Health Insurance for a Greece Residence Permit: What Counts

Last verified on 13 October 2026 against Joint Ministerial Decision 133692/2024 as published in the Government Gazette (no later amendment found) and the Migration Code, ν. 5038/2023, as consolidated through ν. 5307/2026.

What the 2024 decision asks of a private policy (ΚΥΑ 133692/2024, in force 2026)

The Migration Code requires full sickness insurance without naming an amount, so the Joint Ministerial Decision (Κοινή Υπουργική Απόφαση, ΚΥΑ) 133692/2024 supplies the figures. A private policy for a Greek residence permit must contain three covers: broad hospital care of at least €10,000 a year, medical and pharmacy expenses of at least €1,500 a year, and permanent accident disability of at least €15,000 a year. Your co-payment (συμμετοχή του ασφαλιζόμενου) on each cover may be 20% at most.

The rule that sends you to a private insurer sits in the Migration Code. Under άρθρο 8 περ. ε of ν. 5038/2023 (άρθρο means article), every third-country national with a right of residence must hold full sickness insurance (πλήρη ασφάλιση ασθένειας) for all the risks that are covered for Greek nationals. ΚΥΑ 133692/2024, άρθρο 1 παρ. 2, published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ) B 2724 on 10 May 2024, defines what that means for a privately insured applicant.

A policy bought abroad: one sentence decides it

On the date that you file the application, you submit either an insurance policy (ασφαλιστήριο συμβόλαιο) concluded in Greece or a policy concluded abroad that expressly states it covers you for as long as you reside in Greece (ΚΥΑ 133692/2024, άρθρο 1 παρ. 1). The decision names no requirement that the insurer be Greek. The same wording rule appears in the documents decision, ΚΥΑ 95391/2024, άρθρο 2 περ. δ: where health cover comes from a foreign body, the insurance must expressly cover your residence in Greece for all the risks and benefit levels that the 2024 decision sets.

The exclusions clause, and why old descriptions mislead

Policies are not accepted where they include exclusions and/or special additional agreements (εξαιρέσεις ή/και ειδικές πρόσθετες συμφωνίες), according to ΚΥΑ 133692/2024, άρθρο 1 παρ. 3. This clause sits awkwardly with how health insurance is written, because ordinary policies carry exclusions. The text does not define the term, and no official guidance on how the one-stop services (υπηρεσίες μίας στάσης) read it was found.

The 2014 rules still circulate, and they said something different. ΚΥΑ 53821/2014 set the same €15,000, €1,500 and €10,000 minimums with the same 20% maximum co-payment. It refused policies that contained deductibles (απαλλαγές) and special additional agreements, and it required policies to run for one year and to be submitted again each year. The 2024 text refuses exclusions where the 2014 text refused deductibles, and it contains no one-year clause. If a description of the requirement mentions deductibles or yearly re-submission, it was built on the 2014 wording, and you are checking your policy against the wrong text.

A worked example: one policy, four checks

Take a hypothetical applicant, Farah, who applies for the permit for people with sufficient means and holds an international policy that was concluded abroad. Her policy schedule shows these terms:

• Hospital care: €50,000 a year, co-payment 10%.
• Medical and pharmacy expenses: €2,000 a year, co-payment 25%.
• Permanent disability from an accident: €15,000 a year, no co-payment.
• Territory: worldwide, with no sentence about residence in Greece.

All three amounts reach the minimums, so the first check passes. The second check fails, because the 25% co-payment on medical and pharmacy expenses is above the 20% cap that applies to each cover separately. The third check also fails: a policy concluded abroad must expressly state that it covers her for as long as she resides in Greece, and a worldwide territory clause does not say that. The fourth check, the exclusions clause, cannot be answered from the schedule alone. Farah's generous hospital limit does not compensate for either failure, because the decision tests each line on its own.

Is the legal minimum enough cover?

