Im moving to spain SOON Residence in Spain how easy/hard is it to get

wether or not private healthcare is a requrement its advised anyway.

spain has lots of autonomous areas so the answers to your questions vary from place to place

what province are you looking to move to?

 I've got a plastic card that replaced the E11. It's valid in all EC countries and entitles you to equal treatment from the Spanish NHS

06 Feb 2013 19:16 by Johnmcmahon . 38 posts Send private message

 I've got a plastic card that replaced the E11. It's valid in all EC countries and entitles you to equal treatment from the Spanish NHS

You omitted the words " whilst on holiday " . If you live here it is illegal to use.

If you register for tax , under the reciprocal agreement it is likely that you will have to pay tax.

Dunno about Alicanti
Sounds a bit warm and spanishified if its inland.

You cant use your E11 in spain though if you become a resident.
That`s fraud.

You need to exchange it for the spanish health card after you show proof of income and all the rest of the garbles.

 I didn't know residents couldn't use the E11. I'm not a resident but I pay national and local taxes on my Spanish house. Am I breaking the law if I use my E11 card because I'm registered for taxes but not a resident ?

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/EHIC/Pages/about-the-ehic.aspx

The NHS is a residence-based healthcare system. Therefore, once you have moved permanently away from the UK you are no longer entitled to medical treatment under normal NHS rules.

However, if you're receiving a UK state pension or long-term incapacity benefit, you may be entitled to healthcare paid for by the UK. You will need to apply for form S1 (or an E121 if you are moving to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland), which you need to present to the health authorities in your new country of residence. You will then be treated on the same basis as a resident of that country.
To apply for your S1 or E121 contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or The Pension Service.

You cannot apply online for your UK-issued European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) if you live abroad. You must apply by post using form EHICE, which should be sent to you automatically with your S1 or E121. If you haven’t received an EHICE application, please contact the relevant organization.

• UK state pensioners contact The Pension Service on 00 44 191 218 7777
• UK long-term incapacity benefit recipients contact the DWP on 00 44 191 218 1999

so you are a uk resident Johnmcmahon or ireland or whatever

you can use your e11

Hi - the health service in the Orihuela area is excellent and if you get onto the Spanish system you definately do not need private health cover on top.

They keep changing the rules regarding eligibility for health care and the main ways of getting eligibility are either to work here and pay national insurance or be over 65.  From your post, neither will apply  to you, but if you have worked recently in the UK then you can get Spanish cover based on your UK contributions for up to 2 years.

I think at the moment you would need to pay privately, and if you have no pre-existing conditions then this is not too expensive.  The rules are changing constantly due to the crisis, so it would be a good idea to check the current state of play with the consulate in Alicante.

John, the E11 to which you refer was the E 111 but   quote “The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) replaced the old E111 in 2006.”

 Just a thought others might be mindful of.......

 The UK health card, mentioned by others on this thread, (the EHIC card), is , as has been stated by others, for the benefit of someone who is a UK RESIDENT only, and as soon as you take up Spanish residence is not valid for use, as the person is no longer entitled to medical assistance in the UK.

The other thing i feel that people should also be aware of, and often dont seem to be, is that the cover it gives is "treatment equal to the entitlement in the UK". People seem to think this entitles them to ANY medical assistance at any hospital or surgery in the foreign country (in this case Spain). This is not the case, as the "equal treatment" is treatment at a government run establishment, not a private hospital. As a fair proportion of hospitals in many countries are privately run the person requiring treatment may find this hospital is refusing to treat you and may ask you to go to a hospital run by the authorities, which often can be many miles away from where you actually are at that point.

The bottom line of this is if you are not a resident and have nothing other than the EHIC card for medical cover you may find you get treated as a third class citizen and declined medical treatment at many hospitals. The advice regarding this is take out some private medical cover also to ensure that sufficient medical cover is available when needed.

Happy Holidays! 

 Sorry for following Robert off thread.

Watch Benidorm ER on the TV, don't look like no 3rd class citizen treatment in that hospital, and they seem to be treating and respecting the dross of the UK.

