teejaydee

Two quick questions regarding health care in Portugal please. I know this topic has been covered extensively in other threads so please don't feel obliged to repeat what has gone before.

1. Comments have been made in earlier threads about difficulties in some areas (e.g. the Algarve) in registering with the state health service. Can someone confirm that, in spite of any local difficulties, it is the right of a UK citizen (even under the age of 65) to be registered. If I have difficulty registering, am I able to stand my ground and insist on being registered?
   
   
2. If I opt to additionally take out private health insurance, is the annual premium likely to increase markedly as I get older? This is a big problem in the UK, with many people having to allow their health insurance to lapse due to increasing premiums as they age. By contrast, in some countries government controls ensure there are no age-related increases. I am wondering what the situation is in Portugal?

Many thanks.

Loafing Along

1. Yes but will reuire determination

2. Yes and many portuguese policies just seem to be not interested in insuring "the elderly" , they only run until 65 years / 70 years.

liveaboard

My private health cover through AFPOP/ Medal is for life, but you have to start before age 70.
Premium rise is limited; I'm not sure of the exact formula but they promise it doesn't go crazy.

We have been using this as our primary cover, including many tests, consultations, and a couple of surgeries at the private hospital.
If you can afford the expense, I recommend it.
There is an annual spending limit and Ukram reports the private hospitals don't have oncology departments, probably because most patient's cover wouldn't cover the cost.

As residents [regardless of age or working status] we qualify for free public health cover and are registered for that as well.
The public health number gives us steep discounts on prescribed meds; very significant if you have diabetes or other conditions that require continuous medicating.

Ukkram

We were first denied SNS cards and now 3 years later we got it with no problems whatsoever.

Most private insurance co's do not insure people over 65 or 70 and your insurance with them will cease at that age.
However, you can get insured with Allianz via AFPOP at a reduced rate and if you do and you are under 65 or 70 (I forget) there will be no age limit.

Unfortunately most medical insurance co's do have age brackets for premiums. We pay € 1 300 odd pa but it must be the whole amount in advance for the full year.

Naaling

My main concern with private health insurance is how they deal with pre-existing conditions. When a person gets to 65 most conditions can be classified as pre-existing, whether they know about them or not.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Ukkram

Allianz has a list of health conditions in the contract that were noted by you at the beginning of the contract and only those health conditions will be pre-existing. Nothing new will ever be added.

liveaboard

"preexisting" is defined as pre-diagnosed.
If you don't know you have it, you don't have it.
The Allianze insurance through AFPOP has been very good about paying claims, but do take note of the restrictions; HIV, Hepatitis, work related injuries, and some others are not covered. Psychiatry not covered, maternal care not covered.

carvoeiro

Health insurance and cover in the public health system here is very straight forward
Lmao - if you are a full time employee - public or if you are under 65-70 and are paying privately
otherwise its totally a lottery depending on which region you live in as to what the local social segunda - social security offices will tell you - often totally different things
we arrived here with an S1 - my wife has an uncurable cancer - both early retirees - LoL - my wife is in fact over the original pension age but fits into the WASPI category - over 60 but not a pensioner - im according to the S1 rules her carer but under pension age
they basically didnt have a clue what to do
We own two houses here and originally went to Faro - who told us we are both covered and will be in the system - they then decided our other home was in fact our main residence and told us we had to go to Setubal - a 5 hour round trip
they originally had 3 meetings with us - times 5 hours driving and eventually agreed we are both covered - eventually sent a utente number - when you have this you are in - only for my wife - i rang - wrote - emailed and never got a reply - eventually with my residency certificate etc i went to my local doctor and was given a piece of paper that allows me emergency treatment at hospital only
6 years later and having taken out private cover that lasts until i am 70 ive given up

we know people over pension age in the Algarve with health concerns here both legally and otherwise some with private health cover and some without who have all simply given up and returned to the UK because of this - pre the Brexit nightmare - god alone knows what the answers would be now

Ukkram

We have private health care but the treatment we got at the Gov hospital in Porto was more than superb.
My wife also has cancer and she will be booked into a hospice center next to the Oncology Hospital for a month and a half with 3 meals a day for free as she undergoes treatment.

Over weekends she will be transported home for free by bombeiros and back again on Mondays.

I'm sorry you are having a hard time but I'm just happy that we are here in Portugal and not in the UK.

teejaydee

Many thanks to all who replied. The information given is very helpful.

I would like to offer my sincere best wishes to Ukkram and of course, his wife. Any serious illness diagnosis is always a shock, but it seems your wife will be well treated and hopefully you can take some degree of consolation from that.

GeniB

I would suggest that you join AFPOP and ask their advice.. You can't claim on the Portuguese national health unless you can prove you have paid in another country first.
You take all your 'proof' and documents to the social security office and they give you a document to prove your now in the system. You take that to the Centre do Saude and they will give you a card on the strength of that document.
Indeed we have tried twice to register but the queues for attention have been humungous. (unfortunately a certain Dutch gentleman 'culled' 350 medical practitioners from nurse's to Doctors during the recession and took them back to NL. seriously depleting the Algarve) We do however have cover with Allianz through AFPOP . if you are under 65 yrs we would urge you to do the same.

Oncology is not covered in private hospitals in Portugal. Altho treatment can be given at some private hospitals I believe

Ukkram

My wife is South African and state healthcare is almost free for any resident including SA Portuguese.

Perhaps due to the fact that SA has an agreement on state healthcare with Portugal is the reason she was given a SNS Card.

There are no monthly payments for state healthcare in SA and no health cards are issued.

liveaboard

We were not asked for any proof of insurance anywhere before our PT health application; I think that was before the rule change, when UK [and other] people were getting PT insurance on the back of bilateral agreements between countries.
The UK NHS used to pay the costs for UK citizens who had paid into the NHS and retired in Portugal.
That agreement ended way before Brexit was voted on.
Now Portugal has changed their policy too, and ALL residents regardless of where they're from or what their hair color is, or whether they currently work, are eligible for state health cover. They have closed the hole some people were falling through, and I applaud the Portuguese state for this. The Americans should have a squint at struggling Portugal, who somehow finds a way to give all their people this vital service.

That's what was said. There might be some glitches down at your local office; at ours, we were apparently the first people to register without a social security number and the clerk had to call for guidance. She did, and it was done.

AFPOP has the rule, page number, and references to quote in case your local office is stubborn about not updating their procedures.

rhody

Does anyone know how one is treated when moving to Portugal from another EU country (with EU citizenship) and is taking a very expensive medicine prescribed by doctors in the home country? I've searched for the medicine on Inframed and it's listed there but with no price. My biggest concern is that the medicine is not currently prescribed under the Portuguese health care system and no private insurance will touch it as they will consider it a pre-existing condition and exclude it from any policies.

I did go to a private doctor for a simple problem during my last long visit to the Algarve but she had never heard of the medicine. It's been approved in the EU since 2015 though. My next step is to try and contact a specialist in Lisbon that would definitely know of the medicine and ask if they are prescribing it.

GeniB

I think you will be doing the right thing to check first. Different countries with different medical systems have different budgets. Portugal is very keen to get costs of super expensive drugs down.(they see no need for them to be so expensive) They are looking at using more Generic forms.
A friend of mine was being treated with a highly expensive cancer drug in Singapore. When he returned to the Netherlands the Dutch medics refused to prescribe it.They put him on another cheaper drug that actually ran counter to his condition.. Not a good idea to risk these things. He had no idea that would be the case