Health insurance in Croatia, all you need to know in 2022
by Welcome Center Croatia | Last updated Jan 30, 2022 | Published on Jan 30, 2022
Health insurance in Croatia is mandatory which means that if your plan is to stay for a longer period in Croatia, you should regulate your compulsory health insurance status.
Health insurance and health care generally are regulated by HZZO (Hrvatski zavod za zdravstveno osiguranje or Croatian Institute for Health Insurance (CHIF)) and its available to everyone equally – Croatian citizens but also foreigners with permanent residence in Croatia.
So, the main principle of health insurance is this – basic health care insurance is mandatory and consists of the right to receive health care and the right to financial benefits, including compensation of salary during sick leave or maternity leave.
Additional and private health care insurances are completely voluntary and you need to pay for the monthly insurance additionally.
To get you acquainted with the health insurance system we will cover the basics of health insurance, we will exploit types of health insurance, who is required to be insured and what does it mean to have a health insurance in Croatia.
Who is required to be insured?
So, health insurance is obligatory, and if you belong to one of these groups you should get your health insurance sorted out:
- Person with permanent residence in Croatiav
- Foreigners with an approved permanent stay in Croatia
- Nationals of EU/ EEA /Switzerland, as well as the citizens of other states, with an approved temporary stay in Croatia and based on the employment with the employer headquartered in Croatia
- Nationals of the other Member States in the EU/EEA/Switzerland with the approved temporary stay in Croatia provided they do not exercise compulsory health insurance in another Member States of the EU/EEA/Switzerland
- Nationals of a country that are not Member States in the EU/EEA/Switzerland with a temporary stay in the Republic of Croatia, unless otherwise stated by the European law, international treaties on social security, or special laws.
If you are staying in Croatia but you are insured under compulsory health insurance in another Member state in the EU/EEA/Switzerland or one of the countries with which Croatia has entered into an international treaty on social insurance (these are:
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, and North Macedonia), you can utilize healthcare in the same way as the persons insured by the CHIF.
How does health insurance work in Croatia?
Health insurance in Croatia works differently for specific groups of people – depending on your residence status, the country you are coming from, and your current health insurance status.
If you are an EU/EEA citizen and you have health insurance in your home country but you are staying in Croatia for some period you need to: have a document from your country that proves you are insured, bring it to HZZO (CHIF), sign a couple of documents to have the same, free level of health insurance in Croatia.
If you are not from the EU things get a bit more complex but still manageable:
- Apply for Croatian health insurance even if you have your private policy
- Get a residency permit from the local police department
- ake this permit to an HZZO (CHIF) office and they will issue a document which you need to bring back to the local police station
- Your fees will normally be 412 kn every month for basic health insurance and an initial 5,000 kn fee.
- With the basic insurance cover, you will have to pay a small fee every time you visit a doctor (because you don’t have supplementary health insurance) or get medication from a pharmacy
When having health insurance for the first time in Croatia you need to choose your family doctor (GP – general practitioner), dentist and if you need it – a gynaecologist. You only need to check their availability (if they accept new patients), get a confirmation document from them, and bring it to HZZO.
For easier managing the whole health insurance and where to go – you can visit the HZZO website and check where their offices are.
3 types of health insurance in Croatia
In Croatia, there are three types of health insurance: mandatory health insurance (obavezno zdravstveno osiguranje); supplementary health insurance (dopunsko zdravstveno osiguranje), and additional (private) health insurance (dodatno zdravstveno osiguranje)
Mandatory health insurance
Mandatory health insurance is the basic and public mandatory health insurance in Croatia. It is prescribed by the HZZO and is required for all residents in Croatia – unless you are an EU citizen or permanent EU resident who holds state health insurance in another EU/EEA member state.
Supplementary health insurance
Supplementary health insurance is an affordable, optional public or private health insurance supplement. You can get it from either HZZO or a private insurer. When you have it, you don’t have to pay additionally for prescriptions, doctor visits, diagnostic tests, and hospital visits/stays.
Additional (private) health insurance
Additional or private health insurance is the highest level of health insurance in Croatia.
It is private health insurance only offered by banks and private insurers. This type of health insurance policy covers specialists, additional treatments, preventative care, private hospitals specialists, laboratory tests, and extended hospital visits.
Additional or private health insurance allows you to perform systematic and specialist examinations and numerous other health services in the best private clinics in Croatia, without referrals and any waiting lists. Of course, you must pay it separately and on top of your basic health insurance.
What does health insurance in Croatia include?
Now that we’ve covered everything about health insurance in Croatia you are most certainly wondering what does your health insurance includes?
The basic two rights that you have are the right to be financially compensated and the right to have health care services.
The financial part means that your health insurance also provides you the right to have your salary if you are on sick leave or maternity leave.
The health insurance includes:
- primary health care,
- specialist-consultative health care,
- hospital health care,
- medications determined by the basic and supplementary medicine list of the CHIF,
- dental prostheses determined by the basic and supplementary prostheses list of the CHIF
- orthopaedic and other medical prostheses determined by the basic and supplementary orthopaedic and other medical prostheses list of the CHIF
- the right to cross-border health care
Hope that we’ve made it clear & easy for you to cope with the Croatian health insurance!
OIB - Croatian Identification Number
