Rural Hungary

I have cut and pasted some posts from the main thread as I think the information given by Cheryl will be of use to those, not of pensionable age, who have relocated or are considering relocating to Hungary.

Health Insurance & Hungaran National Health

Can anyone help please.

I wonder what one has to do to qualify for the Hungarian health system. I understand if you are employed you will be covered. I also know that UK pensions can get a form from UK authorites which allows for registration with the Hungarian health service.

If you are not employed & not over 65, I wonder how you get into the system?

Does anyone have any experience or knowlege of this they can share?

All the best

John


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Hi John, have some info which I will dig out for you.
Basically, if you wish to become resident, are not of pensionable age and not in employment, you have to show proof of funds to support yourself for the duration of your stay. Further, you must show proof of medical insurance for the duration of your stay. I believe you can voluntarily pay into the Hungarian system but if memory serves me correctly, it was more affordable to take out private insurance. As mentioned I have a file somewhere and will try and find it this evening.

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Private insurance can be obtained from :
www.generali.hu/
http://www.europ-assistance.hu/

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Hi, I've just noticed your discussion and thought I'd add a bit. My husband and I are 59 and took early retirement to Hungary 4 years ago.
The first couple of years were covered for health by our uk National Insurance contributions, then we applied to contribute to the Hungarian system. Last year the contributions were 4,500 forints each a month and this year they have gone up to 4,950 forints each a month!

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Hi Len and Cheryl and welcome to the thread. That is definitely interesting and would love more details.

I was led to believe that your payments were 50% of the minimum would and 30% if under 18 so if there is a cheaper option, that would be brilliant.

Did they accept your EHIC or when you applied for residency or did you not apply for residency until you were paying Hungarian contributions? Is the EHIC not only valid for a maximum of 12 months unless you continue to pay UK NI?

John, if it is possible to get full cover for less than 5,000 ft a month, that would be worth looking at.

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Hi,
I've been digging through papers to try and find the information.

When you leave the uk you are entitled to up to 2 and half years health cover based on your previous years NI contributions (we had a bit less because we delayed applying and previous years contributions don't count!)

We telephoned the uk Pension service (the no. was a few years ago 0044 191 21 81999)

The form was E106 which they completed and faxed to us.
This as proof of health cover allowed us to get our residency.
We also obtained our ID card and tax card and Health card

When the uk cover expired a Hungarian friend took us to the local county health and tax office to sort it out.
They issued the new health card there and then and sent out 12 yellow checks for payment, but we opted to pay by standing order through the bank.

So far its worked extremely well
Cheryl

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Hope you stay on the forum Cheryl as I am sure you must have a wealth of knowledge to share! If you don't mind me asking, where abouts in Hungary are you?

John : just checked again and the info I have on file includes social & pension contributions (as we are a long way off retirement). As you don't have to pay these, doing as Cheryl has done would probably work out cheaper than going private.

Cheryl, do you mind me asking how much funds per year of intended stay you had to verify when qualifying for your residency? At our local office the amount changes depending on who we speak to !

anonimouse

Hi

Interesting reading thanks.

I wonder if one pays into the Hungarian system, I assume its similar to voluntary contributions in the Uk, does one qualify for a pension after so many years, if so how many and how much?, I appreciate it will be small. How much are the contributions, does anybody know for sure? Under 5000 forints for health care alone seems a bargain to me.

I also wonder what other benefits one can get? Would we be equal to Hungarians?

I use my Eu health card but it is a real pain in the doctors and again in the chemist, its as though they dont know quite what they have to do on the computers, I also see lots of prices on the till when it comes to paying for my prescription, the lowest price is usually 1000 forint and the middle price is usually about 3000 forint (and the one they usually charge me with), the last price can be very expensive indeed, infact it was over 11000 forint on my last visit, Once they asked me for nearly €300 when the doctor ticked the wrong box on the prescription and I had to trapse all the way back to Hospìtal to ask him to change it for me, then one doctor I asked refused to as she said she would have to pay the difference, so I guess my question is, if we paid into the system volunaraly would we get the first price when paying (as in the example above ie/ 1000 forint) or what?

