The yellow health card (sundhedskort): replacing it, the app, and what to do when you move

What is the yellow health card, and what is on it?

The yellow card — sundhedskort, formerly sygesikringsbevis — is the document that proves you are covered by the Danish national health insurance scheme (sygesikring). It carries your name, address, CPR number, your insurance group and the name and address of your own doctor sundhed.dk.

You are expected to bring it to your GP, a specialist, a dentist or dental hygienist, a physiotherapist, a chiropractor, a psychologist, a pharmacy, a hospital — and to the municipality borger.dk. Many libraries also use the card’s barcode as a borrower card, which is why people notice a missing card at the library before they notice it at the doctor.

Two things the card does not do. It is not valid outside Denmark — for treatment in an EU/EEA country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein you use the blue European health insurance card, which you order separately borger.dk. And the card proves insurance, not identity in the strong sense: it has no photo, so it will not replace a passport or driving licence when you need photo ID.

Who gets one, and when it arrives

Everyone registered with an address in Denmark is covered by the health law and gets a card borger.dk. It is issued by your municipality of residence, and it is tied to the healthcare part of the arrival sequence: first the CPR number, then the card.

Once you have registered, the card is posted to your Danish address. Life in Denmark says to allow two to three weeks after registration Life in Denmark; sundhed.dk’s own wording is “about two weeks” sundhed.dk. Treat three weeks as the planning figure and tell your employer or study place if you need documentation sooner.

The card covers you from the moment you are registered, not from the moment it lands in the letterbox. While you wait, your municipality can issue a free temporary proof — immediately, at the desk, if you need to see a doctor sundhed.dk.

How do you order a new or replacement card?

Ordering is digital and there is no paper form: you use the Bestil nyt sundhedskort self-service on borger.dk or your municipality’s own self-service borger.dk. You need MitID. If you cannot use the self-service at all, your municipality’s Citizen Service can help, but book an appointment.

In practice:

1. Log in to the self-service with MitID.
2. Check that your name, address, doctor and insurance group are what you expect. If something is wrong on the card, the fix belongs at Citizen Service, not in the ordering form.
3. Order the card, and pay by card if a fee applies.
4. Wait about two to three weeks. If you need proof of cover before then, ask your municipality for a temporary proof, which is free sundhed.dk.

Age rules that surprise people: from 15 you order your own card, and a parent can order for a child living at home until the child turns 18 borger.dk. Children under 15 are normally registered with a parent’s doctor, and a child can only be given a different doctor with the consent of the parent who has custody sundhed.dk.

What a new card costs — and when it is free

A replacement costs 40 kr (2026) when sundhed.dk, borger.dk:

• the card has been lost;
• a card less than four years old is damaged;
• you choose a different doctor or insurance group — a doctor change is itself 40 kr (2026) unless you are moving;
• you change your name, unless the change is made at marriage.

It is free when:

• it is the first card issued to you;
• you move to a new address;
• you change CPR number;
• your doctor closes their practice or their practice is split;
• a card more than four years old has cracks or breaks;
• the magnetic strip is defective through no fault of your own;
• you change your name at marriage, as long as the name change happens at the wedding or within three months of the wedding date;
• you turn 15 and switch doctor within 60 days of your birthday.

Two details worth knowing. Most municipalities take payment by Visa/Dankort, and if you have no Danish card you have to ask the municipality how to pay borger.dk. And when the change comes from the system’s side — a move, a doctor closing, a new CPR number — the new card is sent automatically; you only have to act when the card itself is lost or broken.

The Sundhedskortet app: what it does, and where it fails

The Sundhedskort-app is a free, voluntary digital version of the card, and it has the same legal status: it is valid documentation of your right to treatment, in the same way as the plastic card borger.dk. It is developed by the Danish Agency for Digital Government with the Ministry of Health, Danish Regions and Local Government Denmark.

