Expat insurance and health insurance in Liberia

Liberia still has no generalised national health insurance scheme. A first bill on the matter, the Liberia Health Equity Fund for Universal Health Coverage (LHEF) Bill, accompanied by the framework of the future Health Equity Authority of Liberia (HEAL), was only formally submitted to the presidency on 22 June 2026 by the Minister of Health; President Boakai was then reviewing it with his advisers before transmission to Parliament for debate, public hearings and a possible vote — the text is therefore at this stage neither adopted nor applicable, and its timeline remains uncertain. In the absence of generalised public cover, the care offer relies on a strained public sector and a limited private and faith-based sector. The John F. Kennedy Medical Center, in the Sinkor district of Monrovia, is the national reference public hospital: opened in 1971 after American (USAID) funding obtained following a meeting between presidents Tubman and Kennedy, it has a design capacity of 500 beds and receives patients referred from all fifteen counties of the country. On the private side, ELWA Hospital, in Paynesville near Monrovia, is a faith-based hospital founded in 1965 by the organisation SIM (Serving In Mission); it was, in March 2014, the site of Monrovia's first Ebola treatment unit, the country's largest during the epidemic, before being rebuilt and reopened in November 2016 (Samaritan’s Purse funding) as a full 100-bed facility. Neither facility replaces cover recognised in France or a medical repatriation contract.

• Mandatory visa before departure: application to be filed with the relevant Liberian embassy (failing a local representation, through the online platform of the Liberia Immigration Service), according to France Diplomatie. Passport valid at least 6 months after the return date and a return ticket required.
• Yellow fever: mandatory vaccination, a condition of entry to the territory, to be done at an approved centre at least 10 days before departure.
• Malaria: present across the entire territory; a travel medicine consultation before departure is recommended to define appropriate chemoprophylaxis.
• Vaccinations recommended depending on exposure and length of stay: hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever, tuberculosis (children under 15), rabies, as well as chikungunya, dengue and mpox depending on the epidemiological context.
• France Diplomatie describes taking out an assistance contract covering medical costs and emergency medical evacuation as imperative, since these costs can under no circumstances be covered by the embassy.
• Currency: mandatory declaration above 10,000 USD imported.

Other health risks flagged by France Diplomatie: dengue and chikungunya (possible transmission, vector protection recommended), Zika (particular precaution for pregnant women), Lassa fever (inland counties and Monrovia, contact with rodents or contaminated food), typhoid fever “increasingly common in Monrovia” according to France Diplomatie, and a risk of Ebola re-emergence considered possible even though the end of transmission of the 2014-2016 epidemic was declared by local authorities and the WHO in 2016.

No bilateral social security agreement between France and Liberia has been identified. CLEISS does not list Liberia among the countries that have concluded such an agreement with France, unlike neighbouring or nearby countries such as Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin or Cape Verde.

• No form for maintaining French rights applies to Liberia.
• No coordination between the two schemes for sickness, maternity, old age, disability or family benefits.
• Affiliation with the CFE or taking out international private insurance remain the only routes to cover recognised by a French system, regardless of profile.
• In the absence of any national Liberian health insurance scheme to date (bill not yet adopted), no local registration can substitute for this cover.

• Before departure: request the visa (Liberian embassy or the Liberia Immigration Service's online platform), check passport validity (6 months after return) and the return ticket, and take out an assistance contract covering medical costs and medical evacuation, given the absence of any France-Liberia coordination and local national scheme.
• Before departure: a medical consultation/vaccination centre visit for yellow fever (mandatory, at least 10 days before departure), and depending on exposure hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever and rabies, as well as to define appropriate antimalarial chemoprophylaxis.
• Voluntary affiliation with the CFE recommended given the absence of any health coordination and of an operational national Liberian health scheme.
• On arrival: register with the roll of French nationals living abroad, with the French consulate general in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), the only consular district competent for Liberia, since the French embassy in Monrovia has no consular section.