Moving abroad after retirement

• If you receive a pension from the country where you live, you and your family are covered by that country’s health insurance system — even if you are also receiving pensions from other countries.
• If you do not receive a pension or any other income from the country where you live, you and your family will receive medical treatment in the country where you live if you would be entitled to medical treatment in the country that pays your pension.

You should request an S1 form from your social security service in the country you are insured.

When you arrive in your new country, submit your S1 form to the relevant authority. This document establishes your right to full healthcare coverage in your country of residence on the same terms and conditions as the domestic insured persons.

When moving to Greece, you should register your S1 form with eEFKA (Electronic National Social Security Fund). For more information you may contact eEFKA at the email: tm.asfikan@efka.gov.gr.

Generally, you and your family are only fully entitled to medical treatment in the country where you live. However, if the country which pays your pension is one of the following, you and your family members are entitled to medical treatment both in the country which pays your pension and in the country where you now live:

If you paid contributions in a country which is not in the list above, you will only be entitled to complete healthcare coverage in the country where you now live.

If your most recent job was as a cross-border worker – meaning you lived in one country but commuted to work in another – and you retired because of old age or invalidity, the following applies:

Continuation of a treatment

You can continue to receive a treatment that started in the country where you used to work even after you have retired.

This also applies to your dependents if their treatment began in:

To continue receiving a treatment that started in the country where you used to work, you must submit an S3 form to the health authorities in that country.

Coverage in the country where you used to work and in the country where you live

If you worked as a cross-border worker for at least 2 years during the 5 years prior to your retirement, you are entitled to healthcare both in the country where you live and in the country where you used to work.

Both you and your dependents are entitled to healthcare in the country where you previously worked if both this country and the country where you now live are in this group:

If you travel to the country where you used to work to access medical treatment there, and the authorities in that country are no longer responsible for your healthcare costs, you must submit an S3 form to them. You can get an S3 form from the healthcare authority responsible for your healthcare cover.