Healthcare in Greece: EOPYY, the co-payment and the distance that is invisible on holiday

Your Dutch basic insurance ends on the day you deregister. Not on 31 December, and not if you "just let it run on" — it belongs to living in the Netherlands, and that stops. What takes its place depends on one question: are you coming with a Dutch pension, or are you going to work in Greece?

Route 1 — with a Dutch pension: the S1

Whoever brings a Dutch pension or benefit applies to the CAK for an S1 form. With that you register in Greece with EOPYY, the national health fund, and receive the same care there as an insured Greek. In return you pay the Netherlands a treaty contribution instead of your old premium.

Apply for the S1 well before you leave: issuing takes weeks, and without that paper you stand at the counter in Greece as an uninsured person.

If you leave before your AOW age, watch the date. The CAK route is expected to remain open from 1 November 2026 only to new registrants with a statutory benefit — AOW (the Dutch state pension), Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong. Whoever brings only an early retirement pension, an RVU payment or an occupational pension taken early then falls outside it and arranges healthcare in Greece themselves until AOW age. Whoever is already a CAK client keeps their rights. What exactly changes, and what you can do now.

The trap: EU-AMKA, not the ordinary AMKA

This is where things most often go wrong for pensioners.

The AMKA is the Greek social security number. The normal route runs through a KEP (the citizens' service centre) or an office of e-EFKA, and it is free. That is right for working people.

If you come with an S1, you need an EU-AMKA: the separate variant for people who are insured via a European form. That is not arranged at the KEP but via e-EFKA. If you walk into the KEP with your S1, in the best case you get sent back — and in the worst case you get an ordinary AMKA that doesn't match your insurance status, after which you still get stuck at the pharmacy or the hospital and have to do it again.

So ask explicitly for the EU-AMKA and bring your S1.

Route 2 — with work: via e-EFKA

If you take up employment, your employer registers you with e-EFKA and your contribution runs through the payslip; you only supply your AMKA. If you go self-employed, you pay EFKA contributions yourself in fixed classes. In both cases the S1 doesn't come into it: you are then insured on your Greek income.

How it works after that

The public system covers GP, hospital and medicines. Two things differ from what you are used to in the Netherlands.

The contribution per prescription. Greece has no excess like the Netherlands, but it does have a co-payment per medicine that differs per product — some are exempt, for others you pay a share yourself. For whoever takes chronic medication that is a recurring item; factor it into your monthly budget.

The waiting times. In the public circuit it can take a long time before you see a specialist. Many Greeks and many Dutch emigrants therefore take out supplementary private insurance for specialists and dentist. That is not an obligation, but it is a common choice.

The distance — the point that is invisible on holiday

This weighs more heavily than almost everything above, and it hangs on the choice you make in the orientation phase.

On the mainland and on the large islands — Crete, Rhodes, Corfu — there is a regional hospital within reach. On a small island there is a health centre for everyday matters, and everything more serious goes by boat or by helicopter to Crete, Rhodes or Athens. In bad weather the boat doesn't sail.

For a healthy couple of fifty that is an acceptable risk. With a chronic condition, during a pregnancy or at eighty it is a different story. Weigh it in when choosing your place, and not afterwards.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to Greece.