Appreciate it if anyone can throw any light on this, thanks in advance.

hotpot

I know i am going slightly off topic but thought this night help.

last year i spent a week in keszthely hospital.

things you need as they are not provided.
Your own toilet paper.
drinking glass
cup for coffee or tea
knife fork and spoon
and you are expected to make your own bed.

cuts down on their costs which means the money can be spent in other ways,
like every ward is cleaned twice a day and the floors washed every day.

they do provide two fridges in the day room on every floor so if friends bring food in for you it can be put in fridge and no one else will steal it

lenandcheryl

Hi Anonimouse,
Sorry not to reply sooner, have been away for a few days!
My husband and I pay 4,950 HUF each a month to the Hungarian healthcare system. There was never any mention of pension contributions so I don't think it covers that.
We visit the local GP at no charge and I get my regular prescriptions and pay the same lower rate as the Hungarians do.
Following a recent injury I attended the local Accident and Emergency unit and had the emergency amputation of my little finger, there was no charge and the operation was done within an hour of arrival.
The anti tetanus injection was obtained on prescription from the local chemist, paying the same as a Hungarian, and was administerd in the hospital.
I attended follow up clinics for several weeks afterwards, again with no charge
We are very happy with the system and agree it is a bargain!!
Regards
Cheryl

anonimouse

Thank you very much for that lenancheryl.

When you say you pay the same as the Hungarians pay, do you ever look on the computer and see which price they give you? There seems to be three a very expensive one a middle one and a low one which is generally 1000 h, I get charged the middle one.

Can you advise where to go to make these contributions, thanks again

lenandcheryl

Hi,
I don't understand the pricing policy here, but from what I've seen it varies from Britain in that medicines can be purchased over the counter without a prescription and when I've done that (mainly because I've run out of tablets before seeing the GP), they charge the full price of the medicines.

When using a prescription they don't charge a standard fee as in Britain, it varies (I think) on the price of the medicine and what its for.

I have 4 regular medicines, 1 x 548 forints, 1 x 1,989 forints, 1 x 722 forints and 1 x 375 forints

I don't know what the 3rd price is that you've seen

As I understand it there are no exemptions for children or OAPs as in UK

If anybody has a good grasp of the Hungarian language perhaps they could have a word with a local chemist and they could perhaps explain it

We live in Baks-Kiskun county so we went to our local Health office, and to the Tax office in Kecskemet to obtain our Health cards. We took a Hungarian friend with us because they didn't speak English and our Hungarian isn't good enough yet to deal with it.

You need to have your residency and tax number in place first

I hope this helps, we're not experts, just fumbling our way!!

Regards
Cheryl

hotpot

can i just point out no one has mentioned the TAJ card.
we are pentioners so it might be different, but before we got our TAJ card we were paying full price for all medication. once it came through the price of medication dropped by a substantial amount.
I take 5 pills a day and slowly over 2 years my doctor (one at a time) changed my pills from an english brand name to a hungarian make. which bought the price down even more.

lenandcheryl

Hi Hotpot,
Yes a lot of the health problems seem to be with people like us, just pre pension age but have taken early retirement, or if you're living on savings.

If you are working, your employer covers you I believe, if you are registered as self employed I think there is a way to contribute

When my elderly mother came to live with us last year all her paperwork went through very smoothly

Regards
Cheryl

klarika

Cheryl,
How do you go about paying into the system and where do you go?

Thanks

Klarika

hotpot

hi cheryl yes i take your point. not much help am i

lenandcheryl

Hi Klarika,

To pay into the system we took our residency card and tax card to our local tax office and then to the health office where they issued our health cards there and then. They sent out 12 yellow checks to pay monthly but we went and set up a standing order with the bank

We live in Baks-Kiskun county so our tax office and our Health office are both in Kecskemet. I don't know where they are in other counties but will probably be in the main county town.

We took a Hungarian friend who did all the talking on our behalf because he understood the system, although sorting it out for a foreigner was new to him!!

Cheryl

lenandcheryl

Hi Hotpot,

Your information and experience is very interesting, particularly about getting your tablets changed to Hungarian brands rather than British ones, I will discuss that with my GP.

I didn't know about a TAJ card, ours doesn't say that, my mum is in the uk at the moment on holiday, so I will look at her card when she comes back and see if that's what she's got

Cheryl

klarika

Thanks for the info Cheryl

Gaflack

Since no posts about health coverage I have a question. Do most ExPats just Self Insure in Hungary as other do in Ecuador and Panama?

Michael and Sandy

hotpot

hi

sorry i am not a lot of help. we retored here from the uk so we are covered by all our health needs here and do not have to take out insurance.
i have had a week in hospital and several tests done at hospital and it was all free to us.
but i did have another problem where the hospital after several tests could not find out what was wrong and i was advised to see a private doctor. my first 30 min visit and examination cost me £30 and my 4 follow up appointments were £15 each time. which for us did not break the bank. sorry i cant be more help