Medical Care in Spain
One of the benefits of the EU is that reciprocal medical care has had the chance to develop over a long period of time.
Gone are the days when a 'foreign trip' entailed visits to insurance agents and the payment of a high premium. Now, all that is required, is an E-111 certificate which will guarantee the visitor to foreign climes that he/she will at least be catered for as well as the local population.
Nowadays, the local population is catered-for in an excellent manner. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has rated Spain as sixth in the world for health care. In Europe, only France can claim a higher rating.
Visitors are well treated. What about residents ?
Residents are divided into 3 'classes':
- Pensioners (women over 60 and men over 65), persons receiving long-term disability pension and persons working in Spain, but paying UK N.I. contributions can use the entitlement provided by the E121 form
- Those persons working in Spain, and paying Spanish social security contributions are covered for health care in the same way as every Spanish worker.
- Persons who have not reached the official retirement age can, under certain circumstances, claim health cover back from the UK under form E106 for a limited period, which cannot exceed a period of two and a half years. People in this category should (i) check their status with the DHSS and (ii) start making enquiries about private cover, as the Spanish authorities will not cover this situation.
A number of companies (e.g., BUPA, PPP and Sanitas) provide schemes to cover those persons who are not eligible under the reciprocal arrangements. If you feel that you are not covered, we advise that you contact them for details.
Links to other web sites:
As far as British nationals (and other nationals who are entitle to benefits in the UK) are concerned, the authoritative source is the Department for Work and Pensions. This site has an enormous amount of information; in order to help you find the relevant information, we have included these direct links.
Where you see this logo, the link is not a web page, but is a pdf file. In order to read these files, you will require additional free software which you can get here:
SA29 A leaflet issued periodically by the DWP and covers most of the questions in respect of health cover, pensions and other allowances while living abroad. This version was issued in September 2003. GL29 Another DWP leaflet dealing mainly with pensions and other benefits, including a section on the method of payment of these benefits. This version was issued in December 2003.
The EU website has a number of documents covering the general rules and agreements applicable to all countries in the EAA (the EU + Switzerland, Norway and Iceland).