You can choose private healthcare instead of GKV if you earn over a certain amount (€57,600 in 2017), or if you’re self-employed or a civil servant. 

Self-employed people have to pay their full health insurance bill themselves, with no government help unless they’re eligible for the KSK 
The benefit of statutory insurance is that your contributions don’t change as much over time, instead being based on your income. But because private premiums are based on risk, this can sometimes be more favourable for younger people.

 

Private insurance holders also get certain perks when visiting the doctor. They may get priority in setting up appointments and in consulting the head doctor. But private companies also require you to pay upfront and then will reimburse you, whereas statutory firms receive the bills themselves.

If you want to reside in Luxembourg and are retired, you need to show evidence of health insurance in order to acquire resident’s permit. If you are eligible for non-resident tax status, you may not be required to make healthcare contributions and are likely to be covered by your employer’s healthcare insurance scheme.  

The healthcare system in Luxembourg works on the basis of reimbursement, which varies from 80 to 100%. You pay the medical fees upfront and then submit the reimbursement claims to the CNS (for more information, visit www.cns.lu).  In this case, you have to send the original doctor’s invoice or other medical fees paid upfront, duly settled, to the CNS. Good to know: if you send your letter to the CNS from within Luxembourg, you don’t need to put a postage stamp on the envelope. The process will take about three weeks before receiving a reimbursement put directly into your bank account, along with a notification by post.

For certain types of healthcare, the costs are settled directly between the CNS and the provider/supplier. These include pharmaceutical costs, hospital costs, physiotherapist costs, laboratory costs, etc. In this case, you only pay the portion of the costs not covered by health insurance. Medications under medical prescription are usually covered by the CNS through the third-party payment system. They are organized in three categories: 40%, 80% and 100%. Pay attention to the fact that you will be charged full price for non-prescription medicines if you purchase them directly from the pharmacy. Hospital costs are directly paid for by health insurance, except for doctors’ fees.  

The South Korean healthcare system is run by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and is free to all citizens at the point of delivery. The system is funded by a compulsory National Health Insurance Scheme that covers 97% of the population. Foreign nationals living in South Korea enjoy the same access to universal healthcare as the local people.

South Korean healthcare offers the choice of occidental (Western) medicine, or traditional oriental treatments, many of which have been extensively researched and developed alongside their modern counterparts. The country leads the world in the treatment of skin diseases, both in techniques and technology.

In some ways, South Korea’s rapid growth and commercialisation creates its own health problems, with environmental pollution in the larger cities a real issue. Many older Koreans also harbour chronic diseases from the days before the country really took off. Like many western nations, South Korea’s healthcare system is focussed on treatment rather than prevention, so this is likely to remain an issue for many years until the modern healthcare facilities begin to show their long term effect.