# Medical cover for forty something's living off rental income



## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

We both plan to make the move to Cyprus and live off less than 10k rental income from the UK. After reading a few threads here and visiting a good few websites we still aren't clear on a few things, so are hoping some kind soul can help with some simple answers.

1. As we are way off retirement and not working in Cyprus, is there any way we can make contributions to the state healthcare system and get the same coverage as those who live and work in Cyprus? If so, has anyone any idea how much it would be.

2. If this is out of the question, can anyone recommend a cheap insurer. We tried three and obtained quotes ranging from 3 grand to 7 grand, which is just plain mad. The cheapest of these still had a 1000 Euro excess. We can't afford four figure sums. We are aware that you can apply for up to 2 and a half years cover from the UK Government, but naturally we want something a bit more long term.

3. If we have to pay our own way and can't claim the same cover as workers and Cypriot Nationals, can someone advise how much we'd pay using the state system for say, a visit to a GP, a specialist, a day in hospital and a major operation? 

4. Is there anything stopping us simply avoiding residency application, paying for any minor needs privately or on EHIC and hopping on a plane back to England if there are any bigger problems?

Sorry if these are basic questions, but all links we've followed simply don't give clear answers. It's fine if you're working or retired, but the rest of us just don't seem to get clear answers even from both government sites. Thanks in advance for any help.


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

Andrew B said:


> We both plan to make the move to Cyprus and live off less than 10k rental income from the UK. After reading a few threads here and visiting a good few websites we still aren't clear on a few things, so are hoping some kind soul can help with some simple answers.
> 
> 1. As we are way off retirement and not working in Cyprus, is there any way we can make contributions to the state healthcare system and get the same coverage as those who live and work in Cyprus? If so, has anyone any idea how much it would be.
> 
> ...


1. I don't think so and, as a matter of interest, I don't think you can in the UK unless you are on benefits.

2. Health insurance costs are much lower here than the UK and once you arrive you will find lots of places to get quotes either directly from insurers, brokers and banks. Prices are based on age and amount of cover. The excess will be lower but you will find that any existing conditions are excluded from treatment whether you know about them or not and the price will remain the same.

3. No idea and I've not heard of anyone doing this. There are plenty of private hospitals offering excellent treatment. A visit to a doctor will cost between €35 - 50.

4. You can't avoid applying for residency once you have been here for the qualifying period. I believe this is an EU requirement. You will have to have private health insurance for this. You will be able to return to the UK for treatment while you are covered there but unless you contribute enough in the qualifying periods in the UK you will be cut off from the NHS. By the way you are unlikely to be able to do this for bigger problems such as heart attacks or strokes for obvious reasons.

10k is not a huge amount to live off here and you've probably read that most of us think the cost of living is about the same as the UK. Do make sure you have an emergency fund tucked away as you won't get any state help at all if things go badly wrong.

Good luck,

Pete


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

As Pete has answered most of your questions I won't go through it again but Iwill say that if you have less than 10K income you will need to find jobs to supplement this as it is woefully inadequate especially if you will be paying rent over here.


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2014)

1. Should be possible in theory if you register here as self employed and your business is to manage your rentals in UK. Then you can pay a minimum of about 100 euro per month in social contributions. This give you the right to get a medical card, which you use in the public healthcare. Your spouse will also be covered. But this is as said just in theory.

About avoiding residency , I would not recommend that path. It is illegal and can put you in trouble if they catch you.

What funds you need can be better estimated by many others in this forum.

Anders


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

Vegaanders said:


> 1. Should be possible in theory if you register here as self employed and your business is to manage your rentals in UK. Then you can pay a minimum of about 100 euro per month in social contributions. This give you the right to get a medical card, which you use in the public healthcare. Your spouse will also be covered. But this is as said just in theory.
> 
> Anders


I think you will find that in practice you can't do this. I tried some years ago and if there's the slightest hint that there's not an active company doing something they refuse you. This is to stop spongers using state facilities, something Cyprus could teach the UK! There would also be a waiting period before the medical cover would kick in.

