Travel abroad and medicine costs
Notify Kela well in advance if
- you stay outside Finland for more than 3 months and you get benefits from Kela or you have a European Health Insurance Card
- you get social assistance and you stay outside Finland for more than 7 days
- you start any kind of employment in another EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom
- you stay outside Finland on a regular basis and spend most of your time outside Finland (for example 1–6 months at a time), and Kela is paying you benefits.
Kela reimburses medicine costs during a stay abroad if you are covered by health insurance in Finland during your stay abroad.
How to notify Kela of your stay abroad.
How much medication can you buy at once and get reimbursement?
At the pharmacy, you can buy an amount of medication that corresponds to 3 months’ supply and receive reimbursement. If the medicine is expensive, you can buy a maximum of 1 month’s supply at a time.
If you buy more medicine at one time of purchase or if you buy more medicine too soon after your previous purchase, you must pay for the full cost of the medicines yourself at the pharmacy and claim the reimbursement afterwards. If the medicines you need for your trip cost EUR 600 or more without reimbursement and you cannot buy them without reimbursement, please call our service number 020 634 2650 about 3 weeks before you leave on your trip.
Things to remember when you travel with prescription medication
When you travel, take your prescriptions or documentation about your prescriptions with you. If asked, you will be able to show these documents at customs to demonstrate that you have the right to carry your personal medicines with you.
Read more about documents you may need when travelling:
You should check the country-specific import restrictions for the medicines you use well before you travel. You should also check the rules and restrictions in advance for any countries that you will be passing through.
Information about restrictions on carrying personal medication and any required documents is available from the customs authorities of the destination country and from contact points of the EU countries. You could, for example, contact the embassy of your destination country for further information.
When you return to Finland, you can bring medicines from abroad for personal use.
If a package of medicine is damaged, lost or stolen, or the medicine loses its effectiveness due to incorrect storage, Kela will not reimburse you for any medicine bought in replacement.
Medicines purchased abroad
Whether you can get a reimbursement for any medicines you buy abroad depends on such things as whether you bought them because of a sudden illness while abroad or whether you travelled abroad to buy medicines.
Your right to reimbursement will also be affected by which country you purchased the medicine in.
Sudden illness while staying in an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom
If you are travelling or temporarily staying in another EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, you can receive medically necessary treatment for a local user fee by showing your European Health Insurance Card.
If you pay the costs yourself, you can apply for reimbursement from Kela afterwards. You can choose to have the reimbursement paid according to either Finnish legislation or the legislation of the country where you received treatment. If you have received treatment in another Nordic country, the reimbursement is always paid according to the legislation of the country where you received treatment.
If you choose to be reimbursed according to Finnish legislation
- You can get reimbursement for up to 3 months' worth of medication at one time.
- If the medicine is expensive, you can get reimbursement for 1 month’s supply at a time. A medicine is considered expensive if it is available in a package that costs more than EUR 1,000.
- The medicine purchase counts towards the initial deductible and the annual maximum limit on out-of-pocket medicine costs.
If you choose to be reimbursed according to the legislation of the country where you received treatment
- Kela will ask the country in question to specify the amount of the reimbursement and then pay that amount to you.
- The medicine purchase does not count towards the initial deductible or the annual maximum limit on out-of-pocket medicine costs.
Sudden illness while staying in a country other than an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom
If you are staying temporarily in any country that is not an EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, and you find yourself having to purchase medication for an illness, you cannot get reimbursement from Kela.
If you travel to another EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom to buy medicines you need to treat an illness, you can apply for reimbursement from Kela afterwards.
You can get reimbursement for up to 3 months' worth of medication at one time. If the medicine is expensive, you can get reimbursement for 1 month’s supply at a time. A medicine is considered expensive if it is available in a package that costs more than EUR 1000.
You cannot get reimbursement for medicines you have ordered from abroad.
You can get reimbursement only for medicines that have been prescribed for the treatment of an illness and are equivalent to medicines reimbursable in Finland. We will determine whether a medicine is equivalent by comparing the dosage form (for example, a tablet or a solution), and also the active substance and its concentration. The amount of the reimbursement is affected by the package size and price of the medicine purchased abroad and by the package size and price or reference price of the equivalent medicine available and reimbursable in Finland.
You can get a reimbursement once you reach the initial deductible.
- If the equivalent medicine is included in the Finnish reference price system, you will get a reimbursement based on the medicine’s sales price or reference price.
- If the equivalent medicine is not included in the Finnish reference price system, you will get a reimbursement based on the medicine’s sales price or, at the most, the price confirmed for it in Finland.
- If you are entitled to a special rate of reimbursement, you can get the special rate of reimbursement for the medicine purchased abroad if an equivalent pharmaceutical product has been approved for reimbursement at a special rate in Finland.
- If you have reached the annual maximum limit on out-of-pocket costs, you can get an additional reimbursement for medicines purchased abroad.