Private Insurance in Spain (and why you need it)
If you’re a foreigner coming to Spain from a non-EU country, you’ll need to get private Insurance as part of your Visa Requirements. Spain requires you to be self-sufficient for healthcare, thus the need for private health insurance. So if you’re applying for the Spanish non-lucrative Visa, Golden Visa, Digital Nomad Visa etc you’re going to need to get a private insurance policy initially as part of the visa requirements.
Your private health insurance policy will have to be valid for at least 1 year. After that one year, you have the option to buy into Spain’s public health system (under a scheme called Convenio Especial). More on that later.
Advantages and Cost of Private Insurance
Many people, like us, continue with Private Insurance while living in Spain. Why? The advantages of private insurance include:
- Faster and easier access to healthcare
- More options of doctors and facilities (for foreigners that often means access to health facilities that are bilingual)
- Faster test results
- Additional coverage (we were surprised for example, to find out that our dental cleanings were included in our insurance policy)
- Coverage abroad. Our insurance policies allow us 3 months of coverage when outside Spain. So when I visit my mom in Mexico every year I’m covered.
- Repatriation back to your home country if you pass away.
Cost of private insurance
The cost of your private insurance will depend on your age and various health factors. Generally, it’ll be somewhere between 50 – 200 Euros per person per month.
Where to buy Private Insurance?
We got our private insurance when we came to Spain on our 2020 scouting trip. It required us going to an Adeslas office and filling out paperwork. And then we were told we needed a Spanish bank account in order to finalize the contract. It was all complicated and stressful.
Knowing what we know now, we recommend getting your private health insurance online with Innoinsure.
- They deal with some of the best insurance companies operating in Spain including DKV, Asisa and Adeslas.
- Their policies are all compliant with the requirements of Spanish Visas (Non-lucrative Visa, Golden Visa, Digital Nomad, student Visa).
- You can apply online (you don’t have to be in Spain) and pay using foreign credit and debit cards. No need for a Spanish bank account.
- If you have issues or questions you can write Ciaran at [email protected]. He’ll help you out with your application.
You’ll have your insurance certificate within 3 days and can use your insurance at a local hospital within a week. It’s that easy.
Convenio Especial (and why people buy-in to the Public Health system)
As mentioned up top, after a year in Spain, foreigners have the option to buy-in to the Public health system (the Sistema Nacional de Salud or SNS). The buy-in scheme is called Convenio Especial. The cost? 60 Euros per month when you’re under 65, 157 Euros per month when you’re over 65.
The big advantage to Convenio Especial is that it includes all pre-existing conditions. So if you have diabetes or had cancer or heart problems then you’ll probably not qualify for private insurance. But with Convenio Especial you won’t be rejected and will get health treatment no matter what. And although healthcare under private insurance is better, Spain’s public health system is considered among the best in the world.
More on Convenio Especial here.
So Private Insurance or Convenio Especial?
If you’re a national from a non-EU country, you’ll need private insurance in your first year. After that you can continue with private insurance or buy-in to Public Health care with Convenio Especial. Either way you’ll be paying for healthcare.
So what to do?
Really, it’s depends on a few factors.
Many Spanish actually get some form of private insurance to go along with their coverage under Public Health Care (I’ve read that up to 25% of people get private insurance in Spain). Private Insurance coverage is just better and covers you for more than Public Healthcare.
Cost. At our age (late 50’s), there is no significant cost difference between private insurance and buying-in to Convenio Especial. As I mentioned, we’re paying 65 Euros/month for private insurance vs 60 Euros/month that we would pay for Convenio Especial. But as you get older, the cost of private insurance goes up and up. At a certain point, the 157 Euros/month for Convenio Especial (when over 65) might be most cost effective. At that point we’d have to weigh the costs vs the benefits received under private insurance.
Anyone with pre-existing conditions may not have a choice: private insurance may not cover you depending on your condition. But you can still get excellent healthcare in the public system by buying-in with Convenio Especial.
More here: Health Insurance and Healthcare in Spain Explained
Related: How to exchange and transfer large sums of money to Spain
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