Insurance Support for People and Businesses in Romania

Most people reach the subject of insurance in Romania because something else forced them to. A new arrival wants to know whether their employer’s payroll contributions have made them eligible for public healthcare. A student needs to know what the university will accept at enrolment. A family buying a flat finds out that home insurance is not entirely a matter of choice. A driver registering a car cannot finish the paperwork without motor liability cover. A company taking on its first staff needs to understand its own obligations as an employer.

These are separate systems. They have separate rules, separate regulators and separate paperwork, and mixing them up is both easy and expensive. Our job is to help you identify which system applies to you, what documents you will be asked for, and who is authorised to issue what you need.

What AtoZ Serwis Plus Does

• Explains how each type of insurance in Romania works, in plain language
• Helps you work out which types are relevant to your legal status and circumstances
• Sets out the documents an authorised provider is likely to request
• Assists with preparing, checking, translating and organising those documents
• Introduces you to insurers or authorised intermediaries so you can request quotations directly from them
• Helps you make sense of a policy document, a renewal notice or a request for further information
• Supports communication where language is a barrier
• Explains what the next administrative step is and who to contact about it

What AtoZ Serwis Plus Does Not Do

We are not an insurance company, insurer, broker, insurance agent, insurance intermediary, financial adviser or claims representative. We do not underwrite insurance, issue policies, set premiums, approve applications, guarantee cover, decide claims or pay compensation, and we do not give personalised regulated financial or insurance advice. Every policy is issued by an authorised provider on that provider’s terms, subject to its eligibility checks, underwriting rules and exclusions, and subject to Romanian law.

Before you buy any policy in Romania, check that the insurer or intermediary is authorised. The Financial Supervisory Authority (Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiară, or ASF) publishes public registers of authorised insurance companies and registered intermediaries. Registered distributors must state their ASF register code in their own documents and in correspondence with clients.

Types of Insurance in Romania

Start with one question: is this insurance you have to hold, or insurance you choose to hold? Almost everything else follows from the answer.

Compulsory Insurance

Optional Insurance

Whether a particular type of insurance is required in your case depends on your legal status, your assets, your activity and your contractual obligations. We can explain the categories. Only an authorised provider can confirm eligibility and issue a policy.

Health Insurance in Romania

Four quite different things get called “health insurance” in Romania. They are not interchangeable, and treating one as a substitute for another causes real trouble, both at the clinic and at the counter where an immigration or university file is assessed.

Public Health Insurance

Romania runs a social health insurance system, funded through the National Unique Health Insurance Fund and administered by the National Health Insurance House (Casa Națională de Asigurări de Sănătate, or CNAS) through the county health insurance houses. It is not a commercial policy. Insured status normally follows from your circumstances: from an employment relationship and the payroll contributions that go with it, from other income on which the health contribution is due, from a declaration filed with the tax authority if you have no qualifying income, or from belonging to a category the law treats separately.

Insured status provides access to the basic package of medical services provided under contract with health insurance providers. You can check whether you currently hold that status through the CNAS online verification service. Bear in mind that the rules on who owes the contribution and who is exempt have been amended more than once in recent years. Confirm your own position with CNAS or your county health insurance house rather than relying on older guidance you find online.

Insured status also entitles you to apply, free of charge, for a European Health Insurance Card. That card covers medically necessary state-provided treatment during temporary stays in other EU and EEA countries, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Private Health Insurance

Private health insurance is a commercial contract with an authorised insurer. It carries its own premium, its own list of benefits, its own network of accepted clinics, its own exclusions, and usually its own waiting periods and restrictions on pre-existing conditions. It does not replace the public system,  and it does not give you public insurance status. Nor does it open the door to every medical service, every hospital or every specialist.

Medical Service Subscriptions

Many Romanian private clinic groups sell subscriptions, often through employers. A subscription is a contract for access to that cclinic’sown services on agreed terms. In most cases, it is not an insurance contract; it is not supervised as insurance, and it falls outside the guarantee arrangements that protect insurance customers. If your employer tells you that you have “medical insurance” at work, find out whether you actually have a subscription or a policy. The two behave very differently when something goes wrong.

