Ricmacca76

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

Rosemary

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

Ricmacca76

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

Regards
Rick

Rosemary

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

Ricmacca76

Thanks Rosemary

Lynn R

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.

Ricmacca76

Thanks for the information Lynn much appreciated!

missile

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.

spainrico

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-spain#healthcare

astera

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

Joppa

.:: 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.

Moses2013

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

astera

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.

agree_to_disagree

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.

missile

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.