Mandatory health insurance for foreigners age limit

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That is a great question @DRDUANE!

A common misconception is that the "health insurance for foreigners" is a typical medical insurance. It's more like an emergency cover designed to satisfy immigration requirements (for visas or residence permits). As it usually costs less than 100 euros, you can imagine it won't cover a lot.

So I recommend it for that purpose only. However, once you have your residence permit, and you intend to live in Bulgaria, you should take out a "proper" health insurance policy, which, as you know, gets more expensive based on your age / preexisting conditions (and often has an upper age limit). However, compared to US policies it's as cheap as chips.

Or, instead, enroll yourself in the Bulgarian health care system by making your social security contributions (as unemployed it is only 26 leva monthly, more as self-employed, requires a minimum number of contributions maybe 6 or so).

Private medical treatment is good, and amazingly cheap (if you're used to American pricing). My most recent medical adventures were: covid vaccination (free), tetanus booster (7 euros), covid rapid antigen test (18 euros), emergency filling replacement (45 euros), teeth cleaning (45 euros), check up in the emergency room (not an emergency, it was easier than finding a doctor) where they did blood pressure, EKG, ultrasound, blood panel, and doctor consultation (75 euros), Total Hip Replacement (private clinic maybe less than 4,000 euros, perhaps 2,000 euros contribution if you enrolled in the health system by paying your social security).

However, even if cheap, I recommend one of the above insurance options just in case you have a genuine emergency with a long term (and expensive) condition (heart issues, cancer, etc.).

I don't have a health insurance policy for foreigners to hand, so I don't know if there is an upper limit, but I would be surprised if there were, given the nature of the product.

A quick online search for a policy doesn't mention age limits either.
https://www.dzi.bg/en/individual-client … foreigners

Thanks for the information.