tebo53

Hi all, Now that the UK government has decided to withdraw the S1 healthcare cover for early retirees in March next year, this now means that I need to sort out some private healthcare cover for my wife and myself from early next year to cover us for 2 years until I become officially retired in 2016 then I can get healthcare cover from the UK government.

I know it will be fairly expensive and need to do some homework so to get the best cover I can afford.

The Spanish health service sounds ideal for us but I understand that we need to be residents for a full year before we can apply for that.

I've been very pleased in the past with your suggestions on other subjects.

So who do you all recommend?

Lynn R

We use Prevision Medica and have been very happy with their service, but they only cover Malaga province and part of Cordoba province (don't know whereabouts you are planning to move to). We are currently paying €106 per month for a couple aged 63 and 57. As with other policies, this does not include the cost of any medication that might be prescribed other than that administered during a hospital stay, there are no co-payments involved for anything (provided you arrange cover directly through their website and not through a broker).

sam54140

Hi Lynn
what exactly does it cover on top of your Spanish social security coverage ?
anything that the ss does not cover/take in charge ?
dental included?
example: you have say, a dental implant. which covers what?.

thanks very much

Lynn R

We don't have Spanish social security coverage at the moment, being early retired.

Our policy doesn't include dental cover. We could have opted for that when we took it out for an extra monthly charge (I think it was €5 per month but that was 5 years ago, it could be more now) but we didn't bother. We've not needed anything other than a check-up and clean which costs €40, so the insurance would have been more expensive.

The policy covers all visits to doctors (including specialists), tests prescribed and hospital treatment (tests and treatment have to be authorised in advance by the insurance company) - subject to the usual qualifying periods for various kinds of treatment after you first take out the policy (which is common to all companies). We can also have a Well Woman type annual check-up, a Well Man type check-up and a cardiac check-up each year if we choose to.

jackytoo

As with other policies, this does not include the cost of any medication that might be prescribed other than that administered during a hospital stay,

An important fact. In complicated cases, cancer drugs etc. the cost can run into hundreds of euro pm.

agoreira

Yes, doesn't have to be private insurance either, if your dugs are not on the list, it can run into hundreds of pounds a month.
How does it work in Spain if you have a series of expensive operations etc, does it ever reach the stage where they won't insure you? Here in UK I paid PI for 25 years but after a couple of large operations they pulled the plug, refused to cover me for that problem. Easy enough for me, I simply dropped back into the NHS, how would that work in Spain? Would they still cover you, increase the charges significantly?