Guide to healthcare in Cyprus: GeSY explained
Cyprus is known for its climate and its food. Healthcare is the next question people ask before they move here.
This guide covers the public General Healthcare System (GHS, or GeSY): who can join, what you pay, how to register and how to choose a doctor. It covers private hospitals, health insurance, pharmacies and the emergency number too.
Key takeaways
- In 2024, life expectancy in Cyprus was 83.2 years, above the EU average, and fewer than 1% of people who needed medical care said cost, waiting times or distance stopped them getting it.
- The public system is the General Healthcare System (GHS or GeSY, Greek: Γενικό Σύστημα Υγείας (ΓεΣΥ)).
- It covers Cypriot citizens who usually live in the government-controlled areas or the UK Sovereign Base Areas and, under set conditions, EU citizens, third-country nationals (TCNs) and their families. A temporary residence permit on its own is not enough.
- Private doctors, laboratories, diagnostic centres and pharmacies can work under GeSY through a contract with the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO).
Ranking and statistics
The State of Health in the EU Country Health Profile 2025 for Cyprus, prepared by the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies with the European Commission, reports:
- Life expectancy at birth was 83.2 years in 2024, 1.6 years above the EU average.
- Preventable and treatable mortality were both lower than the EU averages in 2022. Alcohol consumption is below the EU average.
- In 2024, fewer than 1% of people who needed medical care said they could not get it because of cost, waiting times or distance. The profile's chart shows self-reported unmet needs for medical care in Cyprus as the lowest in the EU.
The Legatum Institute's 2026 Prosperity Index ranks Cyprus 32nd of 161 countries. Health is the pillar where Cyprus ranks highest, at 22nd.
The 2025 Country Health Profile shows Cyprus with some of the lowest preventable and treatable mortality rates in the EU in 2022. In 2024, 75% of the Cypriot population reported being in good health, against an EU average of 68%.
What do we mean by quality healthcare?
One of the most influential frameworks for judging healthcare quality is the US Institute of Medicine's list of six aims. The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) lists them as:
- Safe: avoiding harm to patients from the care meant to help them.
- Effective: giving care based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit, and not to people unlikely to benefit.
- Patient-centred: care that respects and responds to each patient's preferences, needs and values, with patient values guiding all clinical decisions.
- Timely: reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays, both for patients and for the people who give care.
- Efficient: avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas and energy.
- Equitable: care whose quality does not vary with personal characteristics such as where a person lives or their social and economic position.
GeSY – Public healthcare system in Cyprus
Public healthcare in Cyprus is provided through the General Healthcare System (GHS), known as GeSY (Greek: Γενικό Σύστημα Υγείας – ΓεΣΥ). The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) runs it.
GeSY is funded by contributions from employees, employers, the self-employed, pensioners, people with rental or investment income and the state. Patients pay co-payments for some services.
To join, you register in the GeSY beneficiary register through the beneficiary portal on gesy.org.cy, then sign up with a personal doctor of your choice. People without internet access can register at a personal doctor's surgery. Your personal doctor treats general medical issues and refers you to a specialist when needed.
Who can be a GeSY beneficiary?
- Cyprus citizens who usually live in the government-controlled areas or in the UK Sovereign Base Areas, and Cypriot students under 26 who regularly attend a recognised higher education institution abroad.
- EU citizens who usually live in the government-controlled areas and are employed or self-employed here, who keep that status under EU free-movement rules after their work ends, for example when they are involuntarily unemployed and seeking work, or who have acquired the right of permanent residence.
- Third-country nationals who usually live in the government-controlled areas and are employed here, hold permanent residence, such as permanent residency by investment, or have refugee or supplementary protection status.
- People who usually live in the government-controlled areas and are insured in another EU member state, such as pensioners with an S1 form. UK state pensioners who hold a UK-issued S1 form register it with GeSY, and the UK pays for their care.
- Family members who usually live in the government-controlled areas (or, in the family of a Cypriot living in the UK Sovereign Base Areas, in those areas too), when the beneficiary is a Cypriot citizen, a qualifying EU citizen or a third-country national who works here: the spouse, children under 21 and children over 21 whom the beneficiary or their spouse supports.
- The spouse and children of a third-country national who qualifies through permanent residence, if they usually live in the government-controlled areas and have permanent residence of their own.
Residence permits and registration
A temporary residence permit, such as a visitor permit, does not make you a beneficiary on its own. Non-Cypriots need a valid residence permit and a record with the Civil Registry and Migration Department to register. A few groups, such as local embassy staff, register with a paper form sent to the HIO.
EU citizens who usually live in the government-controlled areas without working here, have not kept worker status and are not insured in another EU state, such as early retirees without an S1 form, become GeSY beneficiaries once they acquire the right of permanent residence, or earlier if they qualify as the family member of a beneficiary.
Until then, the Migration Department asks them for private health insurance covering inpatient and outpatient care and the repatriation of remains (Plan A) to register as residents.
Do I pay tax for the General Healthcare System?
GeSY is funded mainly through contributions on earnings, pensions and other income. The General Healthcare System Law sets these rates:
- employees 2.65% and their employers 2.90%;
- the self-employed 4%;
- pensioners 2.65%;
- holders of public office 2.65% and those who pay them 2.90%;
- rent, interest, dividends and other income 2.65%;
- the state 4.70% on salaries, self-employed earnings, office holders' pay and pensions.
The contribution rates are on the GeSY website.
Your own contributions are charged on no more than €180,000 of income a year, counting earnings from employment, self-employment and public office first, then pensions, then other income. At 2.65%, that is at most €4,770 a year; at the self-employed rate of 4%, at most €7,200.