To set it up you need a registered address in Denmark, MitID, and to be in insurance group 1 or 2 borger.dk. You can install it on up to three devices; installing it on a fourth removes it from the first. The app is in Danish and English, and you use it the same way as the plastic card: you scan the barcode on your phone at the desk Life in Denmark.

Your details update themselves in the app when you move, change doctor or change your surname, which is the real advantage over plastic: nothing has to be reissued. Parents can see their children’s cards in the app until the child turns 15, and from 13 the child can log in to their own with MitID borger.dk.

Where it fails, and why you should still keep the plastic card:

• Some scanners cannot read a screen. Clinics with magnetic-stripe readers, and some self-service doors at libraries and recycling stations, only take the plastic card borger.dk. Not being scannable does not remove your right to treatment, but it makes the visit slower.
• It is valid in Denmark only. For travel, use the blue EU card.
• It is not available with the special health card issued to cross-border workers.
• If your phone is lost or stolen, reset the card in the app menu or through the self-service on borger.dk, and use the plastic card until the new phone is set up.

One technical detail that catches people who have replaced their phone: the app requires iOS 15 or newer on iPhone and Android 10 or newer borger.dk. Support is with the Agency for Digital Government’s shared support on 33 98 00 91.

Can you drop the plastic card entirely?

Yes, that is now an explicit choice. If you opt out of plastic, you keep the card you have but stop receiving a new one when you move, change your name, get a new CPR number, change doctor or insurance group, or your doctor changes address borger.dk. You make the choice in the app or in the self-service, and you can reverse it at any time; after that you get plastic cards again automatically.

Three consequences worth weighing before you opt out. Your old plastic card keeps working — the barcode contains only your CPR number, so a card showing an old address or a former surname still scans — unless you change CPR number, at which point the old card is dead. If you later want a plastic card anyway, you can order one for 40 kr (2026), and that order does not change your opt-out, so you will not get the next one automatically. And if you have no passport or driving licence, the plastic card is what you need to obtain a new MitID activation code after losing a phone borger.dk.

If you work in Denmark but live abroad

If you live in another EU/EEA country — Malmö is the obvious case — and work in Denmark, you are not registered in the CPR register and do not get the yellow card. You may instead be entitled to the special health card (særligt sundhedskort), which gives you the Danish health service on the same terms as residents borger.dk.

• It is free, and you apply on borger.dk; the card arrives in about three to five weeks.
• It is valid for at most two years, and you must order a new one yourself about a month before it expires, if you still qualify.
• You are not attached to a named doctor, whichever insurance group you choose.
• It cannot be loaded into the Sundhedskort-app.
• A replacement after loss costs 40 kr (2026).
• Udbetaling Danmark handles the scheme, on 70 12 80 81.

If you later move to Denmark and register, you get the ordinary yellow card instead.

Moving house, changing your name, losing the card

The card is tied to your CPR registration, so most changes happen without you doing anything: move to a new address and a new card is issued free, and if you change your name at marriage within three months of the wedding the replacement is free too borger.dk. Change your name at any other time and it costs 40 kr, though some municipalities waive it.

If the card is simply gone, order a replacement and use your CPR number at the desk in the meantime. If you need a document — for an employer, a school, an appointment — ask the municipality for the free temporary proof.

When you leave Denmark

Your cover, and with it the card, ends when you are no longer registered in the CPR register. If you are leaving for more than six months you must report your departure to your municipality before you go, digitally, and you do not need to know your foreign address to do it borger.dk.

Copenhagen’s Citizen Service asks you to hand in the health card when you report the move, and charges 1,279 kr (2026) if you report the move after your departure date Københavns Kommune. Other municipalities run their own handover, so check yours rather than assuming; do not post the card anywhere before you have reported the move.

If your stay abroad is temporary and you keep full disposal of your home, you can ask to stay registered in Denmark, and then you keep your card too.

For what the card actually buys you — group 1 versus group 2, what is free, the out-of-hours doctor and what dentistry costs — see how the Danish healthcare system works.