PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR EXPATS IN SPAIN
Moving to another country is quite a step, everybody knows that. There are always a lot of diferent things to arrange and take care of, so we are not only talking about buying a plane ticket and done. As you can imagine if you are thinking about making that step or as you may know if you have already done it, you need a place to settle down, maybe rent a house or a room in some cases.
Next thing to think about is to find a job, we all need money to live right? I am not talking about how to get a job in Spain (that may be a matter for another article in the future) but, what we really care right now are all the things needed to do before applying to that job.
Main thing to do is the paperwork to be legaly setled down, here in Spain they call it “Residencia”. It is easy to have, but there are a few requests asked by the government for it, as it is writen at the BOE: ”They have, for themselves and the members of their family, sufficient resources so as not to become a burden for social assistance in Spain during their period of residence, as well as public or private health insurance that covers all risks in Spain.”
Health Insurance
That is where I will take my time to talk about it. In Spain social care is free for anybody who resides in the country, but years ago it ended up being a big burden for the country economy as many people came from abroad to take advantadge of it, so they could have their interventions and medical treatments with some of the best doctors in europe avoiding to pay the expensive costs in theyr native country. The way top ut an end to this situation from the spanish government was to make compulsory for expats to have a private insurance before their “residencia”.
But not any kind of insurance may work for that matter, if we go back to the BOE it may have the following conditions:
- 100% coverage of medical expenses, hospital and out-of-hospital through a medicalchart.
- No copayments.
- Without any limit of the amount of capital insured in its coverage in all national specialties.
- Emergency heath care outside of Spain.
I already talked about all the diferente kinds of health insurances available in spain in a previous post (link to the post here) That gets us to the main question about this whole article: how do I choose whisely and who can I trust for it? Because there are so many offers out there, specialy on internet, social media that will seem completely legit; and for sure most of them are, but you all may have those claims in your head right now as you read them: “cheaper than the others”, “extremely easy to buy”, “we charge you les tan the insurance you have right now”.
I’m not saying that those kind of promotions are trying to scam you, but the truth is that there is no fast and easy way you can just do online yourself. The best way to do it is through somebody who takes it’s time on you, finding exactly what you need according to your currrent situation (becouse no one is the same to another, neither are their situations or needs), and advises you all along the way before and after the selling so you don’t strugle with things that you may not comprehend in a country that things are different from the country you grew up in.
Only experienced professionals can provide the highest quality advice, since they do not only know the entire insurance offer on the market but also the type of service that the client will later receive. at ABR Correduria we are very proud of our team of experts in health insurance.
We have been advising our clients for 20 years and we have gathered an experience of thousands of cases that allows us to give you the best advice.