What to do in case of cross-border work? - I am retired
You live in Belgium, were a cross-border worker and you receive your pension from one or more countries.
What about your rights to reimbursement for healthcare if you are retired and were a cross-border worker?
You live in Belgium and receive your pension from one other EEA country or Switzerland
Do you live in Belgium and are you a pensioner dependent on another EEA country (European Union countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) or Switzerland? Then you can register with CM with a foreign S1 form. You then have the same rights to healthcare in Belgium as Belgian insured persons.
To be insured during a temporary stay in another country, during a planned procedure abroad or upon return to the country where you are dependent, you must take certain procedures into account.
You live in Belgium and receive your pension from several countries
You are a retired cross-border worker. You live in Belgium and you receive a pension from more than one country. Even if you are no longer insured under your last country of employment, you can still seek care through the limited right of return or, in some cases, the extended right of return.
Limited right of return
Thanks to a European regulation (law) that came into effect on May 1, 2010, you are entitled to ' continuation of treatment ' in the country where you last worked.
- You can return there to continue a treatment that has already started.
- You do not need permission from your current insurance institution for this.
- Ask your current insurance institution for the S3 form that proves that you are entitled to 'continued treatment'.
Your dependent family members also enjoy this limited right of return and can therefore receive an S3 form. However, this is not the case if your last country of employment was one of the following.
| Denmark | Estonia | Finland | Hungary |
| Ireland | Iceland | Italy | Lithuania |
| The Netherlands | Norway | Spain | Sweden |
| United Kingdom | |||
There, only you as a former cross-border worker can continue a treatment that has already started.
Extensive right of return
If you have worked at least two years in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal or Spain in the last five years before you retire, you retain the right to health care there.
You do not have to ask permission from CM for medical services in that country. Do request the S3 document. This proves that you are entitled to all healthcare in your former country of employment.
Your dependent family members and surviving relatives also enjoy this right of return in the above-mentioned countries, except Spain. They can therefore also receive an S3 document.