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Everything expats should know about Danish healthcare

So, you’re moving to Denmark! It’s time to loosen your belt buckle, because there’s no way you’ll be able to resist all the sticky pastries and smørrebrød you’re about to find in every second shop.

Published: 11 July 2018 10:41 CEST
Everything expats should know about Danish healthcare
Photo: monkeybusiness/Depositphotos

But first things first, you should get your head around the healthcare system before you land. The last thing you want is to arrive and realise you have no idea who to see in case of a nødsituation (that means emergency, by the way).

On the bright side, all Danish citizens have equal access to the country’s healthcare system, and you will too once you’re registered in Denmark and receive your CPS number and yellow health insurance card.

On the not-so bright side, you should be aware that not all healthcare services are available through Denmark’s public health insurance. Consequently, it’s a good idea to take out a private health insurance package — particularly like these packages offered by Cigna Global that are designed specifically for expats — so if the unexpected arises you’re covered under any circumstance. 

Find out more about Cigna Global health insurance

Finding a doctor

First off, you’ll need to register in the Civil Registration System (CPS) in your local municipality. You can do this at your nearest Citizen Service Centre. 

At this time you will be presented with a list of GPs within your municipality (kommune), and it’s up to you to decide which one to register with. It’s your right to choose your own GP so you can pick a male or female doctor, depending on which you’re more comfortable with. When you receive your healthcare card your chosen GP’s name, address, and telephone will appear on it.

You’ll find the majority of Danes speak impeccable English, so it’s unlikely you’ll have to go out of your way to find an English-speaking doctor. However, it’s always a good idea to check with the surgery beforehand.

Once you’re registered with a doctor, the general procedure for making an appointment is by calling up the surgery and speaking to the receptionist. Depending on how serious your illness is, this can be done on the same day or with several days’ notice.

Emergency care

If you have to see a doctor after 4pm on a weekday or on weekends or public holidays, you should call the emergency doctor (vagtlægen) service. 

In case of a life-threatening emergency, you should dial Europe’s common emergency telephone number, (+45) 112. It’s free to call and will put you in immediate contact with the ambulance service.

If you come down with a sudden illness and need to speak to a doctor or nurse, you should call (+45) 1813 for referral to the closest hospital emergency department or urgent care centre. You’re required to call this number before going to a hospital’s emergency department, and won’t be admitted if you haven’t.

Hospital stays are free of charge as they are paid for through taxation. 

Specialist care

In Denmark, you won’t be able to see a specialist without a referral from your GP, including for paediatric and gynaecological visits. Your doctor will issue you with a written referral, which you need for the consultation or treatment to be covered by public health insurance.

With private health insurance, you can often cut out the middleman and arrange your own specialist care. Cigna Global’s optional International Outpatient module can be added to any of its expat packages, covering consultations with specialists and medical practitioners, including osteopathy, chiropractic care, and physiotherapy.

Pharmacies

In Denmark, pharmacies (apotek) have exclusive rights to sell prescription medicines to consumers. Apotek are often run by private pharmacists, who have been licensed by the state — the staff are highly trained and can also provide you with advice about medicines and their uses.

Some medicines can only be bought if you have a medical prescription from your doctor. You will have to pay for prescriptions; however, the Danish National Health Service subsidises the cost in many cases. If you spend more than DKK 850 a year on medicine eligible for reimbursement, you will automatically get some money back.

Insurance

The level of care in Denmark is generally high and public healthcare insurance covers many appointments, treatments and procedures. 

However, many expats still prefer to take out private health insurance from an international provider like Cigna Global. The flexible options mean you can find a package that suits your situation, so you can focus on settling into your new life instead of worrying about what to do if you or someone in your family falls ill.

Click here to get a free quote from Cigna Global

The content within this article has been created by The Local and provides only a general overview for information only. No reliance should be placed on the information contained with this article. Nothing in this article is intended to constitute legal, tax, financial planning, health or medical advice.
The Local is an affiliate advertiser of Cigna Global and has been paid a fee to market Cigna Global individual private medical insurance plans within the content of this article.
For more information on Cigna Global, or to get a quote, please visit cignaglobal.com. Terms and conditions apply.

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FAMILY

‘Latte-far’? Taking a month off work on Danish parental leave

The Local Denmark editor Michael Barrett took four weeks off his regular job to look after his youngest child during the month leading up to her first birthday.

