BRITS living in the southeastern Spanish region of Valencia have forced the local government to drop plans to strip thousands of expats of the right to public healthcare.

Millions of British retirees have moved to the Spanish coast in recent years, many lured by property developers’ promises of a sunny retirement home overlooking the Mediterranean in resorts like Alicante and Benidorm.

Bill Bridges was a policeman in Kent, England before retiring due to high blood pressure and moved to Spain five years ago, opting for Torrevieja in Valencia because of a generous local law offering free healthcare.

However, recent arrivals have placed such a strain on Valencia’s health system that the regional government said earlier this year it would scrap cover for foreigners - even if they hold resident status in Spain.

After protests to the British Embassy in Madrid, consular staff and the region have thrashed out a deal whereby an estimated 3,000 early retirees will continue to receive healthcare for a ‘reasonable and affordable’ price.

Bridges welcomed the regional government’s move, but said questions still remained about its use of free health care to lure sun-seeking northern Europeans.

Tricked

“The Valencian authorities certainly used the health system as an inducement to get us here,” he said.

“I feel tricked.”

Pensioners are covered by the European Union’s reciprocal health system, which means the UK picks up the bill for treatment, but the arrangement does not cover early retirees.

A draft directive published by the European Commission would allow patients throughout the EU to travel to other countries for treatment without authorisation from their own health authority.

Britain has opposed the proposal.

However Bridges says expats like him have fallen into a healthcare black hole: not entitled to treatment in Spain, nor the UK because he cannot receive a Spanish health card and therefore European health cover.

The British Embassy told early retirees to take out private health cover said Bridges, however insurers would not give him complete cover because of his health condition.

“What is really wrong is that the UK government have just washed their hands of us,” he said.

a ) Tinto de Verranos
( June 2008 was The first I heard of those Ever , but : as were recommended to me , prior to our recent visit to Andalucia , by a friendly , chatty Spanish traiteur-counter salesgirl , at our local Carrefour , here in Brussels ) :
I was paying 2Euros each ( ordinary 20cl/half-pint glass ) last month in Malaga , in some totally non-descript downmarket cafes around Carrefour centre commercial , near the airport ;
- granted , the drink/s would come with some ( very ) little tapas , but even those were not worth mentioning , ne'er mind nibbling on !
b ) in the hyper/super-markets we visited ( Mercadona , Carrefour , Sol , eroski ...) much of meat , ham , tinned stuff , bread , yoghurt , veggies , cheese , soft drinks , wine , sweets , pastries , cosmetics...were not better priced , if often less attractive or in significantly lesser assortment ,
than in ( supposedly : v. expensive ) Belgium , or France !!!
Aldi were all , without exception , very poorly stocked ,
Lidl : somewhat better , but still not ever once a patch even , on ours here , in Benelux , U.K. , France or Germany...
So , whoever just mentioned "pieces of string" , I couldn't agree more , in the context !
Having said that , it is ( yet again ! ) a grey , rainy 19c out here , another dull long weekend pending ( Mon. = another darn public holiday , of which Belgoes have many too-many ) so :
Maybe Spain , indeed : has a few good things going for it , after all
( but CoL not neccessarily being amongst the most attractive of them )?

Well, while there are a few things cheaper in the UK, by and large most day to day costs are cheaper.

My gas bill is just a few bottles a year, the electric will be savagely cut when I get the solar water in and my council tax is a savage £9 a month compared to £240 in the UK.

So who's footing the bill then?

Therefore , may I then conclude that the main savings would likely be in the costs of ( possibly : property ) and various utilities/property taxes ?

Food's cheaper too. And petrol.

The early retiree`s will be, similar to a private healthcare cost to them, until they reach retirement age.

Petrol : somewhat !
Diesel : hardly !
As for the food/groceries : if one could compare the "same for same" quality & choice vs. the actual cost , from my recent , albeit limited CdS experiences : I very much doubt Spain would come out a Winner !

On the other hand , how do you put a price on the weather ?
Daily Mail carried just such an ( arbitrary ) article , last week , and Spain came 1st in their perceived "quality of life" survey , which , alas : was based strictly on their combination of longevity plus "number of hours of sunshine" p.a.
( U.K. fared very poorly in both , ending 2nd last of the 10-or so EU-countries commented upon , France came 2nd from top and Italy was quite high , too...)
If the cap fits...?

Diesel was euros for pounds when we were last out, and again it depends what you compare. Seafood is streets better, fruit and veg deffo...

We were told that council tax is much cheaper in Spain than the UK but it hasn't really worked out that way for us. We came from Scotland where the water charge was still included in the council tax. Our council tax here is less but our water charges are high so we're actually paying about the same. Electricity is more expensive. We are paying about 3 times as much for phone and internet as in the UK. We have satellite TV here which we didn't need in the UK so that costs us more. I am below retirement age so have to pay for private healthcare - another additional cost as is running the pool which we didn't have before.

However we save a fortune on heating oil. We have a solar panel so we use almost no oil in the summer. Fresh food, especially fruit & veg is nicer & cheaper and we're buying wine at about 2 or 3 euros a bottle that costs about £5 on Tescos website, never mind about the price of spirits. Plus you can have a decent 'menu del dia' for what you might pay for a sandwich and a cup of coffee in the UK.

All in all we have a much better quality of life here but its not as cheap as we expected. From what I gather if we'd stayed in the UK we would have really had to tighten our belts.

Rose

Well, we get our water out the ground, but how much are they charging you for council tax?

Ours will drop from 240 to £9 a month in Spain. Agreed we will have to pay health care, but hell, the way prices are rising here.......

Hi all,
Don't forget to take into consideration the threatened increase in gas prices for the coming winter in UK. This is very high profile with the media at the moment. Originally they anounced gas prices would increase by 40% this winter!
Then the following week it went down to 20%, now this week we are advised prices due to increase between 67-70% over the next two years!
As if it's not bad enough already!
Chris XXX

Given the % of the year that we need fuel to warm the house in the UK, that is hugely significant.

Mrs Posh likes to collect these........

I prefer Bin Ladens.