Healthcare in Morocco: the treaty route through the CAK

Of all the questions asked about emigrating to Morocco, this is the most expensive one to answer wrongly. And the answer is more favourable than most people think.

Morocco is a treaty country

The Netherlands has made arrangements on medical care with a limited number of countries. Morocco is on that list, together with among others Turkey, Tunisia, Cape Verde and the EU countries.

What that means: if you have a Dutch statutory pension or benefit, you register with the CAK. You receive a treaty form, register with it at the Moroccan healthcare institution, and from that moment you receive care from the Moroccan system at the expense of the Netherlands.

For that you no longer pay a Dutch healthcare premium but a treaty contribution. In most cases it is withheld automatically from your pension or benefit; the amount depends on your income and on your country of residence.

That is a fundamentally different story from Thailand or Indonesia, where you depend on a private policy that gets more expensive with the years and at some point can no longer be had.

The basis

The engine under this route is in article 13 of the social security treaty between the Netherlands and Morocco: whoever receives a pension and lives in the other country gets the sickness benefits through the institution of the country of residence, at the expense of the competent country. The duration of those benefits follows the legislation of the competent country.

Morocco provides the care, the Netherlands pays for it, you pay the contribution.

The order, and the gap you have to avoid

Apply for the form well before your departure — count on six weeks — and only cancel your Dutch policy once it's settled.

A gap between two systems is the most expensive thing that can happen to you on this journey: you are then no longer insured in the Netherlands and not yet in Morocco. One hospital admission in that period you pay yourself, at rates no insurer looks over.

After arrival there's another step people skip: you have to actually register with the form at the Moroccan healthcare institution. Only then are you known in the public system. The form in your drawer is no insurance.

What the entitlement is and isn't

Here lies the nuance that rarely appears on forums. Your treaty entitlement gives you access to the public system — the same care as for Moroccan insured people, with the same waiting times and the same hospitals.

Many Dutch people in Morocco end up in practice in private clinics, and those don't fall under it. Whoever wants that route pays themselves or takes out an additional private policy alongside.

That makes your place of residence a healthcare decision. Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh and Agadir have the public hospitals where your treaty entitlement is really worth something. In the Rif or the Middle Atlas the distance to such a hospital is a factor you don't notice on holiday and do as a resident.

Find a GP in your first weeks, before you need one.

The deadline for early retirement

One date to keep an eye on, and it applies not only to the EU but also to the treaty countries beyond it.

From 1 November 2026, as expected, only new applicants with AOW or a disability benefit will be admitted to the healthcare route for pensioners. Whoever leaves on early retirement without AOW then falls outside it and depends on a private policy — a very different amount from the treaty contribution.

Whoever is already a client keeps their rights. Whoever is on the edge has an interest in being registered before that date.