lynda32

Hi
Im just wondering if anyone knows if you can get private health care for someone who has had cancer? We used to live in Spain and were considering returning but my husband got diagnosed with cancer of the kidney and had his kidney removed. He no longer has the cancer as it was a tumour contained in the kidney and did not require chemo or radiotherapy. Im just wondering if this means our dream of returning to spain is over
We are scared incase it returned when we were back over there and he would have no medical care at all.
Hope someone can help.

whitelinen

Depending on your age (pensionable) and/or UK NI contributions you could be eligible for reciprocal health care. There is a scheme in Valencia provinces where you can pay monthly for state cover. I am sure someone will come along shortly with details and cost.

Unfortunately AFAIK no private health insurer covers former cancer patients.

Fred James

Just because you have/have had a serious problem does not necessarily mean you cannot get insurance. It just means that the pre-existing condition (and anything that might be connected with it) will not be covered.

It would be worth shopping around to see if you can get limited cover.

cricketman

There are rumours that the Spanish government is going to make healthcare "free" for all Spanish residents (i.e. residents of Spain) before the end of the year.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/socie...lpepisoc_3/Tes

Apparently there are about 100,000 Spaniards who fall through the healthcare security gap at the minute, so they want to make sure those are covered, and it wont cost much more as not that many are actually missing out

Not sure if they have included expats in their figures though!

Interestingly the article says you can still get state healthcare cover if you pay around 1800 euros per year into the system, sounds cheap to me.

snikpoh

It's 270 euros per quarter per person.

If you are in remission, private insurance schemes might cover this condition again (??)

LittleWeed

The Government has announced plans to introduce legislation in November to have a fully universal health care system. Foreign residents are included in group of 100,000 - 300,000 currently without access to the system and they are excluded on the basis as Spanish nationals. Although no details of the planned reforms have been released, the discussions over last few months have indicated that foreign residents will be included. Probably have to wait a while longer just to see exactly what the government plans are.

This could well affect the Valencia cuota scheme mentioned by other posters, so I´d think carefully before relying 100% on that scheme.

jdr

I will believe that when it happens, could be well complicated.
What would happen to all the pensioners that are residents and receiving cover from the UK ?
Amongst lots of other things all the EHIC cards would also have to be changed again after just changing recently.

lynda32

Thanks very much for all the replies. Certainly a few avenues to look down
thanks again