Paul Bass

Can anyone please advise on how to get health insurance that will meet the requirements for a spanish visa (visado de residencia no lucrativa)? My wife and I are retired and currently resident in the UK but spending more and more time in Spain and it seems these visas are the only way to avoid the 90 days in 180 limit. All I know is we need a 12-month policy sin copagos/without copayments but a) can we pay monthly? b)what does the policy have to cover and c) what are the best places to look for suitable and affordable policies? Buying the insurance in Spain seems the best bet but this is Catch 22 as it seems we have to stay in UK until we get the visas.

Joppa

You must have paid a year's premium in advance.

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b)what does the policy have to cover

In short, everything including all your existing conditions, with no excess. If you have serious medical conditions, getting affordable cover may be difficult.

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and c) what are the best places to look for suitable and affordable policies? Buying the insurance in Spain seems the best bet but this is Catch 22 as it seems we have to stay in UK until we get the visas.

Yes, there are several Spanish policies specifically for visa/immigration purpose. Sanitas does several, as do other companies. If you know where you will be living, a regional company may offer more competitive cover. Ask here for advice. Getting cover in advance of your move to Spain is not a problem, but should your visa be declined, you may not get your premium back.

Barriej

a) Nope you have to pay upfront for the first year (BUT all the policies we looked at are jan 1st - Dec 31st) so if you take one out in August you only pay for the months till December (the policy has an auto renew). After that some companies allow you to pay monthly.
b) must cover EVERYTHING have zero co-pay 9its like an excess), and its getting harder, we arrived around this time last year and had the policy already. When we applied for residency in November the policy certificate, the complete wording of the policy, a letter from the company all had to be submitted. And they do check them as someone we know had theirs refused as it had a clause not covering a heart murmur. We also had to fill in a health questionnaire and give permission for our Uk doctor to be contacted (which they will do the first time you try to claim)
c) Most of the big healthcare companies will have a residency policy. Make sure you see the full policy wording before signing up. We have Aegon who are a large company here in Spain but you only get the paperwork in Spanish. Which also is needed for the Visa as well.

Im assuming that you have a location already picked out (if not even a place here already) I might suggest you come out and visit a couple of Gestor's and see who they recommend, you will need one anyway as you have to file for residency within a month of your arrival.

I can recommend a company but they are based near Albir and can do healthcare, car insurance etc. We are not with them yet but will be when re renew at the end of the year.

Paul Bass

Thanks a lot for the info. If you can recommend a company by all means please send me the details! My Spanish is good so documents in Spanish is fine, though for if face-to-face appointments are needed we will be in the Nerja/Velez Malaga region.

Paul

Lou71

I hadn't realised so much had changed. We certainly didn't pay a year's premium in advance and they did not write to our doctor in the UK either.

We are were originally with DKV but Adeslas offered us a better deal so we switched about 12 years ago. I have to say that private health insurance in Spain is brilliant and the health screening facilities are superb.

We pay about €170 per month for two people and it covers everything apart from dental care. I think the excess is something like €3.00.

Barriej

Beneficial Insurance Services in Spain

They are considered good round here and use various suppliers for the health insurance and can sort most stuff out.
I was going to use them for my car insurance this year but I complained to Linea Directa and they dropped the quote.

A lot of the local Solicitors recommend them.

And they have a UK number..

Paul Bass

One more question if anyone can help. Can we apply for and use S1 forms for future years ( we are both pensioners) for extension of residence visas or will we have no option other than to renew the private health insurance?

Barriej

Yep no problem there.
Once resident you can apply for the S1 and then use it for your healthcare once you renew.

astera

What are the major differences between the companies? Take Mapfre and Sanitas for instance - what sets them apart when you are offered what seem to be very similar products (no excess, seemingly covering all the basics, etc.)?

I'm quite unsure what to look at to be honest. Apart from what they cover do I compare their networks of signed-up hostitals and clinics? I know that Sanitas only covers private hospitals but what if I'm in an accident and taken to a public hospital. Would I get treated as uninsured and have a huge bill to pay?

Do I look at the phone ap which seems to be the way people use Sanitas to find specialists and book appointments? Or do all companies have similar features? Are some companies easier to deal with when booking appointments? Or maybe clinics prefer some cards over others in terms of billing?

Right now for a family of 4 we are looking at 150 EUR/mth for Mapfre and about 200 EUR for Sanitas. Also, is annual billing something that these companies require (all have so far mentioned that monthly is fine) or something that is required for residence - in other words residence will be rejected if payment is not settled on an annual basis?

astera

Btw, has anyone done a general comparison between Sanitas and Adeslas?

Fred James

The most important things to check are how much will they pay towards "prosthetics" which mean anything they leave inside you such as hip joints, stents, pacemakers etc. Also how many days are covered in ICU and are all drugs administered in ICU covered. Also are chemotherapy drugs taken at home covered.

el barto

You need to show 1 year paid for insurance. Monthly is not accepted as there would be nothing stopping you cancelling it after 1 month once you got your visa.

astera

Thanks guys. I don't think there's any way I can look through all the small print at these companies but I assume their products are universal throughout the country so if something is covered then that applies to all regions.

Are there any "traps" anyone has noticed in any of the main policies in terms of ICU, chemo, etc. that might make a huge difference later on in life? Also, what is you have an accident and end up in a public hospital but it turns out the insurance only covers private ones... does the gov't then come after you for money?

I'm really looking at Adeslas and Sanitas at the moment as the only viable options. Has anyone dealt with either or possibly both of them in the past?

Fred James

No the coverage may be very limited in terms of your choice of specialists. I have a policy that basically covers me in Málaga province although there is an element of “ travel” cover. That suits me as I am unlikely to need better cover. As for limitations, I needed a pacemaker. That cost me €12000 on top of the insurance. A friend who was insured with Sanitas needed an ICD pacemaker/ defibrillator was which cost him €30000 personally.

Lynn R

When I needed surgery to repair my mitral valve, the surgeon could not give a 100% guarantee that he would be able to repair my own valve (although he thought it was likely). If during the operation he found that he couldn't, I had to consent to him putting in a replacement valve instead. Because the insurance company wouldn't cover the full cost of the replacement valve should it have been needed (€4,000) I had to pay that sum to the hospital upfront, and it was refunded to me after the surgery because it didn't have to be used. Rather stressful which I could have done without on top of the worry about the operation itself.

And these kinds of things don't apply only in Spain. My brother has private heath insurance with BUPA via his employer, in the UK. When he needed spinal surgery he had to pay 1,000 pounds out of his own pocket as the insurer said the surgeon's fee for the operation was higher than the limit they would pay - they said he should either "negotiate" a lower fee with the surgeon or find a different surgeon who charged less. And the surgeon he'd chosen was one in one of BUPA's own hospitals.