Everything decision-makers tend to ask.

The market offers four typical tiers: from a basic outpatient package, through extended levels with diagnostics and screening, up to exclusive packages that can cover executives and family members. Modules such as dental, inpatient care or screening programmes can be added. We always tailor the final setup to your headcount, age profile and budget – see the Packages page for details.

The core is outpatient specialist care: consultations, laboratory tests and diagnostics – with no waiting lists, booked through a phone line. Higher tiers add imaging (MRI, CT), annual screening programmes, physiotherapy, dental budgets, inpatient and surgical cover, and second medical opinions. Our proposals list every element in plain language.

Yes, typically at higher tiers: surgery organisation, hospital indemnity or service-financed care – the structure varies by insurer, and this is where waiting periods and exclusions differ most. If inpatient cover is a priority for you, we give it special weight in the comparison.

Yes, most packages include an annual screening: basic lab panels at entry level, up to executive-checkup depth at higher tiers. In our experience screening is the most used and most valued element – prevention is tangible care, and early detection also means fewer lost workdays for the company.

Usually as an add-on module: an annual dental budget, check-ups and discounted treatment fees – content and limits vary by insurer. If dental matters to your team (it is one of the most requested items), we show the options in a dedicated row of the comparison table.

Important to see clearly: immediate, life-saving emergency care in Hungary is the task of the state system – no private package replaces it, and anyone claiming otherwise is misleading you. Several insurers do offer emergency and assistance add-ons: private medical hotlines, urgent-care access, ambulance top-ups. We include these on request.

Yes – in fact this is a key feature of a well-designed programme. Separate tiers can be set for executives, middle management and staff, so the budget goes where it is worth most, and the programme fits your compensation strategy. Group boundaries are fixed in the contract with objective criteria, keeping the system transparent.

With most insurers, yes: spouses, partners and children can join as an extension of the company package or in a discounted family scheme. The family premium is typically borne by the employee (for example via payroll deduction), but employer funding is also possible. We present this option at the employee briefing too.

Yes – with most insurers, the form of employment (full-time or part-time, fixed-term or open-ended) is not an exclusion on its own; the entry condition is typically an actual, current employment relationship. For a short, few-week fixed-term contract, whether joining is worthwhile at all varies by insurer – we clarify this already at the needs-assessment stage.

With many insurers, yes – often with an upper age limit or terms that differ slightly from the core package, and this is exactly what we check separately when we submit your headcount and age profile. If your team includes several older colleagues, we flag this at the quote-request stage to get an exact answer per insurer.

This varies by insurer: some only accept employees under a group contract, while others – under certain conditions – also accept contractors or freelancers who work for the company on a long-term, regular basis. If your team includes such contributors, it is worth flagging this at the needs-assessment stage, since it can narrow or widen the range of offers available.

Group health insurance is not a card that “covers everything”: the insurer pays for what is listed as a service in the contract – specialist examinations, laboratory tests, diagnostics, screening and, depending on the package, surgery – while items not on the list are at the employee's own expense. Medicines, glasses and contact lenses, as well as medical aids, are typically not covered by Hungarian group packages; these are better suited to a health fund (egészségpénztár – a Hungarian voluntary health savings fund), which works well as a complement to the insurance. Cover for physiotherapy and physical therapy differs from insurer to insurer: some packages include it on a doctor's recommendation for a limited number of sessions, while elsewhere it is available only as an add-on module or at the network's discounted price. Aesthetic, plastic and cosmetic procedures that are not medically justified, as well as teeth whitening and orthodontic treatment, are typically excluded services under the policy conditions, and many packages also have separate rules for emergency care, childbirth and the management of chronic illnesses. We recommend that HR also go through the “what it does not cover” list when informing employees, because much of the disappointment arises when an employee tries to claim reimbursement with an invoice for glasses or a pharmacy receipt. If you let us know, we help where we can, based on the policy conditions of the package you have chosen.