Published: 3 June 2024 14:54 CEST
'Latte-far'? Taking a month off work on Danish parental leave

I sat sipping an Americano outside what you might describe as a ‘gourmet bakery’ in my local Danish town as my little daughter, age 11-and-a-half months, sat opposite me in one of the café’s wooden child seats, which I’d carried outside while waiting for the coffee.

She drank one of the child-friendly fruit smoothies (organic) that you can get in supermarkets for around 7 kroner, babbling away de-de-de-de as she usually does when she sees something new. The café staff couldn’t tell her off for consuming food not purchased on the premises, by the way, because I was also sharing my croissant with her.

Being on parental leave in the twelfth month since birth feels like a cushy job compared to the tough early stages when she slept restlessly at night, had mild colic when awake and was tricky to put down for a nap.

Those fragile days – and the rest of the first eleven months of her life – were all spent in the near-constant company of her mother, who has gone back to work after almost a year off, every last day of her parental and maternity leave now used up.

Danish laws ensure parents can take 48 weeks of leave after their child is born, but because the rules “earmark” a certain amount of parental leave to each parent, the father or co-mother will often take on some of the baby’s primary care in the first year.

A law which was introduced in 2022 guarantees each parent 11 weeks of “earmarked” or non-transferable leave with their newborn child. For fathers and co-mothers, this is 9 weeks more than the earmarked leave under earlier rules (there are also different rules for varying personal circumstances, such as single parents or students).

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I don’t know whether we’d have chosen to do things this way if we’d had the option of just giving all the parental leave to Mum. Critics of the added parental leave earmarking say it takes choice away from families. Supporters say it promotes equality and more involvement from fathers.

From a personal perspective, we were in a good position because our daughter was ready to switch – she was eating solids and sleeping well enough for me to take over relatively smoothly from her mum. It might not be like this for everyone.

So what did I do during this month ‘off’ work? Did it really transform me into an artisan coffee-sipping man of leisure? Did it change anything about me at all and more importantly, did it benefit the little one?

In Sweden, the term lattepappa is used to describe certain types of dad on parental leave.

While this can be an expression used to describe men who spend their parental leave walking about town with their stroller and a cup of coffee, there can be further connotations.

In an article from 2005, around the time the phenomenon first appeared, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet’s Terri Herrera Eriksson, wrote “A lattepappa is not a term for a parent who prefers a certain kind of coffee, but a term to describe a whole lifestyle. He is often on parental leave for a long time, but spends a good portion of that time developing his style and himself.”

Aware that parental leave provisions in Denmark are among the world’s best, giving me a paid-up month off my regular job with The Local, I did see some potential for this kind of thing at the beginning of the month. I set my sights on the interval during the middle of the day when the baby takes her nap.

I could start writing some fiction again, I thought, a pre-children hobby that has long since fallen by the wayside.

READ ALSO: What parental benefits are you entitled to as a freelancer in Denmark?

Reality hit and these lofty ambitions weren’t fulfilled but I did discover that I could keep up my training for an upcoming half-marathon by taking my daughter out in the baby jogger just ahead of nap time. As soon as the three-wheeler started swaying gently, she’d drift off and usually sleep for at least an hour, by which time I had finished running.

This had a couple of obvious benefits: it gave her a stable nap routine while freeing up time to spend with the rest of the family in the mornings or evenings.

My newfound efficiency was also at the back of my mind when, after finishing a shop at a local Føtex supermarket, I found myself drawn into the adjoining Starbucks where I bought a coffee and handed one of the smoothies I’d just bought to my daughter. She looked around the template Starbucks interior as if it had all the mesmerising wonder of the Chocolate Room from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version).

The following day I upped my game by heading to the café described at the start of this article, but these were in fact the only two occasions I visited a café during my month’s leave (and I had black coffee for the record, not latte).

The rest of the time was spent washing clothes, emptying the dishwasher, picking up our older child from kindergarten and other stuff that is both unsurprising and uninteresting to read about.

Danish doesn’t really have a term that mirrors Sweden’s lattepappa but most Danes would probably recognise it, given the comparable parental leave provisions the two countries have. In the Danish language it would be the more mundane-sounding lattefar or “latte-father”.

This non-existent word makes some sense to me because it feels like the last month has revolved around practical jobs and everyday tasks but has also given me time to do things I enjoy (with a bit of creativity) and, best of all, form a closer bond with my daughter, who makes me laugh and smile constantly.

If the above counts as a latte-dad “developing his style and himself”, we can probably say the Danish parental leave rules worked well in my personal case.

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