Medical assistance during a temporary stay in Greenland

If you are in Greenland on a temporary stay, you are entitled to necessary medical assistance if you are a resident of the Danish commonwealth (Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland) or are covered by the Nordic Convention on Social Security. This covers medical treatment and hospital stays, but not home transport from Greenland, which can be very expensive. The health service in Greenland therefore recommends that you take out travel insurance.

Travel insurance will cover all expenses incurred in connection with acute illness or injury during a temporary stay in Greenland. In addition to being covered in relation to repatriation from Greenland, you should also make sure that, in the event of illness, your travel insurance covers transport from places without year-round residence, if you plan to travel outside the towns and villages.

If you are staying temporarily in Greenland in order to work, you may be entitled to medical assistance via your employer. Some private companies offer health insurance for employees. 

If you are a resident of the Danish commonwealth, you are entitled to medical assistance during a temporary stay in Greenland. You must however provide documentation showing that you are entitled to healthcare in Denmark or the Faroe Islands – otherwise, you must pay the expenses yourself.

• If you are from Denmark, you must bring your yellow national health insurance card as proof of residence and the right to healthcare in Denmark.
• If you are from the Faroe Islands, you must provide documentation showing that you are entitled to healthcare through a Faroese health insurance fund. Children under 16 must be covered by their parents' health insurance.

Medical assistance applies to acute illness, acute exacerbated chronic illness and accidents, and entitles you to receive the following free of charge:

• Physician treatment
• Hospital treatment
• Prescription medicine
• Dental treatment at public dentists in acute cases such as dental abscesses, broken fillings, broken teeth and the like.
• Doctor-prescribed transport from a village or other year-round settlement to a regional hospital or the National Hospital.

The medical assistance does not entitle you to:

• Free transport home to the Faroe Islands or Denmark
• Free transport from areas without year-round residence to a regional hospital, the National Hospital or medical care outside Greenland

If you come from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland or Åland you are covered by the Nordic Convention on Social Security, which entitles you to necessary medical assistance during a temporary stay in Greenland. The doctor providing treatment in Greenland will assess whether the medical care is necessary in relation to the length of your stay and the nature of the illness.

You must bring documentation showing that you are entitled to healthcare in your home country, such as a national medical card, EU medical card, or the like. Without documentation you must pay the expenses yourself.

Nordic citizens are entitled to free medical care, which means:

• Medical treatment by a doctor
• Hospital treatment
• Prescription medicine
• Dental treatment at public dentists in acute cases such as dental abscesses, broken teeth, broken fillings and the like.
• Doctor-prescribed transport from a village or other year-round settlement to a regional hospital or the National Hospital in Nuuk.
• The additional cost of repatriation, if a doctor considers that you have to travel home in a more expensive way than originally planned, due to illness or injury. You must in other words pay for an ordinary single ticket to your home country, while the hospital or authority providing the treatment will pay the additional cost.

Nordic citizens are not entitled to:

Transport from places without year-round residence to the nearest regional hospital

Citizens of EU/EEA countries are entitled to necessary healthcare during a temporary stay in Greenland. The doctor providing treatment will determine whether the healthcare is necessary.

If you are from an EU or EEA country, you must provide documentation showing that you are entitled to healthcare in your home country, such as an EU medical card, a national health card or the like. If you do not have such documentation, you will be charged the full price for all treatment.

The necessary healthcare to which you are entitled as an EU/EEA includes:

• Medical treatment by a doctor
• Hospital treatment
• Prescription medicine
• Dental treatment at public dentists in acute cases such as dental abscesses, broken teeth or broken fillings.
• Doctor-prescribed transport from a village or other year-round settlement to the nearest regional hospital or the National Hospital in Nuuk.

EU/EEA citizens are not entitled to:

• Free transport to your homeland

Free transport from locations without year-round residence to the nearest regional hospital, the National Hospital or health institutions outside Greenland

Greenland has not signed international agreements on medical assistance with the rest of the world. If you are a traveller from a country outside the Nordic region or the EU on a temporary stay in Greenland, you will therefore have to pay for all treatment and transport in connection with healthcare. Consequently, travel insurance is absolutely necessary.