Pete


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2014)

PeteandSylv said:


> I think you will find that in practice you can't do this. I tried some years ago and if there's the slightest hint that there's not an active company doing something they refuse you. This is to stop spongers using state facilities, something Cyprus could teach the UK! There would also be a waiting period before the medical cover would kick in.
> 
> Pete


two questions pop up:

The company maintain property. In UK. Perhaps will not work, but I stated in theory.

What waiting period?

Anders


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

Vegaanders said:


> two questions pop up:
> 
> The company maintain property. In UK. Perhaps will not work, but I stated in theory.
> 
> ...


Yes you did state in theory. That's why I put _in practice_!!

I was told that there was a waiting period before you became eligible for healthcare after you start the contributions. Possibly this has changed now.

Pete


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2014)

PeteandSylv said:


> Yes you did state in theory. That's why I put _in practice_!!
> 
> I was told that there was a waiting period before you became eligible for healthcare after you start the contributions. Possibly this has changed now.
> 
> Pete


You get your medical card as soon as you have made the first contribution. From this year you have to renew them more often so they can check that you continue the contributions

Anders


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## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

Thanks to all for your help. I can't believe I've had so many answers so quickly and all is useful information. We'd intended buying a place again so we'd not have any rent to pay and we would have savings too, but I'd hate to see them wiped out due to illness.

We do have friends out there but they had wrongly informed us on this. We'd been told that residency entitles you to use of the state system with charges of 2 or 3 Euros the same as any Cypriot. As I now understand it, you have to have private medical insurance to even qualify for residency, which makes it a non starter unless cover is a few hundred Euros a year for both of us, rather than a few thousand. 

Does anyone have a rough idea of what a low price deal would be? We are 48 and 49 with no major health issues. I've tried three quotes already from online services but like I said, they come out at thousands yet they expect you to pay a huge excess and still pay up to a third of the remaining costs. If that's even close to the best we can find, we will literally have to stay put.

Thanks again for all your help.


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

There are a number of health schemes with wide ranging costs. Some are quite cheap but give minimal cover. I would guess that your quotes came from the UK rather than over here so don't be too despondent.

By the way, once you have your residency certificate there is no mechanism to check that you have kept up your medical insurance.

When you have enough posts you will be able to use the Private Message system. I could then suggest a couple of places to get an idea of costs from. I don't think I can do this in a post as it would be advertising.

Pete


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Pete it is ok to recommend or suggest companies on here. It is only if you own or work for the company that it becomes advertising and therefore not allowed.

Veronica


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

OK. Thanks, Veronica.

In which case, Andrew B, I suggest you try:

A broker I use: TopQuotes.com.cy

and also: Gan Direct

to get an idea of prices.

Pete


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## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

Thanks, Pete. I've completed the e-form for the first one and also sent an email requesting more details on how my choices of cover impact the quote.

I'll now have a go at the second one. I'd like once again to thank everyone who's posted. I'm still really hoping we can make this happen and I was truly horrified when I got the first quotes online. I'm just hoping we can get cover for a few hundred Euros and it will be back on!

I'm sure there are many more things I will look to this forum for. I've owned a house in Cyprus before and spent months there at a time, but moving there for good is a whole other ball-game.

Thanks again all


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## sandancer (Jan 1, 2014)

Andrew B

thanks for coming up with this thread, my partner and I are both moving to cyprus in Oct and like yourself we are both looking for health cover as we are only in our 40's too.


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## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

No worries. From your username I'm guessing we might live quite close in England. I'm now wondering about a self employed EBay venture. If I pay self employed contributions, I'm wondering if I'd qualify for state medical care. I know little about whether this is something I can do after I get residency or whether I have to get something in place first. Also I've no idea about the red tape I will face. I'm headed out to Paphos again soon so I will ask amongst friends. If anyone has advice on this I'd appreciate it. 
The problem I'm coming across with private cover is that it's either far too expensive, or not worth the paper it's written on or both. The way I see it, I'll be forking out twice. Once for useless insurance then again if and when I need treatment. It's not looking like the way to go for me.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2014)

Andrew B said:


> No worries. From your username I'm guessing we might live quite close in England. I'm now wondering about a self employed EBay venture. If I pay self employed contributions, I'm wondering if I'd qualify for state medical care. I know little about whether this is something I can do after I get residency or whether I have to get something in place first. Also I've no idea about the red tape I will face. I'm headed out to Paphos again soon so I will ask amongst friends. If anyone has advice on this I'd appreciate it.
> The problem I'm coming across with private cover is that it's either far too expensive, or not worth the paper it's written on or both. The way I see it, I'll be forking out twice. Once for useless insurance then again if and when I need treatment. It's not looking like the way to go for me.


