Healthcare in Denmark: free GP, expensive dentist

The Danish healthcare system is as recognisable to Dutch people as it is foreign. Recognisable: a fixed GP who is the gate to everything. Foreign: there's no health insurer, no premium, no excess and no policy to choose. Healthcare is paid from taxes, and your proof of access is the yellow sundhedskort that lands on the doormat after your CPR registration.

What is free — and from when

GP, specialist after referral, hospital and accident and emergency: for whoever is registered all of that is free, without excess. Cover starts at your registration, not at receipt of the card — so whoever needs a doctor in the intervening weeks is simply insured. The name of your GP is on the card; you choose them at the CPR registration, and switching later costs a small amount.

The three places where it cuts differently

The dentist. In the Netherlands you insure it additionally; in Denmark that route doesn't exist. Adults pay for dental care largely themselves, with only a partial subsidy on basic treatments. Above DKK 2,500 own share the dentist is obliged to give a quote first — that says something about the amounts that can be involved. Children are free at the municipal youth dental service until eighteen (and those born after 2003 until 22).

Medicines. These run via a ladder system per twelve months: the first ± DKK 1,135 you pay entirely yourself, after that the state subsidises 50%, 75% and 85%, with a maximum own payment of some DKK 4,850 a year. The balance runs automatically in a central register — you don't have to claim anything, the pharmacy works it out at the counter.

Physio, chiropractor, psychologist. Only subsidised with a referral from the GP, and even then you pay the difference between subsidy and price yourself.

Many Danes plug these gaps with the supplementary insurance Sygeforsikring danmark or an employer's insurance. Not obligatory, but worth considering in your first months — especially for the dentist.

For pensioners: the CAK route, without discount

Whoever moves to Denmark with a Dutch pension falls under treaty healthcare via the CAK: the Netherlands pays for your Danish cover, you pay the treaty contribution. One thing must be said honestly here: the country-of-residence factor that lowers the contribution elsewhere stands at 1.0000 for Denmark — capped at the Dutch level, because Danish healthcare is more expensive than Dutch. So you pay the full contribution. Against that, the healthcare allowance for CAK-insured people can continue, and you automatically get the European health insurance card.

What this means for your first months

Count the dentist and the medicines in your monthly budget as if they were subscriptions, and decide consciously about supplementary insurance. Otherwise this system quickly becomes familiar: no comparing policies in December, no excess you save up for — the GP is free and the bill only comes where the system has said so in advance.