The statutory minimum is a legal test and it does not measure adequate cover. The average cost of a claim on guaranteed-renewable private hospital plans in Greece was €5,238 in 2024, against €5,227 in 2023, according to the study of claims-cost indices by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), which covers 12 insurer portfolios. Roughly two average hospital claims therefore exhaust the €10,000 minimum. The amounts have also stood unchanged since the 2014 decision. Private money already carries a large share of Greek healthcare: private financing made up 38.6% of total health financing in 2023, up from 37.6% in 2022, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), System of Health Accounts 2023.

Which permits list a private insurer's policy in 2026 (ΚΥΑ 95391/2024, ΚΥΑ 214926/2025, ν. 5038/2023)

A private insurer's policy is a listed document for the I.8 permit for people with sufficient means, the I.8 permit granted to digital nomads, the B.4 financial-investment permit and the B.5 permanent investor permit (the golden visa). Permits with access to the labour market use public fund insurance instead, under ν. 5038/2023, άρθρο 8 περ. ε.

The dividing line is work. Under άρθρο 8 περ. ε of the Migration Code, people with access to the labour market, and their dependent family members, are insured compulsorily in the public fund for their occupation. People who reside for other reasons are insured with private insurers, unless a foreign body already provides their health cover in Greece.

For the golden visa, ΚΥΑ 214926/2025, άρθρο 2 (ΦΕΚ Β΄ 6014/11.11.2025) lists the policy among the documents for every investment route, alongside an electronic fee (ηλεκτρονικό παράβολο) of €2,000. That decision replaced άρθρο 31 of ΚΥΑ 95391/2024. The scale is considerable: in April 2026 Greece counted 536,505 valid residence permits held by third-country nationals, and 31,178 valid permanent investor permits held by main investors, according to the monthly legal-migration bulletin of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.

The two I.8 routes run on different clocks. The permit for people with sufficient means lasts three years, is renewable for the same period, and gives no right to employment or independent economic activity in Greece (ν. 5038/2023, άρθρο 163 παρ. 8). Digital nomads first receive a national visa for up to 12 months and may then be granted a two-year I.8 permit, on an application that they file before the visa expires and subject to the general conditions of άρθρο 8, which include the insurance condition (ν. 5038/2023, άρθρο 68).

Keeping the cover alive until renewal

At renewal, the one-stop service looks for active insurance for the entire period that the expiring permit has already run, under ΚΥΑ 95391/2024, άρθρο 2 περ. δ. For any year without cover, the decision accepts only two documents: proof that you received unemployment benefit (επίδομα ανεργίας) for that period, or evidence of force majeure (ανωτέρα βία).

This is the point where a compliant first application can still go wrong. A policy that was valid on the filing date and lapsed a year later leaves a gap that the one-stop service checks for when it examines the renewal file. Our reading of the two texts together: the 2014 duty to submit a policy again each year is gone from the 2024 decision, but the renewal check now reaches back over the whole permit, so the yearly proof was replaced by one retrospective proof at the end.

Renewal deadlines and the cost of filing late

A renewal application must be filed within the two months before the permit expires (ν. 5038/2023, άρθρο 11 παρ. 1). A late application can be filed up to three months after expiry with a fine of €100 for each month of delay. After three months, applications are not received unless force majeure is proven. That timetable was rewritten by ν. 5275/2026, άρθρο 12. EY Greece, in a tax alert of 13 February 2026, reads the reform as a loosening: the window for a late renewal was widened from one month to three months after expiry.

What to do now

1. Compare your policy schedule with the three lines of the table above, and check the co-payment on each cover separately.
2. If the policy was concluded abroad, confirm that it expressly states that it covers you for as long as you reside in Greece.
3. Read the policy for exclusions and special additional agreements, because the text of the decision refuses policies that include them.
4. Upload the policy with your other documents on the Ministry of Migration and Asylum online applications portal. First applications and renewals are filed electronically (ΚΥΑ 95391/2024, άρθρο 1), and the portal accepts a renewal request at the earliest two months before the permit expires.
5. Keep the cover active without a gap for the whole life of the permit, because the renewal check covers every year of it.

This article does not replace professional legal advice.