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HEALTH INSURANCE

According to our Constitution, you have the right to free health care and medical aid. This is provided mainly by the state based on health insurance. However, there is the Health Insurance Act, which, by distinguishing between public and individual health insurance, determines what still fits into the description of free care and what no longer belongs there.

Types of health insurance

PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE

Public health insurance in Slovakia is financed by the redistribution of public resources, which includes, for example, insurance premiums paid by employers. Compulsory public health insurance is for every person who has a permanent residence and stays in the territory of the Slovak Republic. In contrast, if he does not have permanent residence in this territory, he must be employed here, an asylum seeker, an international student or a foreigner detained in Slovakia.

VOLUNTARY PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE

Voluntary public health insurance is created in a situation where you do not register at the labour office when you are unemployed. In this case, you must pay for the insurance yourself.

INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE

Individual health insurance is non-life insurance, determined by the insurance contract. This includes, for example, travel insurance, surgical intervention insurance, critical illness insurance, additional disability pension insurance and others.

You can learn more about some of these types of insurance and their importance on the website poistenie.sk. We continue to cover non-health insurance in the section dedicated to financial literacy.

Health insurance

In Slovakia, three companies provide health insurance – VŠZP, Dôvera and Union. How to choose from them? Articles and comparisons on the websites Podnikam.sk, ŠetriSova and FinančnýKompas.sk can help you choose a suitable option. They selected the sites that seemed most relevant to us, but if you still have unanswered questions, you can find many more on the Internet. The decision is up to you. All you have to do is notify the employer of your choice of an insurance company.

Another important thing is that you can only change your health insurance company once a year on January 1 of the following calendar year. You must apply to the new health insurance company you choose. The deadline for submitting this application is September 30. After the Health Care Supervision Office has accepted it, you will become insured by the new health insurance company from January 1. Suppose you apply for a change of health insurance company after September 30. In that case, the application is considered to have been submitted on January 1 of the following calendar year, and you will stay with the same insurance company for one more year.

If you are unsure how much you pay for health insurance or the state pays for you, the contribution amount calculator will help you. The following link will also teach how insurance company fees and surcharges work in different scenarios.

An interesting source of health information is, for example, the Doktor má Filipa podcast. The show’s guests are doctors and other health professionals from various fields.