Healthcare in Ireland - the HSE, GPs, medical cards and health insurance

• Medical card holders (full eligibility) get free GP visits, prescribed medicines (with a small charge per item), public hospital services, some dental, optical and hearing services, and maternity and infant care. The medical card is means-tested: your weekly income must be below a limit for your household size.
• Everyone else (limited eligibility) pays the GP privately, pays for prescriptions up to the Drugs Payment Scheme cap, and gets public hospital services free or at reduced cost. Maternity and infant care services are free for everyone.

Some services are available to particular groups without a medical card; for example, child health services are available to all children, and people with certain long-term conditions get related medicines free under the Long Term Illness Scheme.

To show you are ordinarily resident, the HSE may ask for documents dated within the last 12 months, such as your tenancy agreement, a bank statement, a utility bill or a letter from a government department. For non-EU nationals, establishing your own eligibility does not automatically make your dependants eligible.

The GP (family doctor) is the usual first stop for non-emergency care, and a GP referral letter also avoids the emergency department charge. Without a medical card or GP visit card you are not entitled to free GP services, so you pay a fee for each visit. Contact practices near your home early to ask whether they take new patients and what they charge.

A GP visit card gives free GP visits (but not free medicines). Children under 8 and people over 70 qualify without a means test. Others can qualify on income; the income limits are higher than for the medical card. You apply to the HSE with your PPS number.

Without a medical card you pay for prescribed medicines at the pharmacy. Under the Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS), you and your family pay at most €80 a month in total for approved prescribed medicines and certain appliances; the cap has been €80 since 1 March 2022. You register for the DPS with your family's PPS numbers. Try to use one pharmacy each month; if you use several and spend more than €80, you can claim a refund.

• If you go to a public hospital emergency department without a GP referral letter, you pay €100. With a GP letter, or a medical card, there is no charge. Return visits to an outpatient clinic for the same illness or accident should not be charged again.
• Attending an injury unit costs €75 unless you have a medical card or a GP referral letter.
• Public in-patient and day service fees were abolished on 17 April 2023. If you choose to be a private patient in a public hospital, you pay for that.
• In a life-threatening emergency, call 112 or 999.

Private health insurance is optional for most residents. Plans differ in what they cover, and the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), the regulator, explains the rules and lets you compare plans. Irish health insurance is community-rated: people on the same plan pay the same price whatever their age, apart from the loading below.

Under Lifetime Community Rating, people who first buy insurance at 35 or older pay a loading of 2% of the gross premium for each year over 34 without cover. However, if you buy health insurance within nine months of becoming resident in Ireland, you do not pay the loading. If you are 35 or older, decide within your first nine months whether you want cover. The HIA compares plans and explains the rules.

Some immigration permissions require private medical insurance at registration: for example, full-time students (Stamp 2 and 2A) and people on Stamp 0. ISD wants a policy covering accidents and hospital stays in Ireland and does not accept cash-back policies.

Under the Common Travel Area, British citizens who live in Ireland have the right to access publicly funded health services here. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who live and work in Ireland have the same entitlements as other residents, based on ordinary residence. If you are an EU citizen getting a pension from another EU country, or working and insured there, you may qualify for an Irish medical card under EU rules.