Once you're here Health Care Health insurance
Health insurance
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- Last Updated on Thursday, 22 March 2012 13:38
The health care system in Serbia is based on mandatory medical insurance, while several local agencies provide private health insurance.
Serbia has inherited a health care system oriented towards securing an easy availability of all health care services to the entire population. In principle, insurance coverage is provided to (i) all employed persons, (ii) pensioners and (iii) self-employed people and farmers who are contributor payers, including the spouse, dependant children and elderly parents of an insurer. A special system of health insurance coverage is applied to the army, army civilians and armed forces’ pensioners and their family members and dependants.
When living and/or working in Serbia, you may not have the same level of access to the healthcare system as to the local population and you will be liable for full medical costs (unless there exist bilateral health insurance treaty between Serbia and your country of origin). First, you need to acquire if there is a possibility that the health insurance in your country covers the medical services in Serbia. Serbia has a number of bilateral agreements with national health insurance funds of other countries which entitle their users/nationals to free health care in Serbia under specified circumstances (usually meaning only in the case of the emergency). You should check with your local health care provider if you are eligible and how you can obtain the required documents before departure. Apart from the emergency cases, you need to have the insurance so think about the following options:
- for you: the certified copy of ID card or the proof of the temporary residence of the foreigners
- for the spouse: a proof of mariage
- for the civil partners: a certified statement of two witnesses that there is no marriage barriers and that common law marriage lasts longer than two years
- for the child/children: a birth certificate and the proof of studying if the child is between age 18-26.
The biggest insurance companies offering this kind of health insurance are:
You can get either voluntary health insurance individually or as a supplement to life insurance or accident insurance policy. Depending on the type of the policy you are signing with your insurance company you are coved the costs of medical services, medicines, medical-technical aids and implants etc. Don’t forget you are obliged to use only those medical facilities mentioned in the contract (you will get a list of all state and private clinics with which the insurance company has an agreement) and that you are paying for the treatment by yourself and get refunded afterwards. Costs of this type of health insurance depend on the type of the contract, your age, professional status and gender.
If you are just traveling to Serbia or you are going to be here for the short period of time, we recommend that you take out comprehensive health insurance in your country before you depart that will cover any medical costs, including medical evacuation. This arrangement must comply with EU law on public healthcare, so you should obviously confirm that it does before purchasing coverage. Be sure that your insurance covers you for the whole time you'll be away and check what circumstances and activities are not included in your policy.
