With warm weather all year round, low living costs, and easy access through its European Union membership, Cyprus is a great place to live for expats, retirees and digital nomads alike.
Public healthcare in Cyprus is affordable and accessible, while a growing private healthcare system expands the quality and choice of care even further. Here’s everything you need to know about medical insurance and healthcare in Cyprus.
Cyprus has a two-tier healthcare system, with public healthcare facilities supplemented by private hospitals and clinics.
Public healthcare in Cyprus is mainly free at the point of use and is funded by social security contributions from those employed in the country. Employers make contributions at the rate of 2.9% of each employee’s salary, while employees make a contribution of 2.65%.1 This enables access to a wide range of emergency and non-emergency treatments at hospitals and clinics around the country. Pensioners are also required to make a 2.65% contribution from their pensions.2
Cyprus also has an expanding selection of good-quality private hospitals, with several more planned to be built in the coming years.3 Private facilities can be accessed through insurance schemes that can be tailored to the needs of the individual patient, or on a pay-as-you-go basis for individual treatments.
In 2025, Numbeo’s Health Care Index ranked Cypriot healthcare at a similar level to other countries in the region, such as Greece, North Macedonia and Romania.4 The General Health System (GHS) of universal health insurance was only implemented in 2019, and this is intended to improve the level of investment and standard of care in Cyprus in the long-term.5
Staff are generally well-trained, and as many of them are taught overseas, understanding of English is common. But there can be long waiting times for some procedures, partly due to personnel shortages.
Private hospitals and clinics can provide a generally better standard of care, with more comfortable facilities, faster and easier access to specialists, and a wider choice of healthcare facilities.
Pharmacies are plentiful and easy to access in the big cities, although some tend to close for a few hours in the early afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the day. There are also some night pharmacies with extended opening hours that can be contacted 24 hours a day for urgent requirements.
Anyone with legal permission to stay in Cyprus for three months or more is considered a resident and is therefore able to access the public healthcare system. Registration with the General Health System (GHS) can be done online, or at the surgery you wish to register with – providing they have capacity to take on more patients.
Once this registration is completed, you’ll be able to make appointments with your chosen doctor as required. They’ll be able to refer you to specialists or for medical tests when you need them.
If you’re a national of another EU country and have made social insurance contributions in your own country, then you’ll be entitled to free healthcare in Cyprus for a limited period. If you’re staying for the long term, then you’ll need to register for and make contributions to the social insurance fund.
What kind of documentation do I need to access healthcare in Cyprus?
When registering for the GHS, the most important document you’ll need is your Alien Registration Certificate, which confirms your long-term residency in Cyprus. You’ll also need your date of birth, address in Cyprus, email address and emergency contact details to hand.
Most public healthcare in Cyprus is free at the point of use, but there’s a limited co-payment system in place that requires patients to make small contributions in certain cases.6
X-rays and admissions to Accident and Emergency require a co-payment of €10 (approx. £8.50; $11.50). Visits to specialists, nurses and midwives are charged at €6, while laboratory tests and prescriptions are charged at €1.
There is an annual co-payment cap of €150 per patient (approx. £125; $170), or €75 (approx. £65; $85) for under-21s and those on low incomes, after which the fees are waived. If you’re a retiree of pensionable age from an EU country, the accident and emergency co-payment isn’t applied.
Private healthcare must be paid for upfront. If you have an insurance policy in place, you can then claim the money back from your provider afterwards – but these costs can ramp up very quickly, and for more serious conditions or extensive care, can reach into the hundreds or even thousands of euros. For that reason, it’s a good idea to choose a private healthcare provider that can reimburse your costs as quickly as possible.
Taking out private medical cover in Cyprus as an expat is not mandatory, but it can help you improve the access, choice and quality of the care you can receive.
What are the benefits of private health insurance in Cyprus?
Compared to relying on the public healthcare system, having private medical insurance in place in Cyprus means you can benefit from:
Would I need dental insurance in Cyprus?
Yes. Dental care in Cyprus isn’t covered by the public healthcare system; and must be paid for privately. Just like other forms of private healthcare, this means paying for treatments and procedures out-of-pocket or making sure that your insurance covers dental care.
The Cyprus Dental Association keeps a national directory of registered dentists around the country and can be used to find a suitable dentist close to where you live in Cyprus.
The main emergency number in Cyprus is 199, for ambulance, police and the fire brigade. As Cyprus is an EU country, you can also make use of the pan-European emergency number, 112.
Some private hospitals in Cyprus run their own ambulance services with their own contact system, although this service will be chargeable.
Staying in Cyprus for 12 months or more? Our annual healthcare policies will give you peace of mind, including easy access to the best care available.
If you don’t have long-term plans, you don’t want long-term cover. If you’re staying in Cyprus for between three and 11 months, our short-term cover will insure you at the same level as our Foundation or Standard health insurance plans, without the annual premium.
Wherever you are and even if you’re on the move, our online Virtual Doctor service gives you access to advice and help, either through a phone call or video call.7
Taking care of your mental health is just as important as your physical wellbeing. Our Mind Health service gives you access to a qualified psychologist via phone or video call, for up to six talking sessions.8
Our Second Medical Opinion service can give you an independent review of diagnoses or treatment plans from a qualified doctor, so that you can make an informed decision about your next steps.9
Many Cypriot health facilities will require payment up front, and if bills mount up, the short-term financial disruption can be stressful. That’s why, provided we have all the right information, we reimburse over 80% of all eligible claims within 48 hours.10
Our comprehensive plans include emergency cover as standard, so that you can always get help where it’s needed, from overnight stays in hospital to private ambulance services.
If you need to access care overseas, our evacuation and repatriation service will get you to the care you need, and back again once you’re better.
We have expat health insurance that can suit your medical needs and circumstances, whatever the type of work you’ll be doing in Cyprus.
Our international health insurance cover can take care of prescriptions, annual health checks and more, so that your costs stay predictable and manageable - even if your medical requirements change.
Cyprus’s digital nomad scheme allows remote workers to stay in the country for up to two years.11 With our Digital Nomad insurance you’ll have access to healthcare whenever you need it, from emergency care to hospital stays.
We know that the health of your loved ones is just as important as your own. Our long and short-term health cover is flexibly designed to meet your and your family’s health and wellbeing needs, however long you intend to stay in Cyprus.
Our customers’ reviews, independently moderated and managed by feefo. Based on 0 total reviews.
*Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm (GMT).
Calls may be recorded and/or monitored for quality assurance, training and as a record of the conversation.
1 https://www.papayaglobal.com/countrypedia/country/cyprus/
3 https://www.expatarrivals.com/europe/cyprus/healthcare-cyprus
4 https://www.numbeo.com/health-care/rankings_by_country.jsp
5 https://imin-cyprus.com/guide/cyprus-healthcare-system/
6 https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/cyprus/healthcare/health-system
7 The Virtual Doctor service is provided by Teladoc Health and is part of the Virtual Care from AXA offering. Telephone appointments can be booked 24/7, 365. Callbacks are typically within 24 hours. Operating hours vary according to region. For availability in your local market and further information on the Virtual Doctor service, please click here.
8 The Mind Health service is provided by Teladoc Health and is part of the Virtual Care from AXA offering. The service provides up to six sessions with a psychologist per non-emergency mind health concern, per year. For further information about the Mind Health service, including consultation availability, please click here.
9 The Second Medical Opinion service is provided by Teladoc Health and is part of the Virtual Care from AXA offering. For further information about the Second Medical Opinion service, please click here.
10 83.2% of eligible claims submitted online between Jan 25 - Dec 25, were paid within two days.