Health care for asylum seekers
Back to: Know-How: Social Insurance and Health Care Services (Slovenia)
Access to healthcare services for foreigners in Slovenia depends on their residence status and whether they have health insurance or not.1
Asylum seekers are provided with:
- emergency medical assistance and necessary treatment of illness and serious mental disorders,
- emergency transportation to medical facilities, if necessary,
- emergency dental assistance.
Emergency and basic urgent medical assistance and services to asylum seekers are offered free of charge in the public healthcare system. A special commission in the asylum centre can approve additional non-emergency, additional health care procedures.
There is a nurse present daily in the main asylum centre in Ljubljana-Vič that can make an appointment a doctor. If medication is needed, the person will receive a prescription and will get the medicine in a pharmacy.
Asylum seekers should not pay for the medicine. If the pharmacist wants to charge them for the medication, they are probably not informed about the asylum seekers’ rights. In this case, they should inform the staff in the asylum centre to help.
If an asylum seeker belongs to a vulnerable group, he/she may receive additional health care services according to the needs and special circumstances.
In addition, children and women regarding their reproductive health (pregnancy, post-natal health care, contraception etc.) have the same rights as Slovene nationals. They do not have health insurance but they do have access to health services. The asylum seeker ID suffices to get access.
If an asylum seeker finds employment, he/she automatically gets compulsory health insurance. Both employee and employer pay monthly contributions for health insurance (deducted from the gross salary).
The Slovene Health Insurance Institute issues a health insurance card and health insurance number (identification number of the insured person). This means that the person has access to health care services within the public health system, same as everyone in Slovenia with compulsory health insurance.
The Filantropija organisation provides a PDF document with more information about health care rights of asylum seekers in Slovenia (pdf).