Prescriptions in Spain
 

Hi All I am looking at moving to Spain in the next 3-5 years and have a quick question, my wife has a prescription in the UK for medication and was wondering how you go about getting medication in Spain and how do you get signed up at a doctors surgery if you are going over on a non working visa I cannot seem to find information on this.

Any information provided would be most welcome.

Best Wishes Rick

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

The first question we need to ask is whether either of you will be pensioners when you move here as this will affect how you go about gaining medications.

Rosemary

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Hi Rosemary thanks for the reply, we will be round 48-50 years old when we move.

Regards
Rick

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

In that case you will need to have private medical insurance. If you type that into our search facility you will find that it has been discussed many times before so there is plenty of information in the forum.

Rosemary

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Thanks Rosemary

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

How it works when you have private medical insurance is as follows. Each insurance company has a "cuadro medico" ie a directory of which clinics, specialists and hospitals you are authorised to use. You consult that to find a clinic or doctor in your area and contact them to make an appointment. You don't register with a doctor as such, you could consult a different one each time if you wished (and often even if you go to the same clinic you don't necessarily get to see the same doctor). The doctor will issue a private prescription which you then take to any farmacia to get filled. Medications are dispensed on a monthly basis, so if it is for something you take on a regular basis, the farmacia will give you back the prescription along with the first month's medication and you then need to take it back each month thereafter. With private health insurance you have to pay 100% of the actual cost of the medication (if registered with the public health system you pay a portion of the cost, depending on income if you are of working age and if a pensioner, 10% of the cost, but capped at €8 per month for pensioners with an income of up to 18k per year and €18 per month for those with incomes between 18 and 100k). I believe there are some policies which include reimbursement for the costs of medications, but only for a proportion of the cost and with an annual limit on the amount that can be claimed. Of course this type of policy will carry a higher monthly premium.

As your wife needs regular medication she will of course need to declare whatever pre-existing condition she has on the application you make to the insurance company for cover. Depending on what the condition is and the policy of the insurance company, they will either charge a higher premium for this or exclude it from the policy altogether (which could cause a problem when applying for a visa).

After having been officially resident in Spain for at least 12 months (and having private medical insurance for that time in your case) there is the option in most of Spain's autonomous regions to pay into the public health system under what is called the Convenio Especial. This currently costs €60 per person per month for those aged under 65 and €157 per person per month for those aged 65 or over. However this does not include the cost of medications either, so you would still need to pay full price for those. Any pre-existing condition will be covered, though.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Thanks for the information Lynn much appreciated!

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

You can go see a doctor of your choice and he will issue you with a prescription. Some farmacias will issue you with the same / equivalent if you can produce the box for medication which has been prescribed in the UK.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Is there a website that allows you to check which generics are available in Spain, and possibly check their prices?

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

.:: CIMA ::. Centro de información de medicamentos (aemps.es) Available in English. Can't find the price, but in Spain, drug prices for public health seem to be controlled and are much cheaper than in UK. Often about 1/3 or 1/4 of what you would pay privately in UK. This goes for medical service in general. Regular price for private consultation with a specialist is around 100 euro even without private insurance or £84, compared to £200 to £300 in UK.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

You can find information here. The document is 209 pages long but you can find some information how costs are calculated.
https://www.euro.who.int/__data/asse...-spain-eng.pdf

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Thanks, this is what I have been looking for. You simply type in the active ingredient and out comes a whole list of all approved/available products ("generics") that fill the bill. :)

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

I have private medical insurance with Sanitas.

I rang up today as I wanted to see a specialist.

I was given an appointment to see the specialist for an hour and a half later and the whole thing is now done and dusted and my concern abated.

Sanitas are super fast.

I have also used the national health service in Spain and all I can say is WOW! Impressive or what....

And when you go back to the UK and see what the NHS is like now, depressing..... It takes an ages to get seen to.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

If you want to list the meds you require, I am sure someone will be able to confirm over counter prices.
Most prescription medications are available as generics. In my experience, common meds can be cheaper than prescription charge in England.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

That all depends on where you live in the UK we have had no problems since we have been back in the UK

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Glad to hear that you haven't had any problems but that is not representative!

For that all you have to do is check the data for the NHS!

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-su...-data-analysis

You have underfunding, staff shortages with the overall impact of Covid all coming together to cause huge problems for patients needing treatment from the NHS!

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Not that I know of but your best bet is to phone/visit a local pharmacy and ask if you can buy your medication over the counter and without a prescription.

There is a whole host of medication you can buy without a prescription in Spain - same goes for Portugal.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Also not all pharmacies react in the same way. Some are more than happy to sell you things whilst another will do nothing without a prescription. Very much depends on the area. For example, if in a place that serves tourists they have a tendency to be more accommodating whereas one that serves locals, small towns, off the beaten track etc are more likely to say no.

Rosemary

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

Whenever I want to check the price of a particular medication I just type "precio de xxxx" into google and plenty of results come up.

But you could try this one for the Castilla La Mancha region (prices will be standard across Spain), if you type in the active ingredient instead of a brand name it should bring up any generics and it does give the prices as well.

https://sanidad.castillalamancha.es/...os/nomenclator

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

I agree, the Pharmacy in our town refused to even tell us if the inhaler the wife uses could even be purchased (being private don't want to pay a doctor for a prescription and then pay again).
We popped into the Pharmacy on the way to Alfaz and not only did they sell us one but the lady spoke good English even though I asked her in my bad Spanish.
Mind you it was €48.00

The local Urb is about 30% Uk and 45% Scandinavian so they are used to non Spanish customers.
They told us to come back there anytime we needed and they would see what they could do.

Re: Prescriptions in Spain
 

The Health Ministry made a lot of changes to the prices of medications at the end of last year. I was surprised, when I collected my first prescription of 2022 in January, that the price for the 4 items had dropped to €1.78 from the €2.08 they had been previously (as the dependent of a pensioner I only pay 10% of the cost). Just one of them, a statin I take, used to cost €28 a month when I was in the private system, then a cheaper generic version became available and the cost dropped by more than half.

https://www.lasprovincias.es/economi....google.com%2F