Whether there is a legal obligation to include them is not clear-cut, and whether it is possible varies by insurer. An agency worker's employer is the temporary-work agency, but under Section 219 of the Labour Code (Mt.), for the duration of the assignment the agency worker must also be given the basic working and employment conditions that apply to the user company's own employees – including the rules on wages and other benefits; in a narrower group of cases – for example, where the worker has an open-ended employment relationship with the agency and is paid even when not on assignment – the rules on wages, other benefits and equal treatment need to be applied only from the 184th day spent at the user company. The text of the law does not expressly state whether group health insurance counts as an “other benefit”, and the Equal Treatment Act (Ebktv.) also ties the requirement to protected characteristics, so deliberately leaving out agency workers may carry an employment-law risk that is worth clarifying with the company's employment lawyer rather than settling it in the insurance contract. A student working through a school cooperative is not the company's employee but a member of the cooperative who works at the company under a membership agreement, so the employer's equal-treatment rules do not apply to them in the same way; here, inclusion is more an option than an obligation. Whether an insurer accepts insured persons who are not employed by the company under the company's group contract varies by insurer: some also admit agency workers to the user company's contract, while others require the agency to be the policyholder, and the tax treatment of the premium may also differ from that for the company's own employees – if your headcount also includes agency workers or student workers, it is worth stating this already in the request for quotation, so that we receive a precise answer from the insurers on this point as well.

Most company packages exclude or limit care related to pregnancy and childbirth: under the policy conditions, childbirth, obstetric inpatient care and routine prenatal care are typically not part of the package, whereas gynaecological specialist examinations, laboratory tests and screenings are typically available within the package limits. Exactly what counts and what does not differs by insurer and by package, so it is worth checking the exclusions section of the policy conditions – some conditions, for example, also exclude infertility investigations and treatment. On the state side, prenatal care and childbirth in a state hospital are provided under the state social-security system (TB); a birth in a private hospital and private prenatal care are paid for by the employee herself, and the group package typically does not take over this cost. With some insurers, a wider range of pregnancy-related examinations may be included at a higher package tier or as supplementary cover – this depends on the policy conditions and is worth clarifying separately when requesting quotes. It is worth stating this boundary honestly and in advance in the employee information leaflet, so that it does not first come to light at the hospital. How cover works during maternity leave and GYED (the Hungarian childcare fee), and what happens on returning to work, is covered in our knowledge-base article on expectant and new mothers.

A skiing accident or an injury from recreational football can be treated under most company packages: the policy conditions typically do not exclude sport in general, but specifically listed dangerous activities – according to the product information document of a Hungarian insurer's group health insurance, these include car and motorcycle sports (rallying, motocross, go-karting, motorboating), flying and parachuting, bungee jumping, diving, open-sea sailing, white-water paddling, mountaineering and rock climbing, and caving – but the list differs from insurer to insurer, so you need to check it in your own policy conditions. Also typically outside the cover under the conditions are acts of war and civil war, acts of terrorism, attempted suicide, and injuries sustained while drunk or under the influence of drugs; the conditions typically tie intoxication to a blood-alcohol limit (in the product information document cited, 0.8 per mille as a general rule, and 2.51 per mille for certain benefits – accidental death, surgery, daily hospital allowance), but the specific limit and the range of benefits affected depend on the conditions. The difference between an exclusion and an exemption (where the insurer is released from paying) matters: for an excluded event the insurer never accepted the risk in the first place, whereas with an exemption – if, for example, a condition treats intoxication as a ground for exemption – the benefit is due unless the insurer proves that the ground for exemption applies. Before a company sports day, ski trip or team-building event, it is therefore worth getting out the exclusions chapter of the conditions and briefly summarising in the employee information sheet what remains outside the cover; the terms exclusion, waiting period and deductible are explained in our small-print glossary article. Whether an injury sustained at a sports day or team-building event counts as an accident at work is a question of occupational health and safety, not a matter for the package.

The premium depends on headcount, age profile and the chosen content – it starts from a few thousand forints per person per month, and the total programme cost is typically a fraction of payroll. We only quote exact figures from a tailored proposal, because we run nine insurers in competition – that is why the first consultation is free: after 20 minutes you will see the ballpark for your company.

