Health insurance in Austria, the ÖGK and the e-card

The e-card is a chip card that shows your name and social insurance number. It stores no medical data itself, but it is the key to the e-card system and to ELGA, the electronic health record. The back of the card is your European Health Insurance Card for treatment in other EU countries.

After your employer has registered you, the card is normally sent to you automatically, but only if a photo is on file. Since 2020, new cards for people aged 14 and over carry a photo. Most photos are taken over automatically from government registers, for example from your residence permit; if none is available, you hand in a photo in person at a photo registration point. If you need a doctor before the card arrives, ask the ÖGK about a substitute document.

An annual service fee applies: €25 for 2026, usually withheld by your employer in November of the previous year. Co-insured family members and people exempt from the prescription fee do not pay it.

Dependants (Angehörige), for example your children, can be co-insured (mitversichert) through your insurance and receive their own e-card; co-insured family members do not pay the e-card service fee. Ask your insurer which family members qualify and which documents are needed. Family members of non-EU workers are usually covered through their sponsor's insurance when they apply for their permit.

• Self-insurance (Selbstversicherung) with the ÖGK is open to people living in Austria who are not otherwise insured. It costs €565.25 a month in 2026. You can apply for a reduced contribution if your finances are tight. Benefits in kind usually start only after six months, unless you were insured for six weeks immediately before or for 26 weeks in the last 12 months.
• Students at Austrian universities without other insurance can self-insure at a reduced rate of €78.84 a month (2026), subject to an income limit of €15,000 a year and limits on study duration.
• Private insurance is accepted for residence permits only if it covers all risks in Austria without waiting periods or cost caps.

• Contracted doctors (Kassenärzte) have a contract with your insurer. You show your e-card and normally pay nothing for covered treatment.
• Non-contracted doctors (Wahlärzte) set their own fees. You pay the bill and claim a refund from the ÖGK, generally 80% of what a contracted doctor would have received, never more than you paid. Because fees are usually higher than insurer rates, you rarely get 80% of the bill back. Doctors with at least 300 patients a year must submit the refund for you electronically; otherwise you submit the paid invoice yourself online, in the Meine ÖGK app or by post, within 42 months.
• Purely private practices have no refund entitlement, even for services the insurer would cover.

Ask about costs before treatment. Services that are not medical treatment, such as certificates or vaccinations, are usually paid privately.

For medicines on prescription you pay a prescription fee (Rezeptgebühr) of €7.55 per pack in 2026 at the pharmacy; medicines that cost less are charged at their lower price. Once you have paid at least €314.01 in a calendar year and at least 2% of your annual net income, you are exempt for the rest of that year. People with a low income can apply for an exemption; in 2026 the limit is a net income of €1,308.39 a month for a single person and €2,064.12 for a couple.

• 1450 – nurses assess your symptoms by phone around the clock and tell you where to go.
• 141 – the doctors' on-call service when your doctor is closed, usually 19:00 to 7:00, at weekends and on public holidays. For a sick child under one year, go to the nearest children's hospital outpatient clinic instead.
• 144 or 112 – ambulance in an emergency.