Health insurance in Spain

After moving to Spain one of the next steps to take is to care about your health and the preventive care. The European health insurance card is fine for traveling and short term stays, but if you came to Valencia to live, it is no more an option. You can choose from public health care, private health insurance or apply for public health insurance throw the form S1.

Public health care

Not everybody living in Spain has automatically right to get the sanitary card (tarjeta sanitaria) and access to the public health care. The basic requirement to get the sanitary card is working contract in Spanish company or being self-employed (Autonomo) in Spain and Spanish social security number. You also need the empadronamiento and in the town hall they will tell you which health center (centro de salud – CAP) corresponds to your address. In CAP you need to present these documents:

• Passport
• NIE Card
• Empadronamiento
• Social security number
• Work contract
• or Autonomo docs.
• Health insurance
  

Private health care

There are many offers for private health insurance from very cheap ones to exclusive premium insurance policies. When contracting health insurance, be aware of various things:

• Insurance with co-payment (con copago) – these are very cheap policies, but every time you go to the doctor you have to pay a certain percentage for the examination or intervention. Also, be aware that the health insurance valid for the immigration office or if you want “residencia” is the one without co-payment (sin copago)  and “completo”
• Insurance only with NIE – some health insurance companies will sign a contract with you only if you have a NIE. Some of them are OK with the temporal NIE, some require the residency NIE card
• Payment of the whole year at once – be aware that if you don´t have a NIE yet, the insurance company might ask you to pay for the half year or whole year at the beginning of the contract to assure themselves that as soon as you get your NIE you don´t stop paying the policy.
  

Form S1

Another way to access public health care is to throw form S1 (formerly E106). This form certifies you work in another country than you live and you have a right to access health care in both countries (within EU countries). The S1 form is issued by the social security authority in the country where you work (you have to prove your Spanish address – empadronamiento should work as proof). As soon as S1 is issued take it to the Instituto nacional de la seguridad social (INSS) in Valencia. And they will issue a document proving your right to access public health care in Spain. Which this paper you can go to your closes CAP and follow the instructions for public health insurance above. You can find more information about useful EU forms for moving within the European Union on Europa.eu web page.

Not sure how to apply for public health care in Spain? Don’t hesitate to contact us!