Group contracts can usually be paid annually, semi-annually, quarterly or monthly, with options varying by insurer – the most common is a monthly or quarterly transfer based on a single consolidated invoice, with no per-employee billing. We align the schedule with your financial rhythm and flag payment flexibility in the comparison.

The group premium is taxed as a so-called specific defined benefit: the total public charge is 33.04%, borne solely by the company – the employee pays no tax or contribution, and the service itself is also tax-free. By comparison, the combined burden of the same benefit paid as salary is close to 70%. Our summary is based on the insurers' official tax publications; always confirm the exact treatment with your accountant.

It varies by insurer; group contracts are typically available even for small teams. At the consultation we tell you exactly which insurers' offers are open at your headcount.

Under a genuine group contract with an undivided premium – where the part of the premium attributable to one insured person cannot be determined even by apportionment – the employee does not have to declare it and pays no tax on it. In that case, the group health insurance premium is a certain specified benefit (a Hungarian employer-taxed benefit category) at the company: under the Personal Income Tax Act (Szja tv.), the tax is borne by the payer; the company pays the 15% personal income tax and the 13% social contribution tax on 1.18 times the premium and declares this in aggregate in its own monthly '08 return (the employer's monthly tax and contributions return), not in the employee's name. The benefit therefore does not appear on the employee's M30 certificate (the employer's annual income certificate), does not appear in their draft tax return, and does not increase their tax base. Nor does it have to be shown on the payslip, because it is neither wages nor a deduction – the Labour Code requires that the wages paid and the deductions can be checked – although some payroll software still prints the value of the employer benefit as an information line; this does not mean that any tax is payable. The care used, i.e. the insurer's benefit, is typically tax-free for the individual under Annex 1 to the Szja tv. If the employee pays a family member or supplementary premium out of their own pocket, they pay it from net pay, and no taxable event arises there either; the situation is different if the premium can be determined or apportioned per employee under the contract, because it is then taxed according to the legal relationship – in employment, as wages – and then it also appears in the payroll and on the certificate.

From a voluntary health fund (egészségpénztár), yes – provided the fund has a contract with the insurer concerned – but not with a SZÉP card. The Act on Voluntary Mutual Insurance Funds (Öpt.) lists the payment of premiums for service-financing health insurance among the supplementary health insurance services, so a fund member can pay the premium of such a policy tax-free from their own individual account – in practice, the fund transfers the money to the insurer it has a contract with; the details and the range of insurers differ from fund to fund. The permitted uses of the SZÉP card (Széchenyi Recreation Card) are laid down in a government decree (accommodation, catering, leisure services and, from 2025, certain home renovation expenses), and insurance premiums are not among them. The health fund route does not replace company group health insurance: in a group contract, the company is the policyholder and the premium payer, whereas payment from a health fund is individual, comes out of the employee's own balance and is only possible for insurance with which the fund has a contract. The tax effect is different too: after their own contributions to the fund, an employee can, through a declaration in their personal income tax return, have 20% of the contribution, up to HUF 150,000 a year, transferred to their individual fund account, charged against the personal income tax (szja) they have paid – this is not a cash refund; an employer's contribution to the fund, on the other hand, is taxed as employment income, and it is worth clarifying the tax treatment of the targeted-service route with your accountant in advance. The two tools are therefore not substitutes for each other but complements – the differences are discussed in our article “Health insurance or health fund?”.

With group contracts, typically no: no individual underwriting, no questionnaire, no examination – the team joins in one administrative step. This is one of the scheme's biggest advantages over individual policies, and exactly why colleagues who would struggle to get individual cover can be included.

For outpatient services a pre-existing condition is usually not an exclusion: colleagues can use specialist care for their existing complaints. For inpatient and surgical covers, however, waiting periods and exclusions differ by insurer – one of the most important fine-print differences on the market, so we flag it in a dedicated row of our comparison.

A growing number of insurers offer psychological or mental-health consultations – either as a standalone element or as part of wellbeing programmes – but the scope and depth (how many sessions, which professionals) vary significantly by insurer. If this matters to your team, we ask about it specifically at the needs-assessment stage and flag it in the comparison.

