The right to healthcare services in Greenland
As in all Nordic countries, residents of Greenland have the right to healthcare that is free at point of use, including prescription medicine. However, users pay a proportion of the cost of aids and appliances, such as prosthetics or glasses. You are also entitled to a certain amount of free dental care.
Due to Greenland's geographical challenges, it is recommended that you take out insurance covering transport from the site of a possible accident to the nearest village or other place with year-round residence.
What healthcare services are you entitled to if you work in Greenland and fall ill?
If you are resident in Greenland, you are entitled to the same healthcare services as the nation’s citizens.
If you live in Denmark or the Faroe Islands and work in Greenland, you are entitled to free healthcare in case of emergency illness.
Outside the Danish commonwealth but within the Nordic region, you are covered by the Nordic Convention on Social Security.
You are entitled to treatment of acute illness and any additional expenses incurred in returning to your country of residence.
The European Health Insurance Card is not available in Greenland.
What are you entitled to if you fall ill during a temporary stay in Greenland?
If you live in Denmark and work or study in Greenland, you are entitled to free healthcare in case of acute illness. Remember to bring your yellow national health insurance card for temporary stays in Greenland. If you live in the Faroe Islands and work or study in Greenland, you are also entitled to free healthcare. You must provide documentation showing you are entitled to healthcare through a Faroese health insurance fund.
If you live outside the Danish commonwealth but in a Nordic or EU/EEA country, you are covered by the Nordic Convention on Social Security, as in the rest of the Nordic region. Remember to bring documentation showing that you are entitled to health care in your country of residence, e.g. an EU medical card, national health insurance certificate, or the like.
This means that you are entitled to treatment of acute illness and any additional expenses incurred in returning to your country of residence, provided that you can prove that you are resident in that country.
As a citizen of Greenland, you are only entitled to scheduled medical treatment in another Nordic country if this has been prescribed by a doctor. In the case of treatments that are not usually offered in Greenland, the decision may be taken by the healthcare system’s Advisory Board (Visitationsnævn).
If you are staying temporarily in a country other than Greenland, you are not entitled to scheduled medical treatment in that country. Greenland’s healthcare system can only provide healthcare services in Greenland.
What do healthcare services cost in Greenland?
Most healthcare services in Greenland are public and thus free for citizens. To the extent permitted by local and geographical conditions, residents of Greenland are therefore entitled to the following services free of charge:
- General practitioners and public hospitals
- Village consultations, healthcare stations and health centres
- Public dental care
- Medical specialists
- Prescription medicine
- Home nursing care
If you live in an area which does not offer the health care you need, you have the right to transport to a regional hospital or the National Hospital. However, this requires that a doctor has prescribed the treatment.
Please fill in our contact form if you have any questions or if you have encountered an obstacle in another Nordic country.
NB! If you have questions regarding the processing of a specific case or application, or other personal matters, please contact the relevant authority directly.
