Minor health concerns: sore throat, high fever, diarrhoea, skin infections, mild psychiatric and mood disorders.

Acute health concerns: critical or life-threatening conditions, such as severe injury, trauma, bleeding, trouble breathing, severe cold/fever/poisoning, psychiatric disorders where the patient is a threat to themselves or those around them.

If you're still not sure where to turn, see more on the family doctor website. This provides an overview of health symptoms and guidance on whether you should stay home, go to a family doctor or request emergency care.

If you have a health concern but your family physician is unavailable, you are unsure whether or from where to seek medical attention, or need advice on at-home remedies, call the family physician advisory line 1220.

The family physician advisory line is your round-the-clock helper. Experienced healthcare professionals will help you decide whether the problem requires urgent intervention or can be treated at home.

• The helpline is open 24 hours a day in Estonian and Russian.
• The helpline is available in English every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• When calling from abroad, the number is +372 634 6630.
• When calling the helpline, the standard rate for the call service always applies and the price is determined according to the price list of the caller’s telephone service provider (Elisa, Tele2, Telia, etc.).
• Personalised online counselling in Estonian is available every day from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

If you have any questions about your pregnancy or your infant’s health, call the midwife helpline at 12252. The cost of the call is €1.20/min.

If you have any questions about finding or changing your family physician, please contact the Health Insurance Fund: +372 669 6630 or [email protected].

If you need advice about poisonings and need to find the most appropriate course of action quickly, call 16662. When calling from abroad, dial (+372) 794 3794. Calls to the helpline are anonymous and charged at local rates.

All the people staying in Estonia with a temporary residence permit must have a valid health insurance during their stay. If the Estonian national health insurance does not apply to you, you need to buy it yourself from a private insurance company.

You can only register yourself with a General Practitioner at a public clinic when you have registered your place of residence in Estonia. You can register with a General Practitioner in a private clinic without being an official resident in the country.

Your main source of medical care while you're living in Estonia will be your family doctor (also known as a family physician, general practitioner, or primary care physician, perearst in Estonian).

In Estonia, there are two types of healthcare systems: public and private. The public is provided by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF; Tervisekassa in Estonian), which you receive if you have an employment contract in Estonia and your employer is paying social taxes. In this case, the service fee is covered by the state.

It is possible to register with a general practitioner at a private clinic without holding official residency status in the country. However, in such cases, it is important to note that you will be responsible for covering all associated expenses.

All Estonian residents who work and whose employer pays the required social tax, automatically get Estonian health insurance (after registering their place of residence in Estonia). Health insurance also includes the right to receive benefits for temporary incapacity to work.
Estonia provides state health insurance for:

• Employees paid at least the minimum monthly salary
• Students
• Pregnant women
• People under 19
• People raising a child under three
• People registered as unemployed at the Unemployment Insurance Fund

NB! To be covered by state health insurance, Your employer needs to register you in the employment register, and you need an Estonian ID code. To get access to a family doctor, and for your family to be covered by health insurance, your address needs to be registered. If you are self-employed, you must pay your own social tax, from which 13% is transferred to health insurance.

All people living in Estonia with a temporary residence permit must be covered by insurance during their entire stay. If you are not eligible for Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF; Tervisekassa in Estonian) state insurance, you must purchase it from a private provider.

If you are uninsured, you can either apply for voluntary state insurance by EHIF or purchase insurance from a private provider, for example, from: Inges, Ergo,Salva,Iizi.

The family physician is not obliged to provide services to patients in a foreign language, as the physician’s understanding of the issue may not be the same as in Estonian due to differences in terminology. If the family physician speaks a foreign language, they may, at their own responsibility, use a language other than Estonian with the patient.

If you are a foreigner who has moved to Estonia and do not speak Estonian, we recommend that you bring an interpreter with you to your doctor’s appointment. The patient is responsible for covering the costs on the interpreter. You can also use people in your support network (family member, relative, friend, etc.) as interpreters.

If you are a beneficiary of international protection (including temporary protection) or a family member of a beneficiary, we recommend that you contact your local government or the Social Insurance Board for interpreting assistance.