Insurance for treatment in Georgia: the mandatory policy, its limits and reimbursement at home

What does the law require from 1 January 2026?

Article 12 of the Law of Georgia on Tourism is short: a tourist coming to Georgia must have mandatory health and accident insurance. The rule was originally due to take effect on 1 June 2024, but its application was postponed until 1 January 2026. The detailed rules are set out in Government Resolution No. 602 of 26 December 2025, which has applied from the same 1 January.

For the purposes of the law, a tourist is a visitor who comes to Georgia for business, leisure or personal purposes and stays at least one night but no longer than one year. A patient coming for treatment and their companion normally fall within this definition, so both need a policy.

The resolution sets several requirements for the policy:

• The sum insured must be no less than GEL 30,000.
• Cover includes health and accident risks for the whole visit, including the days of arrival and departure.
• The policy may be issued either by a Georgian insurer or by a foreign insurer licensed in its own country.
• The policy may be on paper or in electronic form, but it must be in Georgian or English.
• On entry, an authorised Border Police officer may check whether you have a policy.

The requirement does not apply to holders of diplomatic or special visas, holders of diplomatic, service and special passports, accredited diplomats and their family members, people entering under an international agreement, or drivers engaged in international freight and passenger transport. A patient coming for treatment rarely belongs to any of these groups.

How do you check whether your policy meets the requirements?

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a policy must clearly show the parties, the territory covered, the insured risks, the dates of validity and the sum insured. If you already have an annual travel policy or an international health policy, look for these five things in it before buying a new one.

Travellers entering on an e-visa may be asked at the border to present travel and medical insurance along with other documents, and any visa applicant needs a policy for the whole stay. We check the entry rules for your citizenship on our Visa and entry page.

Why does a travel policy not cover the treatment you came for?

Travel insurance is built around unexpected events: an illness that starts while you are travelling, an injury, an emergency admission to hospital. A planned operation or course of treatment is the opposite, because you knew about it before you bought the policy. That is why most insurers include an exclusion in their terms; the wording varies, but the substance is the same: travelling for treatment and its consequences are not covered.

In the "exclusions" section of a policy you will usually find clauses like these:

• travel whose purpose is to receive medical care;
• conditions that existed or were known before the policy started, and their flare-ups;
• non-essential, cosmetic or elective procedures;
• complications of planned treatment and its continuation;
• costs not agreed in advance with the insurer's assistance service.

The practical conclusion: you buy the mandatory policy to comply with the law and to be protected against an accidental injury or an illness unrelated to your treatment, for example if your companion sprains an ankle in town. The cost of the treatment itself has to be in your budget. Georgia's state Universal Healthcare Programme does not cover foreign visitors, so you draw up your cost plan using our Costs and payment guide.

Complications insurance: what to ask before you buy

Some insurers offer a product that covers complications of a specific planned procedure, sometimes by arrangement with a clinic. Such a policy is not mandatory and is not available on every market, so we can neither promise that one exists nor recommend a particular company. If you receive such an offer, whether from a clinic or from an insurer, ask these questions before you sign:

1. Who is the insurer?

   Find out the name of the insurance company, its country and its licence. A clinic's "guarantee" and an insurance policy are different things, and their terms are enforced in different ways.

2. Which complications are covered?

   Ask for a list or a definition. A general phrase such as "all complications" rarely means everything in the terms.

3. How long does it apply?

   Check whether it covers only the days you are in Georgia, or also a problem that appears after you return home, and for how long.

4. Which costs does it reimburse?

   Extra nights on the ward, a repeat operation, rebooking your flight, extra days for your companion, medical transport: ask for a separate answer on each, with the limit.

5. How is a claim reported?

   Which number you call, in which language, within what time and with what documents. If the assistance service works in only one language, you need to know that in advance.

If the clinic offers you its own terms on complications, for example providing certain additional services free of charge, that condition should become part of its written quote. We compare the clinics' answers on this point too, as part of choosing a clinic.

Will your insurer at home reimburse the cost?

In some countries, private health insurance, an employer's health scheme or the state system reimburses part of the cost of planned treatment abroad. These rules vary from country to country and from policy to policy, and we cannot advise you on them. But almost all such systems have one thing in common: they reimburse more readily when you obtained approval before treatment.

Before you travel, ask your insurer in writing:

• whether the policy covers planned treatment abroad and whether prior authorisation is needed for it;
• whether there are restrictions on the type of clinic, the country or the price, for example reimbursement only up to the tariffs in your own country;
• which documents it requires: a doctor's referral, the clinic's quote, an itemised bill, proof of payment, the discharge summary, the operation report;
• in which language the documents must be, whether translations must be certified and whether documents need an apostille;
• within what time you must submit the claim after you return.

Keep your insurer's reply and tell the clinic about its requirements in advance, so that the necessary forms and records are ready on the day of discharge. The discharge summary and other records are translated by our medical translation service, and an apostille on a document issued by a Georgian medical facility is affixed by the Public Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice, without a notarial step. Whether your country requires an apostille or consular legalisation you can check with our Apostille or legalisation? tool.

Companions, children and extended treatment: who needs which policy?

Mandatory insurance is individual. An accompanying spouse, parent or caregiver is a separate visitor and needs their own policy, even if they are coming for only a few days. When travelling with a child, the child must be insured too; if you buy a family policy, check that each member is named and that the GEL 30,000 threshold is met for each of them.

Treatment often takes longer than planned: the doctor may postpone your flight by a few days or prescribe an additional procedure. The policy must not run out while you are still in Georgia. You have two options: buy the policy with spare days from the start, or find out from your insurer in advance how it can be extended remotely before it expires. Bear in mind that a short-stay visa cannot be extended while you are in Georgia, so the policy's validity and your permitted length of stay need to be planned together.

What should you do if an insured event happens while you are in Georgia?

In a life-threatening situation, call 112 first: this is Georgia's single emergency number for the police, the fire service and the ambulance. Georgian law obliges a doctor to help a patient whose life is in danger or who needs emergency care. After that, as soon as possible, report the event to your insurer's assistance service; many policies make prompt notification a condition of reimbursement.

In every case, keep the doctor's report with the diagnosis, the itemised bill and the payment receipt. If you have the policy number and the assistance service's phone number both on your phone and on paper, one of them will always be to hand. How we act if something unexpected happens during your treatment is described on our If you fall ill in Georgia page, and the full list of documents to gather before you arrive is in our What to bring to Georgia guide.

Frequently asked questions about insurance