IN general you are entitled to public healthcare as self employed. 
You need to register as self employed and pay the first contribution before you can get your residency

Anders


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## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

Cheers, Anders. It really looks like a better solution for me. It also allows me the chance to increase my income. Could be fun too, if the red tape isn't too onerous.


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## Passy (Jan 12, 2014)

Its a while since we actually lived in Cyprus Andrew. However we plan on moving over at some point this new year. I am not qualified to nudge up to the experience of all the expats on here. Its great that we have this community of helpful people...However I will say that Veronica was spot on!!!!!. We lived in Cyprus in 2010 and found out that the average cost then was around 400-500 euros per week, and that was nothing over the top. And we did not rent!. I know that everything is relative to a person. But I am Not being funny but 10k as Veronica said is woefully inadequate even without having to pay rent!. I hope that you have other reserves that triple that for a family of two.

Then again things may have changed. I would listen to other expats who are actually live there than before me thesedays. But in anycase all the best!)))0


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## thejohn32 (Feb 6, 2010)

Hi

Just to give you an idea, we just got a reply from Top Quotes, for the very basic immigration recognised health insurance for two 40 something year olds and a 3 year old, with no medical problems was 583 euros. 

She did advise that it is very basic and generally useless if you need actual medical cover. The cost of a decent one is 850 euros!!

Fingers crossed you can register as self employed and get a health card that way. 

I pay my first social contribution in Feb so will see then if the system works.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Passy said:


> Its a while since we actually lived in Cyprus Andrew. However we plan on moving over at some point this new year. I am not qualified to nudge up to the experience of all the expats on here. Its great that we have this community of helpful people...However I will say that Veronica was spot on!!!!!. We lived in Cyprus in 2010 and found out that the average cost then was around 400-500 euros per week, and that was nothing over the top. And we did not rent!. I know that everything is relative to a person. But I am Not being funny but 10k as Veronica said is woefully inadequate even without having to pay rent!. I hope that you have other reserves that triple that for a family of two.
> 
> Then again things may have changed. I would listen to other expats who are actually live there than before me thesedays. But in anycase all the best!)))0


Wow 400-500 per week?
Are you heavy smokers and drinkers?
Realistically I would say you need between 15 and 20K per year to have a decent lifestyle if you are not paying rent or mortgage. Of course depending on your lifestyle and if you tend to be extravagent you may need more but most couples without children will have a good life on that amount.

Regards
Veronica


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## Andrew B (Jan 6, 2014)

I agree. We don't smoke and all my wife drinks is the odd glass of cheap wine. I don't drink at all. We don't drive or feel the need to spend money on lots of clothes, jewellery etc. we also avoid eating out and spending money on coffees etc. our lifestyle will not suit everyone but we enjoy the simple things and don't feel the need to spend all the time. We were in Cyprus for 8 months in 2012 and we've owned and ran a house for 4 years up to the end of 2012, so we have a good idea of costs. We will certainly have enough for our simple lifestyle as long as we can ensure no huge medical insurance or bills.


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2014)

Passy said:


> Its a while since we actually lived in Cyprus Andrew. However we plan on moving over at some point this new year. I am not qualified to nudge up to the experience of all the expats on here. Its great that we have this community of helpful people...However I will say that Veronica was spot on!!!!!. We lived in Cyprus in 2010 and found out that the average cost then was around 400-500 euros per week, and that was nothing over the top. And we did not rent!. I know that everything is relative to a person. But I am Not being funny but 10k as Veronica said is woefully inadequate even without having to pay rent!. I hope that you have other reserves that triple that for a family of two.
> 
> Then again things may have changed. I would listen to other expats who are actually live there than before me thesedays. But in anycase all the best!)))0


I can just say what we use. We are two adults plus one Labrador that eat raw food, meaning chicken pork, vegetables etc. We spend max 250 € per week. We don't go out because we don't want. Cook dinner every day have car, Internet etc.

Anders


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