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Living in Iceland · Healthcare

Healthcare in Iceland, for foreigners

Health care in Iceland is for everyone. But it does not start on your first day. After you register your address, you usually wait three months before the state insures you. If you are planning a move, this gap is one of the first systems to understand. If you are already here, this page shows what to do now.

Last verified 4 August 2026 · island.is (Iceland Health / Sjúkratryggingar)

How the system works, in short

First, Registers Iceland (Þjóðskrá, say: THYOAD-skrau, the national register of people and addresses) registers your legal home address (lögheimili, say: LUHG-hay-mi-li). Then you apply to Iceland Health (Sjúkratryggingar Íslands, say: SYOO-kra-trig-ing-ar, the state health insurance office). Cover normally starts three months after that. Until then you pay the full price for care. Once you are insured, you choose a local health centre (heilsugæsla, say: HAYL-su-gyes-la, your first-stop clinic). The state pays most of the cost of a visit, there is a yearly limit on what you pay, and emergency care is given to everyone, insured or not.

Your situations, one by one

You just moved and do not know if you are insured yet

What actually happens
Health insurance here is not automatic. You normally wait three months from the day Registers Iceland registers your home address. In those three months you pay the full price for every visit, every medicine, and an ambulance.
What to do
Send the health insurance application one day after your address is registered. Buy private travel or expat insurance to cover the three months in between.
The common trap
Thinking your kennitala (say: KEN-ni-tah-la, your personal ID number) means you are insured. It does not. The kennitala only tells the system who you are. The insurance is a separate step.

You come from a Nordic, EEA, UK, Swiss, Greenlandic or Faroese system

What actually happens
You may get insurance sooner than three months. But only if you were really insured in that country's state system. Private insurance abroad does not count. (EEA means the European Economic Area: the EU countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.)
What to do
Send the application together with proof that you had state cover before: an S1 form for EEA pensioners, a copy of your EHIC card front and back for Nordic movers, or a similar paper.

You are the husband, wife or child of someone already insured here

What actually happens
Husbands, wives and children of an insured person in Iceland can be insured sooner than three months. Here the link is family, not the length of time you have lived here.
What to do
Apply to Iceland Health and send the paper that shows the family link: a marriage certificate, or the child's birth certificate showing the insured parent.

You travel back home and need a doctor there

What actually happens
If you are insured in Iceland, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) lets you use public health care in any EEA country, the UK and Switzerland, and you pay the same price a local pays. The card lasts 3 years (5 years for pensioners). It only works in public hospitals and clinics. Private clinics charge the full price.
What to do
Apply for the EHIC on island.is before you travel. If you forget the card and pay yourself, keep every receipt. Iceland Health may pay you back when you return.
The common trap
Using the EHIC outside the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or in a private clinic. It will not be accepted.

You move away and your address leaves Iceland

What actually happens
When your legal home address moves out of Iceland, your Icelandic health insurance stops at once. There is one exception: students who keep their home address here while they study abroad.
What to do
Before you leave, finish anything still open: treatment, medicines, and money you are owed. If you will travel through the EEA, ask for an EHIC card shortly before you go.

It is an emergency right now

What actually happens
Emergency care is given to everyone in Iceland, insured or not. Nobody is sent away. If you were not insured at the time, you may get a bill afterwards.
What to do
Call 112 for police, ambulance, fire and rescue. It is free, day and night. For medical advice that is not urgent, including evenings and weekends, call 1700.

Sources

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