71 years old and will be buying an apartment, insurance work for someone like me?

Hello virturalone,

Please note that I have created a new thread with your post on the Bulgaria forum for more reach.

I hope that someone will be able to assist you soon.

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

My could be wrong, but my understanding is that you need health insurance to get the D visa, but once you have your residency card, you can pay into the Bulgarian state system. I think it works like that for retirees, too.

Basically what janemulberry stated. But when you have the residency card, pensioners like us can get a S1 form/certificate issued and covered by the NHS overseas.

Can anyone share more about your experience on S1 form? (I am in the process of gaining one… it’s straightforward, just wonder what happens next)

There's a "Bulgarian Health Insurance for Foreigners" which all/most Bulgarian insurance companies sell, and it is for immigration purposes and accepted for D visa / residence applications. It's roughly 100 euros a year, although perhaps at 71 it's a little higher. You can get it at any broker here in about 5 minutes. And if you're outside Bulgaria, you can find a few that will do it online and send you the documents by email.

This kind of cover is not private medical insurance. And it's not travel health insurance. It's an accident/emergency policy (with either immediate treatment or repatriation to your home country) which means Bulgaria doesn't have to pay anything if you get sick while you're here.

I think there's good news and bad news on the health fund.

The good news: I joined a few years ago, and I am now registered as unemployed. The rate for this is about 13 euros per month. This gets me free state healthcare. It also works in private hospitals (they get the state standard fees, you pay the difference) if you prefer the VIP treatment. And they'll give you an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) which covers you on your visits to the rest of the EU. If you're covered by the state system, you'll find that a private health insurance is cheaper (and pays out the difference mentioned above). This seems like a pretty great deal to me.

The bad news: I'm not quite sure who they allow to join the system. I think I might have sneaked in as EU, as my partner (non-EU) has found them quite obstructive. It wasn't clear to me if it was because she was non-EU, or because we're not married. But I believe that the issue is with non-EU entering Bulgaria, and you're retired/unemployed/not working. However, my attorney said that if you get a job as an employee (which could be of your own Bulgarian limited company) or start a business as self-employed, then you can get into the system. And then, after a few months, you can change status to unemployed, and pay the lower contribution. It wasn't a huge issue, so we didn't chase it. But I mentioned it to the attorney again recently, and he said as she's getting her permanent residence in a few months, we should wait until then, as at that point they have to treat her as a Bulgarian citizen and allow her to register as unemployed. So it seems that, as a retiree, it might not be completely painless, but you can either finesse the system to get in immediately, or just wait patiently for 5 years (you can pay for private health insurance in the meantime).

https://www.dzi.bg/en/individual-client … foreigners

Get an EHIC  YOU CAN USE BG NHS

Take proofs of pensions etc and card statements..to apply for residence.

Where can I and my husband sign up and pay for health care ? We live in the Pomorie  municipality  part of Burgas. Am i correct in thinking that this wouldn't cover pre existing conditions? We both have residency  cards and are able to pay monthly via our bank.