Exemption Card Norway

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Dentistsand dental hygienists are not bound by the defined reimbursement rates. They set their own prices. Even if you have an exemption card, you still have to pay the difference between the price charged by the dentist/dental hygienist and the amount covered by the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme.

Recipients of the minimum state pension (In Norwegian: minste pensjonsniv / minstepensjonister) are exempt from paying user fees for blue prescriptions. If a recipient of the minimum state pension still has to pay the user fee at a pharmacy or medical supplies store, Helfo will automatically reimburse the user fee afterwards. Once Helfo has received information from the pharmacist or medical supplies store about the paid user fee, it may take up to three working days for the amount to be reimbursed.

Your user fees are reported to us by your treatment/service provider. All treatment providers who charge user fees must report the user fees within 14 days. It is necessary for the treatment provider to do this for you to receive your exemption card within three weeks.

Treatment/service providers have the option of using a look-up service to check if you need to pay a user fee or not. If the treatment provider has access to use this look-up service, you do not need to show your exemption card. If your treatment provider does not use the look-up service, you must continue to show your exemption card to avoid paying user fees.

To contact Helfo on behalf of someone else you need to have Power of Attorney. This also applies to parents/guardians for children over the age of 16, as the legal age of majority in Norwegian health care is 16 years.

Power of Attorney contains sensitive information and should not be sent by e-mail. We therefore request that you send the form to Helfo by letter post. Remember to enclose a copy of valid proof of your identity. Complete the Power of Attorney form and send it to Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tnsberg.

If a user fee is missing from your user fees and exemption card status overview, please contact your healthcare practitioner/service provider and request that they submit the user fee to Helfo. Please be aware that it may take up to three weeks before your healthcare practitioner/ service provider submits the user fee to Helfo.

You may opt out of the exemption card schemes (in Norwegian). In that case, you will not be included in the scheme for issuing the exemption card for health services, automatically. If you opt out, treatment providers and health personnel will not be able to find out from the exemption card look-up service whether you are required to pay a user fee or not.

You get an exemption card for public health services ("frikort") when you have paid over a certain amount in user fees ("egenandeler"). When you show a healthcare exemption card, you do not have to pay user fees for the rest of the calendar year.

An exemption card is a tax deduction card that shows that your employer should not deduct tax if you earn NOK 65,000 or less during the year (2022). If you at one point have received an exemption card, you do not have to apply for a new one. If you earn more than NOK 65,000, you must order a tax deduction card instead.

If you are registered as living in Norway, you are entitled to a general practitioner/family doctor (fastlege). This is irrespective of whether you are working or not. If you are ill or injured, you should first contact your general practitioner (GP). If your GP surgery is closed and you cannot wait until the next day for treatment, contact the out-of-hours healthcare service (legevakten) in your municipality. To contact the out-of-hours healthcare service, call 116 117.

When you move to Norway and register in the Population Registry, and are given a personal identity number, you will also be assigned to a GP. You can switch to a different GP on the website, Helsenorge.no. People with D numbers are not counted as residents of Norway, and are not entitled to a GP.

Children under 16 are automatically assigned the same GP as their mother, if both parents live together. If the parents do not live together, the child is assigned the same GP as the parent with whom the child shares a registered address.

In emergency situations, you may be sent to a hospital for treatment. You may also be referred for further treatment at a hospital if the doctor decides this is necessary. In such cases, the doctor sends a referral to a hospital or a specialist. In Norway, you are entitled to choose your treatment centre, providing there is spare capacity where you want to be treated.

If you are an employee working in Norway, and you live in another EU/EEA country, you are generally a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme (folketrygden). Necessary costs for healthcare services within the national health service will be covered, but you must pay the patient/user fee (egenandel) for treatment.

If you are a cross-border worker in Norway, i.e. every day or every week you return to your country of residence, you are entitled to healthcare services both in your country of work and your country of residence.

If your stay in Norway is temporary (holiday, short educational course, or similar) you are entitled to healthcare in the event of serious injury or illness. You should have with you an approved ID document and a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).

Patients living in another Nordic country may be entitled to payment of additional expenses for the journey home. This applies only in connection with essential healthcare services that are provided because of illness or injury that occurred during a temporary stay in Norway.

In Norway, you pay a user fee (egenandel) when you visit a national health doctor or out-of-hours healthcare service. However, there is a limit on how much you pay during the course of a year. You receive an exemption card for the cost of healthcare services when you are a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme and you have paid over a certain amount in user fees. When you have reached the ceiling for the exemption card, you pay no more user fees for the rest of the calendar year.

If you are admitted to a hospital and are a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme, you do not pay for treatment, medicines or your stay in hospital. Pregnant women do not pay for checks in the national health service during the pregnancy. Children under 16 do not pay user fees, but pay for medical equipment. Children under 18 do not pay for mental health treatment.

Planned treatment is treatment that is not related to an acute need. You are offered such treatments in Norway. If certain conditions are satisfied, you can be reimbursed for specialist healthcare services in another EU/EEA country. If you live in another Nordic country and want treatment in Norway, you must check the regulations in the country in which you live.

If you are a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme and are staying temporarily in another EEA country/Switzerland, you may be entitled to reimbursement of expenses regarding essential healthcare services during your stay. If you are entitled to the European Health Insurance Card, this serves as proof that you are entitled to healthcare services. You can order the card online. In other Nordic countries, you should not need to show this card, but you are nevertheless recommended to have it with you.

If you have incurred expenses for treatment abroad, keep the receipts and contact HELFO when you return home to see if you are entitled to reimbursement of your expenses. You are not reimbursed for expenses relating to user fees.

Although healthcare in Norway is heavily subsidised by the government, it is not free. Patients are required to cover the costs of treatment themselves upfront, though this is capped yearly at 2,040 NOK (149 GBP).

Local municipalities in Norway organise primary healthcare, and are responsible for overseeing their own spending. The government manages specialist care, which is administered by health authorities in the different regions of the country.

Once you have spent up to this limit, you can receive an exemption card. This allows you to access free medical care for the rest of that period. It is important to note that some fees, such as for medical equipment, do not factor into the exemption.

When seeing your family doctor: fees for seeing a doctor can vary between the daytime and the evening. For example, for a consultation/primary care service with a GP in the daytime, you could expect to pay 160 kroner, but in the evening this goes up to 280 kroner. Overall, out of pocket costs range between 69 kroner and 395 kroner.

There is an extensive public healthcare system in Norway, but you do have the option of purchasing a local insurance plan. This can give you faster access to medical care and other services. In some cities, there are out-of-hour clinics you can attend that require payment for treatment.

Check that your employer has obtained your tax exemption card. If you earn above the tax exemption card amount, you must pay tax. This applies per year, so if you already have a job and have earned a little in addition to your studies, you need to make sure if you need a tax deduction card. This is easy to fix and can easily be ordered from the Norwegian Tax Administration.

In addition to having to gain a pass in your education, there is also a requirement not to earn too much. You will not lose all of your grant if you earn slightly above the limit, but Lnekassen gradually reduces it according to how much income you have had.

Karin has worked for students at SSN for over ten years, has an above average interest in private finance and is passionate about teaching how students can make the best financial choices at an early stage.

If you have planned to reside in Norway for more than 1 year because of work or study, and you need healthcare services during your stay, the National Insurance Scheme may cover you for parts of the healthcare costs.

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