Fonasa or an Isapre, never both

Chile’s public health insurer is the Fondo Nacional de Salud (Fonasa). Its private insurers are the Isapres, the instituciones de salud previsional. The Superintendencia de Salud oversees both. Dependent and independent workers, retirees and people without resources can belong to Fonasa, and a person can be in only one system at a time: Fonasa and an Isapre, like the armed-forces schemes, are mutually exclusive.

Fonasa places members in income brackets, and care is free for the lowest brackets, A and B, and for members over 60. A worker can apply online, at a Fonasa or ChileAtiende branch, or by video appointment, using their national ID number (RUN) or the ClaveÚnica government login. ChileAtiende lists foreign nationals covered by international social security agreements, refugees and undocumented foreigners among the groups Fonasa accepts.

The worker’s 7%

Every dependent worker must pay 7% of gross taxable pay to the insurer they choose. The contribution belongs to the worker and is withheld through payroll, and the taxable pay it is based on is capped; ChileAtiende gives the cap as 90 UF per month in its 2026 guidance. Check the current figure before payroll starts.

A worker who picks an Isapre plan that costs more than the 7% pays the difference as an additional contribution. Whatever else is added as a benefit, the 7% itself still goes to Fonasa or an Isapre.

The employer’s share: Ley 16.744

What the employer pays is work-accident and occupational-illness insurance under Ley 16.744. The Superintendencia de Seguridad Social describes a basic contribution of 0.90% of taxable pay plus an additional rate set by the risk of the activity, up to 3.4%, as of 2026; check the current figure for your employee’s work. Employers that do not join a private mutual, a mutualidad, are covered by the public instituto de seguridad laboral (ISL).

This cover is its own legal duty. Health insurance for the employee, local or international, does not satisfy it.

GES guarantees and family members

The explicit health guarantees, Garantías Explícitas en Salud (GES), cover a list of 90 conditions in both Fonasa and the Isapres, with guaranteed access, maximum waiting times, quality standards and a cap on out-of-pocket cost. Fonasa members pay nothing for GES care. Isapre members pay a share of each GES service and a separate charge for GES on top of their plan.

A Fonasa member’s legal dependants, the cargas, such as a spouse and children who meet the rules, are covered too. In an Isapre, adding a dependant can raise the cost of the plan. Isapres may end a contract only in limited cases, for example false information in the health declaration, and Fonasa has no such grounds.

Adding cover above the 7%

On the employer side, a 2024 ruling from the tax authority, SII Ord. N° 679, reproduced in a legal database, says premiums an employer pays for complementary health insurance for staff can count as the employer’s general expenses.

Insurance from abroad follows the insurance law, DFL 251. As quoted in a regulator letter and a legal database, article 4 lets anyone freely buy insurance abroad, except insurance a law makes mandatory and pension-system insurance under DL 3.500, which must come from companies established in Chile. Article 46 bars foreign insurers from offering or selling insurance in Chile, directly or through intermediaries, apart from specific international marine transport cover. Read that way, a resident may hold a policy bought abroad, but a foreign insurer may not market or sell one inside Chile. The current official wording and the regulator’s view on health plans in particular have not been confirmed. Our overview of international health insurance for remote employees compares how global plans are treated elsewhere.

Entity, EST or EOR

Chile’s legal staffing model is the empresa de servicios transitorios (EST) under Ley 20.123 of 2006. The Dirección del Trabajo and the plain-language guide from Chile’s national congress library (BCN) explain that an EST is the employer of the workers it supplies, but only for listed reasons and limited periods: generally 90 days, or 180 days for new projects and newly started companies, with no renewal in the 180-day cases.

Those limits make the EST model a poor fit for an open-ended remote role. Weigh a local entity against an EOR with local legal advice in Chile, and settle the employee-side tax treatment of any complementary benefit in the same conversation. For the wider comparison, see health coverage for EOR employees and contractors abroad.

Requesting an introduction from Mithril1

The form on this page is the starting point. Let us know which Chilean region your employees live in, how many work for you there, whether each one is with Fonasa or an Isapre, and how you employ them. Mithril1 passes the request to a benefits partner that handles international and remote-team health coverage, and eligibility, plans and pricing are then for the partner and the insurer to decide. The section hub, employee benefits for small businesses, links every related guide.

A few useful answers

Common questions

Does an employee in Chile choose their own health insurer?

Yes. Every dependent worker pays 7% of gross taxable pay to Fonasa, the public insurer, or to a private Isapre, and can belong to only one of them at a time.

Does the employer pay the 7% health contribution?

No. The 7% is the worker’s contribution, withheld through payroll. The employer pays the work-accident and occupational-illness contribution under Ley 16.744.

What do the GES guarantees cover?

A list of 90 conditions in both Fonasa and the Isapres, with guaranteed access, maximum waiting times, quality standards and a cap on out-of-pocket cost. Fonasa members pay nothing for GES care.

Can foreign insurers sell health insurance in Chile?

DFL 251, as quoted in legal databases, bars foreign insurers from offering or selling insurance in Chile, directly or through intermediaries, apart from specific international marine transport cover, while article 4 lets a resident buy non-mandatory insurance abroad. Check the current text with a local adviser in Chile before relying on it.

How long can a staffing company supply a worker in Chile?

An EST under Ley 20.123 can supply workers only for listed reasons, generally for up to 90 days, or 180 days for new projects and newly started companies, with no renewal in the 180-day cases.

International Health Insurance for Remote Employees in Chile