The social security identification card or social security card, comprises:
- a national side for use in Luxembourg (called the 'Grand Duchy of Luxembourg social security identification card') and
- a European side for use abroad, which is the same in each Member State (called the 'European Health Insurance Card' or EHIC).
The national side confers entitlement to cover for services such as healthcare, maternity and dependency care in Luxembourg. The card must be presented to all healthcare providers or suppliers (doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, etc.).
The European side confers entitlement to cover for emergency or immediately necessary healthcare during a temporary stay in a European Union (EU) country, a European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland. Information on cover for healthcare abroad can be found on the National Health Fund (Caisse Nationale de Santé - CNS) website.
Persons concerned
Each person affiliated with the social security, as a principal insured (personally insured person) or a co-insured person (dependent of the insured person), are entitled to a social security card.
How to proceed
Obtaining a social security card
The card is issued automatically by the Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS) when the principal insured is first registered and sent by post to their official residential address.
The card is issued within 3 weeks:
- to the principal insured when they first register with the CCSS
- to co-insured persons, pensioners, beneficiaries of a replacement income (e.g. unemployment benefit) on application to the competent health insurance fund, namely the National Health Fund (Caisse nationale de santé - CNS), the Health Insurance Fund for Civil Servants and Public Employees (Caisse de maladie des fonctionnaires et employés publics - CMFEP), the Health Insurance Fund for Communal Civil Servants and Employees (Caisse de maladie des fonctionnaires et employés communaux - CMFEC) and the CFL Health Insurance Fund (Entraide médicale des CFL - EMCFL).
In an emergency, a provisional certificate may be requested from the competent health fund.
For persons who are co-insured as dependents of cross-border workers certain conditions must be met.
For children born in Luxembourg, co-insurance is automatic and the card is sent without any formalities.
Use of the card
The Luxembourg social security card is strictly personal to the person in whose name it is issued.
Any fraudulent use of the card may lead to prosecution.
Validity of the card
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg social security card is only valid as long as the holder is affiliated with the social security.
The validity of the European Health Insurance card is limited and may not exceed the expiry date on the card.
Renewing the card
Persons with a European card which is about to expire will automatically receive a new card 2 months before it expires.
If the card does not arrive within this time frame, you should check that the correspondence address held by the CNS is correct before ordering a new card.
Loss/theft of a card
If a card is lost or stolen, a new card can be ordered.
Provisional social security card replacement certificate
In an emergency, a provisional replacement certificate may be requested from the competent health fund via MyGuichet.lu. This certificate will be issued immediately and is valid for no more than 3 months from the date of its issuance.