Travel Medical Insurance

Travel medical insurance covers medical emergencies during a defined trip, within a defined territory, for a defined period, usually with repatriation provisions. It is not built to provide ongoing healthcare in the country where you live.

How These Differ

For official information on public health insurance, insured status, the basic service package, and the European Health Insurance Card, visit CNAS directly. No private policy gives you public insured status automatically, and no private policy satisfies every immigration, employment or university requirement automatically.

Insurance for Foreign Workers in Romania

Foreign workers often end up holding several forms of cover at once, bought at different times for different reasons: a medical policy taken out for the visa application, public insured status that begins once employment starts, and perhaps a private policy or clinic subscription offered by the employer. Each has its own start date, expiry date, and scope, and gaps between them are common.

What Employers Should Verify

• That the employment relationship is registered and that payroll contributions, including the health contribution, are being declared correctly
• Whether the worker holds insured status in the public system, and from what date
• What the employer’s own duties are on workplace safety, occupational risk and any group cover offered
• Whether a group medical benefit is an insurance policy or a clinic subscription, and what each one actually covers
• Which documents will the worker need for a residence permit application or extension, and what are the deadlines involved?
• Whether any cover ends automatically when employment ends, and what the worker should be told about that

What Workers Should Verify

• Your public health insurance registration, and the date your insured status began
• The exact start and expiry dates of any private or travel policy you hold
• The territorial scope: whether cover applies only in Romania, across the EU, or more widely
• Exclusions and waiting periods, especially for pre-existing conditions, dental care, maternity and chronic treatment
• Whether the clinics and hospitals you are likely to use actually accept the policy
• What the immigration authorities require for your permit type at your stage of application
• What happens to your cover if you change employer, lose your job or leave Romania

No single policy satisfies all work permit, visa, residence, employment, and healthcare requirements at once. Requirements differ by permit type, by stage of application, and by the authority reviewing your file. Confirm what is needed with the General Inspectorate for Immigration and with CNAS, then confirm the scope of any policy with the insurer that issued it.

Insurance for International Students in Romania

What a student needs depends on nationality, the length of the stay, and the individual university’s own rules. Check all three before you buy anything.

EU, EEA, Swiss and UK Students

• If you remain insured under your home country’s statutory scheme, a European Health Insurance Card gives you medically necessary state-provided treatment during your temporary stay in Romania, on the same terms and at the same cost as people insured here.
• Your own national health insurance provider issues the card free of charge before you travel. Never pay a third-party website for it.
• The card is not travel insurance. It does not cover private healthcare, repatriation, lost property or return travel costs.
• If you are moving your habitual residence to Romania rather than staying temporarily, a different mechanism applies. Ask your home insurer and CNAS about registering here.

Non-EU Students

• Romanian rules on foreign nationals require proof of medical insurance for long-stay study visas and for residence permit applications and extensions. The evidence accepted depends on the permit type and the stage you have reached.
• Romanian health legislation treats students below a defined age who earn no income as a distinct category within the public system. Whether you fall within it depends on your age, income, and enrolment, so confirm with your county health insurance office rather than assuming.
• Your university may set its own conditions for enrolment, including a minimum sum insured or a minimum validity period.
• A travel medical policy bought for the journey itself is frequently too short and too narrow for a residence application. Check the required duration first.

Confirm current requirements with three sources before you pay for anything: your educational institution, the General Inspectorate for Immigration for the permit, and CNAS or your county health insurance house for public insured status. Then ask the insurer to confirm that the policy you are considering actually meets those requirements.

Travel Medical Insurance

Travel medical insurance is bought for a specific trip. It matters most to visitors coming to Romania, to Romanian residents travelling abroad, to anyone travelling outside the area that a European Health Insurance Card covers, and to applicants whose visa file must show documented medical cover.

