The State System
The state healthcare service provides free or subsidised medical and dental treatment, including care and treatment by GPs and consultants, hospital care, laboratory services, subsidised prescription medicine, maternity care, surgical appliances and ambulance transportation.

Employers must register their employees with the Portuguese social security fund and make regular payments to the social security fund known as the segurança social. Dependant family members are covered by the contributions paid by employed family members. The unemployed, old age pensioners and people on long-term sickness benefit or maternity leave do not have to pay healthcare contributions. If you are self-employed, you need to get additional insurance to cover members of your family.

Foreigners immigrating to Portugal without jobs must produce proof of private health insurance in order to obtain their residence permit if they are not contributing to the social security fund. They also need to apply for a medical card from the local health centre, which proves your entitlement to free or subsidised care. You can only apply for this card once you have a residence permit and social security card, which you will be given at the time of your registration being accepted.

EU citizens who have paid continuous social security contributions in their home country for two full years before immigrating to Portugal are entitled to state healthcare for a limited period. You must prove that you have made continuous contributions by obtaining for E106 from your home social security authority. EU citizens and those from the European Economic Area (EEA) can make payments to their home countries social security systems and still use the Portuguese state system.  Again, you will need to obtain relevant forms proving payment back home.