lcortez

Sorry for dredging up an old subject, yeeeeet agaaain,but here goes
Can I, if I choose, opt out of paying the Eur230 min each mth (or whatever it is),and instead go for private medical insurance, and still be legal as self - employed?

Have looked all over the internet for the answer,but came away even more confused than when I started out

SueG

Not as far as I am aware (but then again I could be wrong)

Beachcomber

No, you have to pay into the social security system as a self employed person. We have private medical insurance but have paid over €100.000 into the social security system since we moved here.

The other day, for the first time in nearly 25 years, my wife had occasion to go to the local ambulatorio, waited in a queue for over a half an hour only to be told that the (one and only) doctor had been called out and it was not known when he would be back. This in a town with a population of over 20.000 inhabitants.

Luckily we have the mobile number of the doctor we normally see when we go to a local private clinic (which was closed as it was the middle of the night) and he kindly agreed to provide the emergency treatment required.

I am tempted to say 'what a way to run a country' but I won't!

Econ

No you can't opt out, but... if you pay for 15 years you are then entitled to a basic pension, each year you pay in after that the pension will increase... if only by a little each year but it will increase. If your monthly payments are more than the amount you mention then the pension will increase more also relative to the extra you pay in.

lcortez

Thanks for all that looks like privates not really worth the bother then,just another quickie, does the monthly contribution cover your wife as well?

SueG

Yes and children

lcortez

Excellent,Eur 250 a mth seems like a good deal,pay a lot more NI than that a mth on my own,wife pays about that

Econ

The Spanish health service is relatively good compared to other EU countries 'I personally think way ahead of the UK in many ways' but it is now 'and has been' starting to suffer from demand as the UK health system did when it opened up to all so you may find some problems along the line that didn't exist before but in general it is still very good.

I also have private insurance, mostly because it saves any wait within the system for family doctor, it is also good as you can just pop into a private clinic if anything happens and don't need to worry about the SS clinics and waiting for treatment there. It's more of a convenience thing and considering it costs me just less than 3 months SS for the whole year I think it is worth having. The younger you are the cheaper it is of course, also being a male is cheaper than being female with Adeslas, there wasn't much difference when we where younger but now as we get older the difference widens, at the moment my wife pays about 80 euros more a year than me, when we started about 15 years ago it was about the same for each of us if I remember correctly.

Both my wife and I pay social security, maybe your situation may be different

lcortez

Think what I'll prob do is build up the business,whilst paying just SS,and then once established look into private,dont want to get too many overheads before poroperly established