What to Check Before Buying

• Territorial validity: which countries and regions are covered, and whether your destination and any transit country are included
• Policy duration: the exact start and end dates, and whether they span the full period an authority requires
• Medical emergency cover: what counts as an emergency, and the limits per event and in total
• Repatriation: whether medical repatriation and repatriation of remains are included, and on what conditions
• Deductible or excess: the amount you pay yourself before the insurer contributes anything
• Exclusions: commonly certain sports, alcohol or drug-related incidents, undeclared activities, war zones, and travel against medical advice
• Pre-existing conditions: whether they are excluded outright, covered only in an acute emergency, or covered after a declaration and possibly an extra premium
• Claims documentation: what the insurer will want to see, such as original invoices, medical reports, a diagnosis, prescriptions, and police reports where relevant
• Notification deadlines: how quickly you have to contact the insurer or its assistance line

Buying a travel medical policy is no guarantee that an embassy, consulate, immigration office or border authority will accept it. Acceptance is that authority’s decision, made against its own current criteria. If you are buying for an application, check the required minimum sum insured, territorial scope and validity period with the relevant authority first, and keep the full policy documentation with your file.

Motor Insurance in Romania

RCA: Compulsory Motor Third-Party Liability Insurance

Asigurarea RCA is compulsory under Romanian law for every vehicle registered in Romania. It exists to compensate other people for injury or damage caused by the insured vehicle. It does not pay for damage to your own car, and it does not cover the injuries of a driver who caused the accident.

• Driving without valid RCA is an offence. Penalties include a fine and retention of the registration certificate and number plates until you produce evidence of valid cover.
• RCA is also required at points in the vehicle administration process, including registration.
• You may hold the policy on paper or in electronic form.
• Romanian RCA cover extends across the EU on a third-party liability basis, and the Green Card system handles travel beyond it.

CASCO: Optional Comprehensive Motor Insurance

CASCO insurance is typically optional and covers damage to your own vehicle. Unlike RCA, it is not standardised by statute, so two policies sold as CASCO can differ substantially in what they cover and what they exclude.

The differences usually show up in the same places: whether theft is included, whether natural events such as hail and flood are covered, whether vandalism is covered, whether repairs must go to an authorised dealership or can go to any workshop, whether original or equivalent parts are used, how depreciation is applied, the size of the deductible, and how drivers not named on the policy are treated. Comparing CASCO offers based solely on premium will mislead you.

A lender or leasing company may require CASCO as a condition of finance. That is a contract term, not a legal obligation.

How Premiums Are Set

Each insurer sets its own premiums using its own tariff and risk assessment. Rating factors usually include the vehicle itself, where it is kept and used, the declared drivers and their record, the claims history held in the national database, and the cover, limits and deductible you choose. We do not publish premium figures or estimates. Prices move; they differ from one insurer to the next, and only the insurer can quote for your actual situation.

Checking a Policy and Driving Abroad

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Romania (Biroul Asigurătorilor de Autovehicule din România, or BAAR) is the professional association of insurers writing compulsory motor liability cover here. Its statutory roles include acting as the national Green Card bureau, running an information centre and compensation body, administering the guarantee fund for damage caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles, and developing and administering the national RCA contract database.

That database is AIDA. Through the public AIDA interface, you can check whether a registration number has a valid RCA policy on a given date, which is worth doing after an accident involving another driver. AIDA also supports the claims-history certificate used in bonus-malus calculations. If the data shown does not match your own documents, contact the insurer that issued the policy, since insurers are responsible for the accuracy of what they report.

BAAR also handles border insurance for vehicles entering Romania without cover recognised here.

Home and Property Insurance

PAD: Compulsory Home Insurance

Romanian law requires owners of buildings recorded as dwellings with the tax authorities, in towns and villages alike, to insure them against three natural disasters: earthquake, landslide and flood. The policy is called PAD and is issued through the Natural Disaster Insurance Pool (Pool-ul de Asigurare împotriva Dezastrelor Naturale, or PAID).

• The law classifies dwellings into two construction types and sets the compulsory sum insured and annual premium for each type. These are set by statute rather than negotiated with the insurer, and amending legislation revises them from time to time. Check the current figures with PAID or ASF rather than trusting any estimate published elsewhere.
• PAD covers damage to the building itself from those three perils. It does not cover contents, furniture, appliances, or personal belongings, and it excludes the everyday risks most people associate with home insurance.
• Where a dwelling is in shared ownership or forms part of a condominium, the law sets out how the obligation applies.
• Compensation under PAD is capped at the statutory sum insured for that dwelling type.