Every insurer works with its own nationwide partner network: private clinic chains, diagnostic centres, specialist practices. Appointments are usually organised by the insurer's health line – your colleague only has to make a call. Network coverage – especially outside Budapest – is a key decision factor, so we hand over a coverage comparison alongside the offers.

Two structures exist, and this is one of the market's most important, least explained differences. In network-based (service-financed) packages care happens within the insurer's partner network with direct settlement – the employee pays nothing. Reimbursement-based elements allow free choice of doctor: your colleague sees their usual specialist and the insurer refunds the invoice afterwards.

The fast route is direct: the insurer's health line and customer service – we provide every contact in the employee briefing pack so nobody has to search. If, however, a case gets stuck or a legitimate request is disputed, that is where we step in: as your broker we help you with the correspondence with the insurer, where we can. After the insurer's own complaint procedure, an insured private individual can, as a consumer, turn to the Hungarian National Bank's consumer-protection procedure or to the Financial Arbitration Board; the final forum for settling a contractual dispute is the court.

Yes, both are part of our service. At launch we hold a live or online employee briefing: what the package contains, how to book, who to call. Every colleague also receives a one-page summary PDF of their own tier with the key contacts. This reduces HR's communication burden to a minimum: I prepare a draft of the announcement letter and the employee-briefing outline, while the announcement itself and its timing stay with the company.

Typically yes, since the service is a benefit offered to the employee, not an obligation – anyone who doesn't want it simply doesn't use it. It is worth knowing, though, that the premium is typically calculated on the whole reported group rather than on actual usage, so any opt-out should still be reflected on the roster to keep the records accurate.

Yes, most Hungarian group contracts allow for this, but the details vary from insurer to insurer. An employee “top-up” typically works as follows: the company remains the policyholder, and the employee reimburses the premium difference for the higher level or the family member's premium out of their net pay; under the Labour Code, this requires the employee's consent to the deduction, which in practice is recorded in writing. The part paid out of the employee's own pocket is not a benefit from the company, so the 33.04% public charges are not added to it. The timing of a change of level is the question that depends on the policy conditions: insurers typically allow the package level to be changed at the renewal date or within a set enrolment window, and during the year mostly only in connection with a change in status – joining, promotion, a family event. Under the policy conditions, a waiting period may start for the new elements of the higher level, so after the change not every new service is available straight away; moving down a level or cancelling the top-up is also typically possible at the renewal date. Good practice is for the benefits policy to set out who can move to a higher level, when and with what declaration, and what happens to the premium share if there is nothing to deduct it from. The options under a specific contract are set by the insurer's policy conditions; if the company lets us know, we build this point into the offer table.

Hungarian group health insurance conditions typically define the insured event in such a way that the service must be used during the period of cover, and cover ends at 24:00 on the day of termination – for a leaving employee, this date varies by insurer and by set of conditions: it may be the notified leaving date or the last day of the month in which the employee leaves, but under some conditions the insured person can leave only with effect from the end of their own insurance period, by giving prior written notice of cancellation. Most conditions make no separate provision for completing treatment that has already started: whatever takes place after termination – an examination already booked, an operation for which a date has been set, a follow-up visit – is generally not treated by the insurer as an insured event, and for the daily hospital cash benefit some conditions state expressly that the obligation to pay benefits also ends for days of inpatient care after termination. The realistic advice for the employee during the notice period is therefore to schedule the necessary examinations and procedures before cover ends, and to tell the care coordinator when their entitlement ends. If the company as a whole switches insurer, it is worth asking the new insurer in writing, already at the request-for-quotation stage, how it handles treatments in progress, as this may form part of the terms on which it takes over the group. For leaving employees, some insurers offer a switch to an individual contract, but even this does not give an automatic right to continue treatment that has already started, so it is worth clarifying the specific case with the insurer in writing before the employee cancels or postpones the appointment.

