Healthcare in Luxembourg: how to find a doctor and who will pay for treatment
Medical care in Luxembourg is available to everyone regardless of nationality. However, this system has a number of special features.
Healthcare is one of the key issues that sooner or later affects everyone. And although medical care is available to everyone in Luxembourg, it is not always easy to access. We spoke to our readers and collected some interesting stories.
How to make an appointment
- The easiest way to make an appointment is through Doctena.lu. This is an online platform where you can sort specialists by the language they speak and choose a suitable slot.
- Sometimes, a doctor's profile is on the website, but there are no appointments available. That's a shame! But at least you can see what the doctor looks like. Appointments are usually booked several days in advance, or even several weeks in advance for dentists.
- And even all of the above does not always work. For example, I have a unique case, so regular doctors would not be able to help me, but I will talk about that separately.
How health insurance works
- The state reimburses a significant portion of the costs, but not all of them. For example, I felt down in the winter. It wasn't depression, but I had no energy for anything. I made an appointment with a therapist on Doctena. He examined me and sent me for a blood test. I paid €49 for the appointment on the spot. Once I got home, I sent the receipt to the CNS, and they reimbursed me 80%. They didn't charge me a penny for the test itself, because it was covered by the referral.
It turned out that my vitamin D levels were low, so they prescribed a higher dose, I took it, and now I feel better.
- You are correct in noting that insurance does not cover, but rather reimburses. This means that you will have to pay the full amount out of your own pocket at the appointment and then sort it out later. Incidentally, if the bill is more than €100, you do not need to send a letter to the CNS; you can go there in person and request reimbursement on the spot.
Just keep in mind that they won't give you the money like that. Get a cheque, take it to the post office, and cash it there. I'm not sure if this works at every branch, but I just happen to have one near my house that handles financial transactions.
How to get your eyes tested in Luxembourg
- I have already been to the ophthalmologist twice. I will have to go again soon because my vision has deteriorated again.
I made an appointment in the usual way, through Doctena. However, ophthalmologists have a long waiting list, sometimes up to a couple of months. The procedure itself is quite simple. First, an assistant examines you. I don't know what he does with the equipment. Probably looks at the fundus.
After that, the doctor himself sees you. He checks your eyesight, writes a prescription for glasses if you need them, and discusses the situation in general. He told me before that we would stop the decline in my eyesight and that I could have surgery. But it hasn't come to that yet because my eyesight continues to deteriorate.
With the prescription, you have to go to the optician, pay, and then the CNS will reimburse you. I may be confused here, because I also have private insurance. Together, they covered almost the entire bill.
In total, we bought glasses for my husband for €750. Or were they mine? I don't remember. Probably my husband's, because they are somehow special.
How to get dental treatment in Luxembourg
- Almost the same as everything else. I go to the dentist every six months for a cleaning. Last time, I also had to have a tooth repaired. In the end, it cost me about 200 euros.
I paid and went to the CNS. At the branch closest to me, there are days when you can go without an appointment, just take your place in line. I was lucky because there was no one else in the office, so I got my cheque quickly.
- In my case, things aren't so straightforward. My wife had a toothache once, and she was practically climbing the walls from the pain. And to be honest, I thought there was emergency help available for such cases.
No way! You have to wait for the clinics to open or go to the hospital. Only there, the dentist works from 2 to 6 or so.
In general, there is a problem with public clinics in Luxembourg; there are more private ones. In the end, we went to a private clinic, where my wife's tooth was treated. We paid around €450 for this. €250 has already been reimbursed, and another cheque is being reviewed by the CNS.
How to treat unique cases
- Oh, that's my area of expertise! While you can go to a general practitioner for more or less understandable illnesses, there are also cases where specialised help is needed. I have had problems with dizziness for a long time. It got particularly worse after I moved. It got to the point where I couldn't even stand up. At a regular clinic, they just threw up their hands. Fortunately, the general practitioner referred me to a specialist.
It's a private clinic that specialises in problems like mine. I went there and spoke to the doctor. He's a really cool guy, and it turns out that his office is pretty much the only one in Europe with the equipment that's needed.
We conducted a bunch of tests with different devices. At one point, they poured two solutions into my ears, one after the other — cold and warm. First into the right ear, then into the left. When the solution is poured in, you should feel dizzy. I felt dizzy in one ear, but not in the other. That became the marker of the problem.
I was already delighted that I would soon be cured, but that was not the case. The doctor explained to me that he himself calls this field of medicine alchemy. The problem exists, as is well known, but so little has been studied that no specific treatment for my case has yet been devised.
As a result, I now have a lot of exercises to train my vestibular system. I am currently doing them.
I must say that it is VERY expensive there. Fortunately, my company provides insurance that covered all the expenses!