Optional Home and Contents Insurance

An optional home policy (asigurare facultativă de locuință) is a separate commercial contract, and it can extend much further: fire, explosion, water damage from your own pipes or a neighbour’s, storm, theft, breakage, contents, and civil liability towards third parties, depending on what the particular policy includes.

Where the same disaster risks appear in both policies, the optional one usually responds above the statutory PAD limit rather than duplicating it. Exactly how the two interact depends on the wording of the optional policy, so ask the insurer to explain it before you sign.

Not every building requires PAD, and not every property qualifies for every optional policy. Insurers apply their own acceptance criteria based on construction, age, condition, location, use and previous claims. Insured risks, exclusions, deductibles, the valuation method and the conditions for compensation all come from the policy wording and from Romanian law, not from any summary on this page.

Business and Employer Insurance

What a company needs to insure follows from what it actually does: its activities, premises, workforce, assets, vehicles, contracts, and regulatory obligations. There is no standard package, and any provider offering one should be asked why.

Contracts with clients, landlords, lenders and public authorities often impose their own insurance conditions, sometimes with a minimum sum insured. Read those clauses before you arrange cover. Which policies your business is legally obliged to hold is a question for your legal and accounting advisers and the relevant authority. We can help you organise the enquiry and the paperwork around it.

How Our Support Process Works

1. You submit an enquiry. Use the form on this page or contact our team directly, and briefly tell us what you need and why.
2. We identify the insurance need and the legal context. We establish which system applies to you: statutory, commercial, employment-related or immigration-related.
3. We explain the documents required. You receive a clear list of what an authorised provider is likely to ask for in your case.
4. We help you review the options available from authorised providers. We explain how the types of cover differ so you can ask the right questions.
5. You receive the relevant policy information. It comes from the provider as product information documents, terms and pre-contractual documentation.
6. You check the cover, exclusions, costs and conditions. We can help you read the wording. The decision stays yours.
7. The application goes to the authorised provider. We can help you put together a complete and accurate file.
8. The insurer or authorised intermediary makes the decision. Acceptance, pricing and conditions rest with them alone, under their underwriting rules.
9. Policy documents are issued upon acceptance of the application. The contract is between you and the provider.
10. You receive guidance on records and contacts. We explain what to keep, when to renew, and who to contact about claims, changes and complaints.

At no point do we underwrite, price, approve or decline anything. Steps eight and nine belong to the authorised provider.

Documents That May Be Requested

Requirements vary widely by policy type, provider, and your own circumstances. Nobody is asked for everything below. Treat this as preparation, not as a checklist.

Identity and Status

• Passport or Romanian identity document
• Romanian personal identification number (CNP), if you have one
• Residence permit, registration certificate or visa, where applicable
• A Romanian address, with proof of it

Employment, Study and Income

• Employment contract, employer certificate or payslip
• Enrolment certificate or student card
• Evidence of public health insurance contributions or insured status

Vehicle

• Vehicle registration certificate
• Driving licences of the drivers to be declared
• Previous policy or claims-history information
• Technical inspection documentation, where the insurer asks for it

Property

• Ownership documents or an extract from the land register
• Construction type, age, surface area and use
• Tax records showing the property’s registered residential designation
• Any policy already in force on the same property

Business

• Company registration details and identification code
• Description of activity and the relevant activity codes
• Employee numbers and roles, where the cover relates to the workforce
• Asset schedules, premises details and equipment lists
• Contracts that impose insurance conditions
• Previous insurance and claims records

Risk Information

• What is to be insured, and against what
• Health declarations or medical questionnaires for health, life and accident products
• Travel details for travel products
• Any further declaration the provider requests

Whatever you tell an insurer must be complete and truthful. An inaccurate or incomplete declaration can affect both the validity of the contract and the outcome of a claim.

How to Compare an Insurance Policy

Price on its own tells you very little. These are the points that decide whether a policy will do what you expect of it when you need it.

