Nicola brown

Hi, don't know if anyone will have any advice on this, but thought, no harm in asking! Off to Martos soon with my sister and my Mum, and have been looking at insurance for my Mum who is now 83! Since she travelled last 3 years ago, she has, unfortunately had a small stroke. There was no stay in hospital, but thought we should mention this to insurers. This has then spiralled the cost of her insurance from approx £100 to nearly £500!!! We are not into taking unnecessary chances, however we are wondering if we are overthinking this. I have read up on medical care in Spain and it states that as a member of the EU we are entitled to healthcare, and obviously she has her EHIC card. Whilst I was holidaying in Spain a few years ago, I broke my arm. I received amazing care, and only had to produce my passport. No insurance and no ehic card!!!! Obviously we want to play on the side of precaution, but £500 is an awful lot of money is she's eligible for medical care anyway. Any help or experiences would be very much appreciated. Cheers x

Rosemary

Nicola, I have moved this into its own thread and given it a new title because many people who could help you may not see it in the Jaen/Martos thread.

Rosemary

mikelincs

Your problem might come if something like another mini stroke happens, and she needs to be hospitalised, the EHIC card doesn't cover everyhting, and if she was in hospital for a couple of weeks and had to rebook flights, if there was some need for her to be repatriated for further treatment, that would cost an arm and a leg,, 4 years ago it was something like £10,000. So really it's up to you, either pay the money or take the risk. you certainly will NOT get treatment just by showing your passport anymore, you were very lucky that time.

EsuriJohn

We are retired and live on Costa Esuri Ayamonte and are Resident and tax resident with the S1. We are entitled to exactly the same care as a Spanish person. With the EHIC your mum would be too. Round here the care, agreed by everyone, and there are a lot of varied ailments some serious some trivial, is excellent.

The system is different to UK in our town all the "NHS" doctors are gathered together in one multi story clinic with X Ray facilities and emergency triarge bay with ambulance on standby. Get to the clinic and you are in the system they move you on to the hospital which in our case is 30 miles away in Huelva. The only problem is if you are out in the Campo and require transport an ambulance can take a long time to arrive so unless it was impossible we are agreed that we jump in the car and head for the clinic.

Now we are almost in the same position as you with an elderly Aunt who may visit in October she has been before and her insurance was £1k. We are undecided if it is worth it she may not come if she is feeling under the weather. However if she did come uninsured and was hospitalised the family are expected to help with the daily care, OK for us we live here not so easy for you on a time limited holiday. Finally the big one what if the worst happens. If Aunt died repatriations are very expensive several thousand pounds and the alternatives in Spain are expensive as well.