Health insurance and medical care in Malta

David Glassark Member

Member since 21 August 2023

David GlassarkMember26 October 2025 09:19:34

Hi folks,

My husband and I will be moving to Malta. We are a gay couple from the USA. We are very active in our community. We both speak English. I speak Spanish (Northern Mexico). My husband has limited proficiency in French and Italian. And we will be learning some Maltese, with the street address being my first challenge.

We hope to become involved in Malta. We have made a few contacts, but we hope to make more. We will both retired by the time we move here next year. We have started the legal residency (including the property purchase) journey and are moving along. We have a lawyer and realtor. We are planning to be in the Three Cities area. We love that area. We are interested in getting to know other expats. We also would like some insight from those who have lived experiences.

Healthcare: As retirees, we have preexisting conditions. We also are on some medications. We are Americans. We take pills. For USA expats we would like to know your experience with health insurance and medical care in Malta. We both will have Medicare. We will do our own homework, but your insights would be greatly appreciated. Also, how do the costs of medical care and prescriptions compare to the USA?

Pets: We will be bringing our two dogs. We will maintain a USA presence so we may want to travel with them if we will be there for an extended period. We will not walk away from the community we have worked to build. Each dog is about 20 lbs, so just a bit too big to fit under the airplane seat in a carrier. And having them in the hold is less than ideal. What has been your experience in traveling with dogs. We know the Queen Mary allows pets, but the sailings are quite limited. Thankfully inside suites are very affordable on transatlantic sailings.The shortest flights are from Boston and New York to Portugal. We thought perhaps the shorter flight then use the train and boat to get to Malta. Yes, we are dog people. Any experiences would be great.

We look forward to getting to know you and hearing your thoughts!

Dave

felixjer Member

Member since 29 September 2020

felixjerMemberToday 16:59:12

Hi Dave!

My husband and I will be retiring to Malta in the next couple years also. I'm a citizen now, and he will be soon, so we are in slightly different situations. However, I've researched the QM2 as well, since we'll be bringing over pets as well. On the QM2, it's a week's voyage to Portsmouth or Hamburg (if I'm remembering correctly). So even if you take your doggos over on the ship, you still have to get them into a plane or train across the continent. Plus, on the QM2, dogs have limited time out of the kennel -- they can't be in your cabin. For flights, we always fly from DC, connecting in Frankfurt or Munich. It's a long voyage. If you go the route of flying to Portugal and then getting into a train/car, that could work, though I'm not sure you can take a car from the continent onto the ferry to Malta. Plus, driving from Portugal to Sicily would be a super long trip. FYI, starting in June, Delta will start flying direct and non-stop from JFK to Malta, so that might be an option you would like to look into. For us, I've been thinking of getting our pets up to NYC into a pet-friendly hotel/AirBnb, then taking that single flight.

For healthcare, I've never had to get anything in Malta, so unfortunately I'm not a good resource to help you! Sorry! However, I do know that generally speaking, once you have your residency card, healthcare is supposed to be gratis at the governmental services buildings, i.e., the hospitals. But not so at private clinics. For prescriptions, I'm assuming it's the same, but better to check with someone who knows better. I also know that either Medicare or Medicaid does not work anywhere overseas, but I can't remember which.

I hope at least the first part was helpful!

Justin