• Authorisation: is the insurer or intermediary listed in the ASF public registers, and does it quote its register code?
• Scope of cover: precisely which events are insured
• Sum insured: the maximum payable, in total and per event
• Premium: the total cost, the payment schedule, and any charge for paying in instalments
• Deductible: what you bear yourself before the insurer contributes
• Exclusions: what the policy will not pay for, set out in the exclusions section of the wording
• Waiting periods: how long before particular benefits become available
• Territorial limits: where the cover applies
• Cancellation: how and when either side can terminate, and what refund follows
• Renewal: whether renewal happens automatically, and how the terms may change
• Claim notification: how, and how quickly, you must report an event
• Supporting documents: what the insurer will require at claim stage

Read the full policy wording before you commit, not just the summary or the product information document. If a clause is unclear, ask the provider to explain it in writing before you sign.

If You Need to Make a Claim

What follows is general information about how claims processes usually work in Romania. It is not advice on your particular claim.

• Contact your insurer as soon as you can after the event, using the details on your policy.
• Respect the notification deadline in your policy wording. Reporting late can affect the outcome.
• Have your policy number to hand.
• Keep the evidence: invoices, receipts, repair estimates, photographs, medical documents, prescriptions, accident statements and police reports where relevant.
• Follow the insurer’s official claims procedure and use its official channels.
• Give complete and truthful information. Withholding or misstating facts can affect the validity of the claim.
• Keep copies of everything you send and a record of every conversation.
• If the insurer asks for more documents, respond within the deadline it gives you.

AtoZ Serwis Plus does not decide, approve, reject, assess, adjust or pay insurance claims. Those decisions belong to the insurer, under the policy terms and Romanian law. We can help you understand correspondence you have received and get your documents in order.

If Your Insurer Becomes Insolvent

The Policyholders’ Guarantee Fund (Fondul de Garantare a Asiguraților, or FGA) is a public-law body that protects insurance creditors when an insurer becomes insolvent. Where ASF establishes the insolvency of a Romanian insurer, or of a European insurer operating here through a branch, insurance creditors can submit a payment request to FGA under the administrative procedure set out in law.

Payments are made within a legally fixed guarantee ceiling for each insurance claim, and within the resources the Fund holds at the time of payment. Deadlines apply for submitting requests once the ASF decision is published. FGA publishes its current procedures, forms and deadlines on its own site, and those are the authoritative source.

If You Disagree With Your Insurer

Raise the complaint with the insurer or intermediary first, through its own complaints procedure. If that does not settle matters, two further routes are open to you.

ASF supervises the insurance market and receives consumer petitions about the entities it supervises. SAL-Fin is the alternative dispute resolution entity for the non-banking financial sector, set up within ASF, and it handles consumer disputes over life and non-life insurance, investments and pensions. The procedure costs the consumer nothing, is conducted in Romanian, and ends in either a proposed or an imposed solution, depending on the procedure you choose. SAL-Fin will normally turn a case away if you have not first tried to resolve it with the trader, if a court or another dispute body is already handling it, or if you are outside the applicable time limit. Going to SAL-Fin does not take away your right to go to court.

Official sources for verifying providers, checking your status and understanding your rights. Always treat these as authoritative over any summary on this page.

• Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiară (ASF) — supervises insurers and intermediaries; publishes the public registers and receives consumer petitions.
• Casa Națională de Asigurări de Sănătate (CNAS) — public health insurance system, insured status, service packages
• CNAS insured status check — verify whether you hold insured status
• Biroul Asigurătorilor de Autovehicule din România (BAAR) — Green Card bureau, information centre, compensation body, border insurance
• AIDA — national database of compulsory motor liability policies; check RCA validity by registration number
• Fondul de Garantare a Asiguraților (FGA) — protection for insurance creditors where an insurer becomes insolvent
• SAL-Fin — free alternative dispute resolution for non-banking financial disputes, including insurance
• General Inspectorate for Immigration — residence permits and the medical insurance evidence required
• European Commission — European Health Insurance Card
• Your Europe — health cover for temporary stays
• Your Europe — car insurance validity in the EU