Sean P. Says:
Hi Jen,
I was introduced to you at the Ultimate Go Overseas Bootcamp by your Italy Correspondent, Chip Stites. I had a question, and you didn’t have an answer for me off the top of your head and asked me to email it to you.
I recently got an Irish passport, which I got just to be able to live and work anywhere in the EU. However, I have heard that I am also eligible for healthcare, and my question is how do I go about getting that?
IL Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens Says:
Hi Sean,
It was great to meet you at Bootcamp in Denver, and thanks for following up on this question.
Your Irish passport will help you access the Irish healthcare system, but it is not automatic.
To qualify for Ireland’s free public healthcare system, you must show that you are “ordinarily resident” in Ireland. This means that you’ve been living in Ireland for at least a year, or that you intend to live there for at least a year.
To prove you’re “ordinarily resident” you’ll need to show Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) one or more of:
- Proof of property ownership, or rental.
- Proof that the property in question is the person’s principal residence (i.e. utility bills).
- Proof of transfer of funds, bank accounts, any pensions etc.
- A residence permit or visa.
- A work permit or visa, a statement from an employer if applicable.
The big benefit here of your Irish passport is that it will make getting one of these much easier.
As a citizen you have the right to live in Ireland, so renting a property for a year is far easier than doing so if you didn’t have the passport.
It’s important to note that renting a place for a year is enough to show intent of ordinary residency and grant immediate access—you don’t have to wait a year.
Another important point is how residency grants you access to healthcare throughout the EU.
The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is another benefit of being an EU citizen.
With EHIC, you have the right to receive medical treatment in any participating country at free or reduced cost. Note that the EHIC covers all countries in the European Economic Area, which includes Switzerland, the UK, Norway, and Iceland—which aren’t EU members.
The EHIC allows you to receive treatment for sudden illness or injury, or for a chronic condition such as kidney dialysis. For routine non-emergency treatments, however, such as dental care, you need to see a provider in the country that issued your EHIC.
The EHIC provides access to comprehensive healthcare under the state system of whatever country you’re in. There are usually some co-payments involved, but they are quite small. Some people do get supplementary health insurance, either because they prefer private care to state-run systems, or to cover out of pocket costs under the EHIC.
And you don’t even have to move to Ireland to get it. This right to the EHIC is based on being a legal resident in any EU country.
So if you decided to move to, say, Portugal—which is your right as an Irish citizen—you would get access to the EHIC due to your Portuguese residency.
Hope that helps!
By the way, you can get much more detail about healthcare throughout Europe—and your right to access it—when you join us in Portugal in April 2024 for our first-ever Fast Track Europe Conference. Get all the details of that here.
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