International Healthcare For The Retired

Hannah Beecham  Thursday, Feb 18 2010  15.18

Healthcare Entitlements Overseas

Check out your retirement entitlements to healthcare abroad.

Expats retiring to an EEA country are entitled to the UK state retirement pension, incapacity benefit at the long-term rate, as well as widows’ benefit and bereavement benefit. The form required is E121 available from the Department for Work and Pensions (address below). Those of you qualifying can expect to receive the same free, or reduced-cost, medical treatment as a senior citizen of the country you are in, under its state healthcare scheme.

EEA member countries

Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Outside of the EEA

The UK enjoys reciprocal social security agreements with the following countries and issues a series of leaflets explaining how to take advantage of these arrangements: Barbados (leaflet SA43), Bermuda (SA23), Canada (SA20), Guernsey (SA4), Israel (SA14), Jamaica (SA27), Jersey (SA4), Mauritius (SA38), New Zealand (SA8), Philippines (SA42), Turkey (SA22), US (SA33) and Yugoslavia (SA17 - applies to the Balkan Republics of the former Yugoslavia).

The FCO recommends that Brits retiring to a non-EEA country should seek further information from the British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate in the relevant country abroad and/or the foreign consulate of that country based here in the UK.