They were also handing them out during Covid, we went to get one but were told as we had private cover it was not for us. I was told at the medical centre to go back to the Uk if I wanted treatment.
I know of a couple of people who have successfully renewed the temp SIP card and still have one..

I have spoken to the solicitor who does all of our stuff about the 'free' healthcare and she laughed saying that she gets a couple of people a month asking about the info on the Uk Gov website.
She has enquired at the foreigners office in Alicante and was told in no uncertain terms that the 'free' is for poor people and both documented and undocumented asylum seekers.

Anyone who has come to Spain and complied with its residency requirements will have had to have shown or proved a form of healthcare whether paid for or supplied via the home nation. (S1)
Any application at the five years or later would be refused due to the fact that you can and should be able to pay going forwards.
My assumption is that the OP will be told to go on to the convenio if they wish to stop paying via autonomo.
I do wonder though about all the wasted money paying for a pension that they might not ever be able to claim having paid this way.

Dont know how autonomo works, but once in the convenio, should you stop or have a payment refused you loose all coverage fairly quickly.

They will still get a portion of a Spanish pension provided they have some years in UK which is aggregated to get them over the 15 year qualifying limit.
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