Healthcare

All Estonian residents who work and whose employer pays the required social tax, automatically get Estonian health insurance (after registering their place of residence in Estonia).

The health insurance also includes the right to receive benefits for temporary incapacity for work.

Estonia provides state health insurance for:

• Employees paid at least the minimum monthly salary
• Students
• Pregnant women
• People under 19
• People raising a child under three
• People registered as unemployed at the Unemployment Insurance Fund

NB! To be covered by state health insurance, your employer needs to register you in the employment register and you need an Estonian ID code. To get access to a family doctor, and for your family to be covered by health insurance, your address needs to be registered.

If you are self-employed, you have to pay your own social tax from which 13% is transferred into health insurance. 

All people living in Estonia with a temporary residence permit must be covered by insurance during their entire stay. If you are not eligible for EHIF state insurance, you must purchase it from a private provider. ERGO and Salva are companies in Estonia, but also international providers such as Swisscare and Cigna can be purchased.

It is also possible to purchase the health insurance from EHIF, but only if you have been insured by them for 12 months within the past 2 years or if someone else who meets this criteria buys the insurance for you.

Everybody in Estonia has a right to choose a General Practitioner (GP). This physician (also called a family doctor) will become your first person to consult when falling ill. In most cases, GP referral is also required to access the specialist doctor.

Firstly, you need to select a General Practitioner (family doctor), and there are two ways to do it:

• Call the Estonian Health Board (Terviseamet): (+372) 794 3500. They will be able to assist you in finding out which doctors are in your area.
• Or get the information and select family doctors directories, their size and service areas through the Estonian Health Board’s registry (in Estonian).
• The Ülemiste Health Center has family doctors speaking English. 

NB! You can only register yourself with a General Practitioner at a public clinic when you have registered your place of residence in Estonia. You can register with a General Practitioner in a private clinic without being an official resident in the country.

Secondly, once you have selected a General Practitioner, you need to register by submitting an application (“Avaldus perearsti nimistusse registreerimiseks”) to the selected clinic (either in person, by mail or via e-mail). You can download the forms in English and in Estonian, but the form needs to be submitted in Estonian! English version is just for reference.

You must submit a separate form for each family member. It will be reviewed within 7 working days, after which you’ll be notified whether you got accepted to the doctor’s directory.

NB! A doctor may decline if their directory is full or if you don’t live in the doctor’s service area. Don’t worry, though – in this case just apply to another clinic. If you cannot find a family doctor on your own, you can contact Terviseamet (Estonian Health Board) by calling +372 650 9843 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]

If you have questions of whether a selected GP directory is full, you can get information by calling the Health Insurance Fund’s Information line: (+372) 669 6630. More information is also available on the website of the Health Board.

For unexpected or minor health issues you can contact the advisory line for General Practitioners by dialling 1220, and it operates 24 hours a day. The cost of the calls is at a standard rate and assistance is provided in Estonian and Russian.

Additionally, for a small fee, you can use Salu’s doctors, who provide an alternative to a family doctor both online and offline. They also help you to get registered with an English-speaking family doctor. To learn more, check out their Salu+ package.

You can also get counselling at the International House of Estonia

There are 19 main hospitals in Estonia which are funded by the EHIF (Health Insurance Fund). There are also over 20 private hospitals which have different levels of agreements with the state for providing services.

All the following hospitals are state-financed. This means when you’re insured by the Estonian health insurance, your treatment will be subsidised:

Central hospitals

There are four central hospitals in Estonia. They provide outpatient and inpatient health services in almost all fields of health. 

Tallinn – East Tallinn Central Hospital (Ida-Tallinna Keskhaigla)

Tallinn – West Tallinn Central Hospital (Lääne-Tallinna Keskhaigla)

Kohtla-Järve – Ida-Viru Central Hospital (Ida-Viru Keskhaigla)

Pärnu – Pärnu Hospital (Pärnu Haigla)

Large hospitals (regional hospitals)

Large (regional) hospitals provide outpatient and inpatient health services in all areas of activity.

Tallinn – North Estonia Medical Centre (Põhja-Eesti Regionaalhaigla)

Tartu – Tartu University Hospital (Tartu Ülikooli Kliinikum)

Tallinn – Tallinn Children’s Hospital (Tallinna Lastehaigla)

Pärnu – Pärnu Hospital (Pärnu Haigla)

Kõhtla Järve – Ida-Viru Central Hospital (Ida-Viru Keskhaigla)

A regional hospital is not required to provide outpatient and inpatient health services in the areas of activity which are provided in the same region by another regional or central hospital.

Besides central and regional hospitals, most counties or smaller towns also have general hospitals that provide health services in that region.

Private hospitals & clinics

The advantage of private healthcare lies in shorter waiting times for seeing specialists. In private hospitals and clinics you have to pay for the services yourself. You should also check whether your private insurance might cover some of the fees.

For finding a suitable private clinic, ask for recommendations from your friends and your GP or search online. Some of the clinics that also have English websites, are:

Fertilitas – private hospital in Viimsi, near Tallinn;

Qvalitas – private clinics around Estonia;

Elite – private clinics in Southern Estonia.

Medicum – private clinics in Tallinn

Everyone in Estonia has the right to receive emergency care. Emergency care is provided also to persons who are not covered by health insurance, in this case cost are paid by the state.

Emergency rooms are located at hospitals. The East Tallinn Central Hospital at Ravi 18 is the closest A&E in central Tallinn.

In Estonia, medicine is mostly sold in pharmacies. All Estonian pharmacists have a relevant qualification, so they are competent to give necessary advice.

Antibiotics or specific medicine is sold with prescription only. General medicine is prescription free. 

Pharmacies are located in all shopping centres and their opening hours are generally between 10 am and 9 pm. There are also 24-hour emergency pharmacies in all areas; the one in central Tallinn is located at Tõnismägi 5.

A list of pharmacies with opening hours and contact information can be found on the medication information website Ravimiinfo.

Dental care in Estonia is subject to a fee for adults; however, dental care costs for all adults with health insurance can be reimbursed by up to 40 euros per year, but the recipient’s own contribution is 50% of the expenditure.

For example:

• Your dental bill: 60 euros
• 50% paid by the patient: 30 eur
• 50% paid by the Health Insurance Fund: 30 euros
• *10 euros left to use for the same year

The benefit can be used only with dental clinics who are contracted for financing medical treatment with EHIF and it only applies to essential dental care services and will be calculated automatically by the dentist.

There are many dental clinics in Estonia offering services from orthodontics to dental surgery. You can find a list on the website of WhatClinic.