being granted asylum or commencing gainful activity.
The concept of “full material benefits” (Vecné dávky v plnom rozsahu) refers to the health care that “domestic” insured persons are entitled to. Fully covered foreigners must be provided the same conditions as domestic insured persons.
If, as a citizen of Ukraine, you meet none of the conditions for public health insurance, you are not covered by public health insurance.
In this case the coverage of your health care costs will depend on your current status. The following section explains what health care your current status entitles you to.
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If you request temporary protection, what health care are you entitled to?
As a citizen of Ukraine, you can request temporary protection. This process is administratively straightforward and has immediate effect. Citizens of Ukraine who are granted temporary protection in the Slovak Republic receive a document of tolerated residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic marked “Temporary Protection”.
This document entitles you to receive urgent health care in Slovakia. The Ministry of Health may grant authorisation for additional types of health care beyond urgent health care, in which case the authorising decision will be published on the website www.health.gov.sk. Such health care is defined as necessary health care.
Necessary health care (potrebná zdravotná starostlivosť) is health care that a person needs considering their health condition and the nature of the treatment of that condition so that the person does not have to return to their home country earlier than they originally intended only for the sake of treatment.
It includes any treatment provided by outpatient emergency services and ambulance services. Necessary health care also includes consultation with a general practitioner for the purposes of preventive health care or vaccination.
Necessary health care includes therapies and treatments for chronic disease such as dialysis, oxygen therapy, chemotherapy, asthma treatment, or echocardiography in the case of chronic autoimmune diseases.
Planned (non-urgent) health care and spa treatments are not considered to be necessary health care.
If you request asylum, what health care are you entitled to?
As a citizen of Ukraine, you may request asylum. This is a more time consuming and administratively demanding process. Citizens of Ukraine who request asylum have the same right to urgent health care as persons with temporary protection.
In special cases where an individual assessment of the asylum seeker’s health condition indicates the need for health care, the provision of such health care will be covered.
If you request subsidiary protection, what health care are you entitled to?
Citizens of Ukraine also have the option to request subsidiary protection. An applicant can receive subsidiary protection if there are serious grounds to believe that they would be at risk of serious harm if they returned to their country of origin.
This is, again, administratively more demanding and more time consuming. Foreigners who are granted subsidiary protection are entitled to full health care (not only primary, urgent health care, as in the cases discussed above).
If you do not request asylum, temporary protection, or subsidiary protection, what health care are you entitled to?
If you, as a citizen of Ukraine with residence in Ukraine, enter Slovak territory and do not request temporary protection, asylum or subsidiary protection, your costs for urgent health care will be covered but only for up at most 30 days from the date of your arrival in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
The Ministry of Health may authorise coverage of other types of health care beyond the framework urgent health care.
We also offer the possibility to take out commercial health insurance
We are the only insurance company in Slovakia to offer both public and commercial health insurance.
If you are not entitled to public health insurance or you are entitled only to urgent health care and you would like to receive full health care, you can buy commercial health insurance.
You will then be entitled to prevention, planned treatment and regular check-ups by a specialist. We will also pay for outpatient treatment by specialists and general practitioners, stays in hospital, lab tests, prevention in accordance with Slovak regulations, first aid, rapid medical assistance, medicines prescribed by a physician, etc.
When you need to see a doctor, you will have access to our network of contracted doctors (more than 400 all over Slovakia) and you need not pay for treatment. If you are charged direct payments for health care, we will reimburse you.
Insurance is also valid in Schengen Area countries – essential health care will be covered in acute cases.
Health insurance from Union poisťovňa, a.s., is accepted by the Foreign Police of the Slovak Republic when deciding on residence permits.
The premium you will have to pay varies depending on your age and health condition ranging from 0.8 to 4 euros per day.
A health questionnaire must be completed before insurance is concluded.
More information on insurance, the health questionnaire and the possibility to take out commercial health insurance online can be found on the page Health Insurance for Foreigner. There is also a version of the page in Ukrainian – Страхування здоров’я для іноземців.
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