Healthcare in Malta
Who is covered, from what date, and what insurance you need
Malta operates a tax-funded national health service that is well regarded and free at the point of use for insured persons, meaning those paying social security contributions, their dependants, and people covered by reciprocal or European arrangements. Private insurance is common for speed and for dentistry rather than because the public system is inadequate.
| System | Tax-funded national health service, free at the point of use for insured persons source |
| Who is covered | Contributors, their dependants, and holders of European or reciprocal entitlement source |
| Main hospital | Mater Dei Hospital, with a general hospital in Gozo source |
| Private insurance | Commonly around EUR 40–100 per month depending on age and cover |
| Required for permits | Health insurance is a condition of most residence categories source |
How entitlement works
Entitlement follows social security contributions rather than residence alone. Once you are employed in Malta and contributing, you and your dependants are insured persons and access to state healthcare is free at the point of use, including hospital treatment and a subsidised list of medicines.
Citizens of other European Union states may rely on a European Health Insurance Card for temporary stays and on the S1 arrangement where they are pensioners or posted workers. Nationals of a small number of other countries benefit from bilateral reciprocal agreements.
People who are resident but not contributing — including nomad permit holders and holders of the permanent residence programme — are not insured persons and must hold private cover. This is why insurance is a condition of those permits rather than a suggestion.
What the public system does well and less well
Emergency care, oncology, maternity and acute hospital medicine are consistently rated highly, and Malta compares favourably with far larger European systems on outcomes for a country of its size. The medical workforce is trained largely in English and the University of Malta runs a long-established medical school.
The strains are those of scale. A single principal acute hospital serves the whole main island, waiting lists for non-urgent surgery and some specialist outpatient appointments are long, and complex or rare cases are sometimes referred abroad under state-funded arrangements, most often to the United Kingdom.
Routine dentistry and optical care are largely private, as in most of Europe.
Registering
- Obtain a social security number once employment begins; the employer normally initiates this.
- Register with a local health centre in your district for primary care, which is provided through a network of health centres rather than through private family doctor lists.
- Keep private cover in force until contributions begin, since there is a gap between arrival and becoming an insured person.
- Retain the pharmacy entitlement documentation if you have a chronic condition on the subsidised schedule, as it governs free access to those medicines.
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Official sources
Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.