What Ukraine's healthcare system means for foreigners

Understanding how healthcare works for foreigners in Ukraine starts with one legal phrase: a foreigner temporarily staying in Ukraine. Ukrainian law uses it for someone who is in the country while a visa is valid, or for the period the law or an international treaty allows. That label helps determine whether your care is on a paid basis.

Cabinet Resolution No. 121 makes care paid for foreigners temporarily staying in Ukraine, visitors included, unless a treaty or law says otherwise or they serve on military contracts with the National Guard, State Special Transport Service or Armed Forces. The payer is then a Ukrainian insurer whose contract secures payment, a company named in that contract, or you.

Who you are in Ukraine's health system

As a visitor on a trip, you are a foreigner temporarily staying in Ukraine, and your care is paid unless a treaty or a law says otherwise.

The paid-care rule comes from Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 121 of March 19, 2014. It sets how state and municipal health facilities provide medical care to several groups of foreigners, and how the cost of that care is compensated. You can read the Resolution in its current Ukrainian edition, which as of October 2026 is the one dated August 27, 2025. The status words themselves are defined in Law No. 3773-VI on foreigners and stateless persons.

• Foreigner temporarily staying in Ukraine: someone in the country during a visa's validity, or for the period the law or an international treaty sets, including a stay that has been extended.
• Foreigner permanently residing in Ukraine: someone who has received a permanent residence permit, unless a law provides otherwise.
• Paid basis: the Resolution's term for care that is charged for; it applies to foreigners staying or residing in Ukraine temporarily, unless an international treaty or a law of Ukraine provides otherwise, and not to foreigners who serve on military contracts with the National Guard, the State Special Transport Service or the Armed Forces.
• International treaty: an agreement that is in force for Ukraine; where such a treaty sets different rules, its rules apply instead of the Resolution's.

Status matters because the Resolution treats other groups differently. Foreigners who live in Ukraine permanently, people Ukraine has recognized as refugees or as persons in need of additional protection, and foreigners who serve on military contracts with the National Guard, the State Special Transport Service or the Armed Forces receive care funded from the state and local budgets. If you think an international treaty may apply to you, ask your government or health insurer before you travel which rules and documents apply.

Who provides care, and how emergency care differs

Resolution No. 121 covers state and municipal health facilities and has a separate rule for emergency care: if the state budget has paid for your emergency care as a visitor, you must compensate its full cost.

• State or municipal health facility: a hospital or clinic owned by the state or by a local community; these are the facilities the Resolution regulates.
• Medical service provider: the term the Resolution's emergency-care rule uses for the facility that gave the care and must give you the invoice.
• State-paid emergency care: emergency care financed from Ukraine's state budget under a state program in which the National Health Service of Ukraine pays the provider a tariff.
• The 112 service: the single emergency number, which covers all regions of Ukraine and can bring several services with one call.

Planned care, such as an appointment for a fever that is not an emergency, is also paid care for you as a visitor, unless a treaty or a law says otherwise. The Resolution speaks only about state and municipal facilities, so before you are treated at a private clinic, ask the clinic how it charges and whether it works with your insurer.

The Ministry of Health lists its orders on how emergency care is organized on its emergency medical care page, among them Order No. 1269 of June 5, 2019, on standardizing emergency medical care.

As of October 2026, the Ministry of Internal Affairs page on the 112 service says that foreigners can dial 112 or the 911 number they know from home, and a 911 call is redirected to 112. The ministry's "112 Ukraine" app can place a call over Wi-Fi when there is no mobile signal, once you have signed in.

In February 2025 the Minister of Internal Affairs reported that 65 of more than 260 operators of the 112 service spoke foreign languages, among them English, Polish, Spanish and French.

When the state budget has paid for your emergency treatment as a visitor, Resolution No. 121 says you must compensate its full cost and pay the provider's invoice before you leave Ukraine.

Who pays: a treaty, an insurer or you

For you as a visitor, Resolution No. 121 sets out three routes for the bill: a treaty or a law that provides otherwise, an insurance contract that secures payment, or payment by you.

• Resident insurer: a Ukrainian insurer; if you hold its contract that secures payment for medical care, it pays the facility by transfer once a payment document is presented.
• Mutual recognition: an agreement that links a Ukrainian insurer with an insurer abroad; where it exists and you hold the matching contract, the Ukrainian insurer secures payment for your care.
• Medical assistance company: a company named in your insurance contract that operates in Ukraine and may also pay the facility.
• Sum insured: the most your insurance contract pays; if the cost of care is higher, you pay the difference to the facility.

As of October 2026, the Resolution says that without an insurance contract of these kinds, and without a document that shows a right to free care in Ukraine, you pay for the care you receive, emergency care included.

Because the sum insured sets how much a policy can pay, it helps to look at each plan's limit side by side before you choose. If you would like a policy in place before the trip, you can get a quote for your travel dates. The start and end dates are printed on the policy; choose dates that cover your whole stay.

How does a Ukrainian insurer pay a hospital?

By transfer: under paragraph 5 of the Resolution, a Ukrainian insurer whose contract secures payment transfers the money to the facility that treated you once a document for payment is presented.

What is a medical assistance company?

It is a company named in your insurance contract that operates in Ukraine, and the Resolution allows it to pay the health facility as well. Because the contract names it, keep that document where you can open it quickly.

One family's summer visit, case by case

Take, for example, a British family of four, two adults and two children who hold only British passports, on a ten-day summer return visit to relatives in Kherson. For those ten days, all four are foreigners temporarily staying in Ukraine.

Case one: on the third day, the younger child has a fever that is not an emergency and is seen at a municipal clinic. That is planned care at a facility the Resolution covers, so it is given on a paid basis unless a treaty or a law says otherwise.

Case two: on the seventh day, a parent twists an ankle in a fall, and the family calls 112, which can send medics. If the state budget pays for the emergency treatment, the family must compensate its full cost on the provider's invoice before they leave Ukraine.

The official sources, as checked in October 2026:

• Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Resolution No. 121 of March 19, 2014, on medical care for certain groups of foreigners and the compensation of its cost (Ukrainian text, edition of August 27, 2025)
• Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Law No. 3773-VI on foreigners and stateless persons (Ukrainian text, edition of July 1, 2026)
• Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, "Service 112: all emergency services on one number" (no update date shown on the page)
• Ministry of Health of Ukraine, "Emergency medical care" (no update date shown on the page)