The employer's 2.90% has no ceiling. Contributions paid on income above the ceiling are refundable. For years before 2025 you apply to the HIO; for contribution years from 1 January 2025 the Tax Department refunds them.
- Non-tax residents pay only on earnings, pensions and other income from Cyprus, and not on dividends or interest. A non-resident who rents out a property in Cyprus pays 2.65% on the rent.
- Cyprus tax residents pay on dividends and interest, non-domiciled (non-dom) residents included. Non-dom status exempts dividends and interest from the Special Defence Contribution (SDC). It does not exempt them from GeSY.
Is the General Health System totally free of charge?
GeSY is not entirely free. Patients pay small amounts for some services, set in GeSY regulations and decrees of the Minister of Health.
Visits to your personal doctor on weekdays from 7 am to 8 pm, public holidays excepted, carry no charge up to a yearly number that depends on age. For adults it is 4 visits from 18 to 41, 6 from 41 to 51, 8 from 51 to 65 and 10 from 65 onwards.
For children it is 10 visits up to age 1, 8 from 1 to 3, 7 from 3 to 6, 4 from 6 to 11 and 3 from 11 to 18.
Above that number, the doctor may charge up to €15 a visit. Chronic patients, guaranteed minimum income recipients, low-income pensioners and their children under 21 do not pay this charge.
Other charges per service:
- €1 per prescribed medicine, medical device or medical supply.
- €1 per lab test or group of lab tests, up to €10 per category of tests.
- €6 per visit to a nurse or midwife at any time, or to a specialist with a referral on weekdays from 7 am to 8 pm, public holidays excepted.
- €25 per visit to a specialist without a referral, with no €6 charge on top. Some patients do not pay the €25, among them women aged 15 and over seeing a gynaecologist, National Guard conscripts referred by a military doctor, some patients with cancer or thalassaemia seeing their specialist and some dialysis patients seeing a nephrologist.
- €10 per radiology service, per visit to an allied health professional and per A&E visit.
- The price difference, if you choose a medicine, medical device or medical supply dearer than the interchangeable product GeSY covers.
Out-of-hours visits
On weekdays from 8 pm to 7 am, at weekends and on public holidays, personal doctors and specialists, other than specialists in diagnostic radiology, cytology or pathology, may charge up to €25 a visit, set by the doctor. This replaces the €6 or €25 specialist charge, and these visits do not count towards the yearly number of free personal doctor visits.
The yearly cap
Inpatient care carries no co-payment. Co-payments stop at a cap per calendar year: €75 for guaranteed minimum income recipients, low-income pensioners and people under 21, and €150 for everyone else.
The cap does not cover the €25 for going direct to a specialist or the price difference for a dearer product, and the doctor's extra charges of up to €15 or €25 are still payable after the cap is reached. Once you reach the cap, you pay no more co-payments for the rest of the calendar year, and a provider that collects a co-payment above the cap must refund it.
Institutions under the GHS
The institutions under GeSY are:
- Public hospitals.
- Private doctors' surgeries, hospitals, clinics, polyclinics and other establishments with an HIO contract.
- Laboratories and diagnostic centres with an HIO contract.
- Pharmacies with an HIO contract.
You choose your personal doctor from the doctors contracted with the HIO and can change doctor once every six months. You choose the specialist too, after a referral or by going direct and paying the €25.
GeSY portal
The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) runs GeSY online at gesy.org.cy. Through the beneficiary portal you register as a beneficiary and request a personal doctor. Your personal doctor gives you a unique number that, with an email from the system, opens your electronic health record.
Healthcare providers use a separate providers' portal. Both portals open from GeSY Launchpad - gesy.org.cy.
Private healthcare
Private healthcare outside GeSY is not free.
Each district has private hospitals, medical centres, polyclinics, clinics and doctors' surgeries.
Private hospitals and polyclinics cover many specialities, including general surgery. Some have their own A&E department and laboratories.
Some clinics focus on one or two fields, such as paediatrics, eye care, gynaecology or fertility and IVF.
Health insurance
Third-country nationals who are not GeSY beneficiaries usually need private health insurance for a residence permit. For a visitor permit, the Migration Department asks for a certificate covering inpatient and outpatient care and the repatriation of remains (Plan A). Third-country employees renewing a general employment permit can show either a Plan A policy or GeSY registration plus private insurance for repatriation of remains.
Investors applying for an Immigration Permit submit a policy covering inpatient and outpatient care for themselves and their dependants. After the permit is issued, the investor must show each year that they and their family members hold health insurance if they are no longer GeSY beneficiaries. Failing to do so leads to the cancellation of the investor's and the family members' Immigration Permits. Check that a policy meets these terms before you apply.
Pharmacies
By law, every pharmacy in Cyprus must be registered with the Pharmacy Board under the Pharmacy and Poisons Law (Cap. 254). The owner must be a registered pharmacist, or a company managed and controlled by a registered pharmacist who owns at least 51% of its shares.
Pharmacies open during normal business hours. Outside these hours, night pharmacies are on duty by rotation in each district; see the list of night pharmacies for the ones open tonight.
Pharmacies with an HIO contract dispense GeSY prescriptions.
Dial numbers for emergencies
Call 112 for an ambulance, the police or the fire service. 112 is the European emergency number and the call is free from mobile and landline phones. In Cyprus, police operators answer 112 calls and can locate the caller.
The bottom line
Third-country nationals who usually live in the government-controlled areas and work here, hold permanent residence or have international protection can register with GeSY, and so can family members who qualify. Others usually need private health insurance for their residence permit.
Private doctors and hospitals can work under GeSY through a contract with the HIO.
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