Before you start

OIB and residence permit
Employment with Croatian payroll, or another basis for HZZO cover
Registration with a chosen general practitioner (izabrani liječnik)
Supplementary insurance, in practice

Step-by-step

1
Confirm HZZO registration through your employer
Employment triggers compulsory health insurance and HZZO registration. Check in your first month; registration for a foreign employee can lag behind the first payslip and the gap is invisible until you need a doctor.
Via employerWho: YouFirst month
2
Register with a chosen general practitioner
The izabrani liječnik is the gateway to referrals, prescriptions and sick notes. You choose a practice and register with your HZZO details. Without one you have insurance but no route into the system.
In personWho: You
3
Buy supplementary insurance
Dopunsko zdravstveno osiguranje covers the participation charges that basic HZZO cover leaves you paying. It is inexpensive, available from HZZO itself and from private insurers, and is held by the large majority of Croatian residents. Buy it as a matter of course rather than deliberating.
OnlineWho: You
4
Arrange private cover if you are on a nomad permit
Digital nomad permit holders are outside the HZZO system and must hold health insurance valid in Croatia for the duration. That requirement is not a one-off application formality — it is your entire cover for eighteen months.
OnlineWho: You
5
Get the EHIC once insured
Insured residents can obtain the European Health Insurance Card for necessary treatment across the EU and EEA. Free, and useful given how close Slovenia, Hungary, Austria and Italy are.
OnlineWho: You
6
Know where the emergency route runs in Zagreb
112 dispatches emergency medical services; 194 reaches the ambulance service directly. Zagreb's clinical hospital centres take the serious cases. Private clinics will not handle an emergency and will refer you on.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

HZZO health card
OIB and residence permit
Supplementary insurance policy
Chosen doctor registration
EHIC, once issued

Things most newcomers don’t know

Supplementary insurance is not optional in practice, and newcomers routinely skip it.

Basic HZZO cover leaves the patient liable for participation charges on a wide range of treatments — specialist visits, diagnostics, some prescriptions. Dopunsko osiguranje covers those charges for a modest monthly premium and the large majority of Croatian residents hold it. Someone who assumes compulsory national insurance means free treatment, as it broadly does in Romania or Bulgaria, gets an unexpected bill at the first specialist appointment.

Source: HZZO

A digital nomad permit puts you entirely outside the public system for up to eighteen months.

The nomad permit requires health insurance valid in Croatia as a condition of grant, precisely because holders are not in HZZO. That means the policy you buy to satisfy the application is your actual cover for the whole stay, and the cheapest policy that clears the application bar may be a poor answer to a serious illness. Buy for the eighteen months, not for the form.

Source: MUP — digital nomad requirements

The chosen-doctor system means your GP is a specific named person you select, and changing is a procedure.

Croatia does not assign you a practice by catchment; you actively choose an izabrani liječnik and register with them, and switching later is a formal change rather than simply walking into a different surgery. Because referrals, prescriptions and sick notes all flow through that one relationship, choosing someone with capacity and, if you need it, English is worth doing deliberately rather than picking the nearest sign.

Source: HZZO

Zagreb's hospital estate was itself damaged in 2020, and some services are still displaced.

The March 2020 earthquake damaged hospital buildings including maternity and paediatric facilities, forcing evacuations at the time and prompting relocations that in some cases persist. Reconstruction of public-sector buildings is running alongside the residential programme with a 2030 target. It is worth confirming where a given department currently operates rather than trusting an older address.

Source: Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating supplementary insurance as an optional extra and meeting participation charges at the counter.
Never registering a chosen doctor and having no route to a referral.
Buying the cheapest policy that satisfies the nomad permit application rather than one that covers you.
Assuming a first payslip means HZZO registration is complete.
Turning up at an old hospital address for a department that was relocated after 2020.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.