Health insurance is a condition, not a formality

What you need to do

Insurance is easily taken for a domestic purchase: arrange it when you get round to it. In fact it sits in the middle of the chain, and the steps before and after depend on it.

In some countries a residence permit is not issued without it. In others enrolment is not completed. Somewhere registration with the state health system runs through a separate authority and requires a residence permit already granted; somewhere else the application is filed before arrival.

Which means each country's correct order is its own, and it must be established together with the visa requirements, not after them.

Three different mechanisms

1. Insurance for the visa. Needed for entry and usually covering the first period. Not the same as insurance for the duration of study.
2. The state system. Joining it is a separate procedure, sometimes through a tax or other authority, and usually after legalisation.
3. A private policy. Where the state system does not cover an international student, or does not cover them immediately.

Confusing them is expensive: a policy bought for the visa does not make you part of the state system, and joining the system does not replace the entry policy.

What goes wrong

It is left as the last item on the list. It turns out the earlier ones do not move without it.

The cheapest policy is bought without checking the requirement. The requirement is phrased in coverage and term, not in money, and a cheap policy often fails it.

Student status is assumed to include insurance automatically. Somewhere it does, somewhere it does not, somewhere it does after a separate registration.

Age and income conditions go unnoticed. In some systems they change both the entitlement and the price.

Where this is stated officially

• NFZ — Poland's health fund: the student's guide to insurance.
• Agenzia delle Entrate — the Italian agency: registration with the national health service.
• Étudiant.gouv — the French student portal: social security and medical expenditure coverage.

How to check the requirement is still current

Check on the site of the system you are joining rather than with an insurance intermediary: the intermediary sells a policy, the state sets the condition.

Amounts and deadlines by country are collected below, each with its source and verification date.