Not in the way employees often expect. With network-based, service-financing (managed-care) cover, the insurer does not pay out money; instead, it organises the examination through its care coordinator and pays the provider: the same examination cannot be carried out twice, and the employee can only choose which contract to book it through – but together the two covers may mean a wider network, more medical specialties and two separate annual limits. For cost-reimbursement elements, where the employee submits the private doctor's invoice afterwards, some Hungarian conditions require the original invoice and a declaration about any cover held with another insurer, because the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) distinguishes between indemnity insurance and fixed-sum insurance, and legal literature regards cost-reimbursement health insurance as indemnity-type insurance, where the payment may not exceed the actual cost – so the same cost cannot be reimbursed by the two insurers together for more than the actual invoice amount; which insurer the invoice can be submitted to, and in what order, is set out in the two sets of conditions. Fixed-amount benefits of a fixed-sum insurance nature – a surgical benefit, a daily hospital cash benefit, a critical illness lump sum – may be payable under more than one contract, depending on the insurer; this can be determined by comparing the two sets of conditions. We advise HR not to have employees cancel their own individual insurance merely because of the group cover: the individual contract remains in place even after the employment ends, whereas cancelling it and taking out a new one later may bring a new waiting period and individual underwriting; and in the case of family-member cover running through the spouse's employer, it is worth checking what it adds to the employee's own package before anyone makes changes to either contract.

The insurer does not pay for the part above the limit, and Hungarian group conditions typically do not state separately what happens once the limit has been used up – in practice, the care coordinator does not organise examinations above the limit at the insurer's expense, and, depending on the insurer, the employee can use them either at their own expense or at the network provider's discounted price, if the package includes such a provider discount. Under the conditions, the limit typically applies to the insurance year or insurance period, which does not necessarily coincide with the calendar year: under some conditions it follows the renewal date of the group contract, under others the first day of the month after the insured person's own joining date, so the date on which the limit is reset should be checked in the definitions of “insurance period” and “renewal date” in the conditions. There is no uniform rule for employees who join during the year either: some conditions grant the whole limit, while others reduce it in proportion to the period of cover – for the days of daily hospital cash benefit, for example, some conditions expressly provide for this. Unused limits typically cannot be carried over to the following year, and even for services advertised as unlimited it is worth checking where the caps on amounts or on the number of visits are. We recommend that HR also explain the limits and the date on which they are reset when informing employees, and refer employees to the care coordinator, where the current balance of the limit can typically be checked; if the limit is regularly used up by several employees, a higher limit or a higher package level can be requested at the renewal date, in the request for quotation for the following year.

In most company packages, no referral is needed for a specialist examination: the employee contacts the insurer's care coordinator (by phone, or through the online portal or app), who books an appointment for them in the partner network – the exact procedure differs by insurer and by package. For diagnostic tests (laboratory tests, ultrasound, CT, MRI), the policy conditions typically require a doctor's recommendation – the claims settlement information of some insurers makes diagnostic tests conditional in every case on presenting a doctor's recommendation, and high-value tests on presenting a specialist's recommendation – and this recommendation can typically also be given by the specialist seen under the package, but this too depends on the policy conditions. The GP's role remains on the state side: the GP refers patients to state outpatient specialist care, certifies incapacity for work (sick pay), typically prescribes medicines subsidised by the state social-security system (TB), and manages the care of chronic conditions – the package does not replace this but complements it. It is worth stating this in a single sentence in the employee information leaflet: for a specialist, go through the care coordinator; for state matters (referral, sick pay, TB-subsidised prescription), go to the GP. How the state healthcare system treats the referral, test results and sick-pay recommendation of a private doctor seen under the package is covered in a separate article in our knowledge base.

Typically not: under Section 4(5) of the Act on health service employment (Eszjtv., applicable from 2021), a doctor in a health service employment relationship – that is, a doctor working in the state healthcare system – may not, within that service relationship, provide care to a patient whom he or she has already treated for the same illness in another relationship not covered by the Act – for example, in a private practice; the exceptions are emergencies, the cases specified in a government decree, and treatments started before 1 March 2021. In practice, this means that if the private doctor consulted under the package also works in a state hospital, he or she may not continue treating, in the state hospital, an employee whom he or she diagnosed privately with the same illness: the surgery or treatment in the state system is typically carried out by another doctor, or the treatment continues in private care – the private doctor's findings and recommendation can still typically be used on the state side (our separate article covers the acceptance of referrals, findings and sick pay), only the doctor cannot be the same person. The limits of the package come into play with the latter option: most company packages cover outpatient care and diagnostics, while inpatient and surgical care is included only at certain – typically higher – levels and with a limit, varying from insurer to insurer (our FAQ answer on inpatient care covers this), and surgery carried out privately beyond that is at the employee's own expense. From an HR point of view, it is therefore worth stating in advance in the employee information sheet: the package typically provides diagnostics available privately with shorter waiting times, and outpatient treatment; for major surgery, care continues in the state system with another doctor, and this is not the fault of the insurer or the clinic but a statutory rule.

An independent broker can only answer honestly: there is no single best. One insurer is strong for small groups, another in rural network coverage, another in executive or inpatient covers. We request offers from the insurers available on the market – typically from several providers – and whichever of them quotes for your headcount and profile, we set side by side in one table. I openly share at the consultation the experience drawn from my brokerage firm's portfolio and my own practice – claims practice, service quality, network reality; we deliberately don't publish a public ranking, because your interest is served not by a generic list but by an unbiased comparison tailored to your company.

Yes – this is the core of our service. We hand over the offers in a single, plain-language comparison table: premiums, package contents, network coverage, waiting periods, strengths and weaknesses. You do not have to line up nine PDFs and read policy wordings – we translate it all into decision-maker language.

After the data submission (headcount, age profile, requested tiers), how long the offers take to arrive depends on the insurers – usually 1–2 weeks – and we prepare the comparison table after they have arrived. How long the whole process takes from first call to employee briefing depends on the insurers' response times and the company's decision-making pace – we agree on the expected timeline at the consultation.

Roster changes are typically reported monthly with a simple list update towards the insurer – adding joiners, removing leavers. We give our clients a ready template matched to the insurer's format and a step-by-step process guide, we help HR with the first reports, where we can, and we help whenever something gets stuck. Employee data stays with you throughout and goes directly to the insurer - no unnecessary data transfers.

The time from the first call to the employee briefing depends on the insurers' response times and the company's decision-making pace – often a few weeks. We carry most of the process – your input is needed at the needs assessment and the decision.

Yes. This site and its articles are primarily about corporate group health insurance – that is our specialisation – but on request we also help private individuals, families and smaller companies find a suitable health insurance package.

Maintaining a continuous employment relationship is typically a condition for uninterrupted cover, but the exact rules – how long cover continues during an extended absence, and what happens afterwards – vary by insurer and by the policy terms. It is worth building this situation into your regular joiners-and-leavers reporting routine so no such case is left unhandled.

Yes, group contracts can be terminated by the deadline set out in the policy terms – typically at the next anniversary, in writing. If headcount falls, though, full cancellation isn't necessarily the only option: the scheme can often be restructured to a smaller group or a lower package tier – it's worth discussing this with us first.

If the company has a works council – under the Labour Code (Mt.), one has to be elected where the headcount exceeds fifty – it typically has to be involved before health insurance is introduced, changed or withdrawn; the question is on what legal basis. Under Sections 263–264 of the Labour Code, the employer and the works council decide jointly on the use of welfare funds, and on draft employer measures and regulations affecting larger groups of employees, the employer seeks the works council's opinion at least fifteen days before the decision. Whether the budget for group health insurance counts as welfare funds (in which case it is a joint decision) or, as part of the benefits system, is subject to consultation is a matter of interpretation – it depends on the source from which, and the regulations under which, the company finances it – so it is worth clarifying this with the company's employment lawyer before the contract is concluded or amended. Failure to consult can give rise to a collective labour dispute – under the Labour Code, a dispute over the use of welfare funds is decided by an arbitrator – and this is particularly sensitive when the benefit is withdrawn or the package tier is scaled back; it is therefore worth laying down in the benefits regulations who decides on the budget, and when and in what form the works council is involved – the mandatory elements of the regulations and how to update them are covered in separate articles in our knowledge base.