Maybe not the same thing but i know one guy who had a brain tumour, they took him into St Jamie private hospital just outside Torrevieja, did the operation then transferd him to the new hospital, paid nothing, couple of weeks later his wife tripped over (drink) busted her shoulder, had that pinned and fixed in the new hospital, paid nothing.

I went with a friend to the clinic at La Siesta, appointment at 2pm, went in at 2pm, superb treatment showed their Spanish health card, never paid a penny. 

My wife had a tooth out in Spain, 40€, took the prescription dentist gave her for antibiotics to clear up any infection to the chemist, cost 2.50€ and gave us back the prescription in case we had to come back for more tablets, do you get antibiotics here?

In the clinic the doctors and nurses were walking about in clean fresh looking white tops and bottoms, crocs on their feet, clinic was spotless,  in the UK my doctor comes out in the same clothes he has just dug the garden in, or played with the dog.

Maybe a bit of track here. 

Hi there,

moving to Spain can be both exciting and daunting and the red tape and rules can be overwhelming, I would really recommend that you look at the British Embassy website called UK in Spain for clear advice and also consult a solicitor, accountant or gestor as the various Regions of Spain are all autonomous there are some slight variations on how the rules are applied or interepreted.

Before we moved out we consulted with a company called Advoco (English speaking) they gave us free advice and now we use them for my husbands business and our personal taxes etc. and their services have been top notch.

Fiscal residence (where you pay tax on your income) and your country of residence are not the same thing, though they are connected. As I understand it these are the new rules:

1)  Country of residence is established if you live in Spain for at least 3 months without a significant break (3 months I think) Until recently it was an easy matter to apply for residence in Spain and get your Residencia papers.  But the rules changed and now before residence is granted you have to prove that you either qualify for health care as a state age retirement pensioner, have a job which will cover NI contributions or that you have a business that will generate enough income to cover at least the €250.00 monthly compulsory Spanish NI contributions plus living costs for self employed people. If you cannot do any of these things you either have to prove you have sufficient savings or income from an early pension to cover private treatment for you (and all the family members you bring with you) or you must have private health insurance. (The Embassy website confirms all this)

People of below state pension age who were already resident when the rules change can get healthcare if they have been working and paying contributions or if they register as unemployed, in my friends case all but basic emergency treatment was witheld until he registered as unemployed.

2) Fiscal residence -  The country where you pay your tax is determined by several things - if it is a pension special rules might apply to allow you to pay tax in your country of origin or where the pension is paid from. But if you are a Spanish resident as in item 1, and you work and earn your income in Spain (even if your actual clients are elsewhere) you will probably be a fiscal resident in Spain

Neither 1 nor 2 above is a matter of personal choice (the taxman who visited my husband who is self employed wanted to know who his clients were, which countries their businesses were based in and why we had chosen to live in Spain when, at the time he had no Spanish clients but had clients in USA/Australia/Czech Republic/UK/Greece and many other countries - The taxman accepted his explanation and issued a special certificate which confirms that my husband is a fiscal resident in Spain and should pay his taxes here)

Plenty of people have manipulated the systems in the UK and Spain to get the best of both worlds, but I think the Spanish authorites are tightening up their processes in direct correlation to the shortage of money for things like health and benefits, and the same in the UK too.

My experience of the Spanish health service has been excellent, it is very efficient and professional and the staff with one exception have been kind, committed professionals. That said I have had to produce my Spanish health card for every single appointment, including visits to the ER.

Hope this helps clarify thingsand best wishes for your move to Spain and all the adventures to follow

All these posts with the dificult details make it look impossable!

Welcome to Spain! Its all ging to work out for you.

Hi in answer to your question about how to obtain a Spanish health card, to the best of my understanding you have to be either working legally and paying NI and tax, self -employed and paying tax and NI or be registered unemployed (assuming you meet the criterion) If you are state retirement age you also get cover but not sure if it is the same type of card.

My husband is self -employed and pays tax and NI here in Spain. We obtained our Spanish health cards by firstly registering as self -employed with the Social Security office, once you have completed the paperwork including the Direct Debit authorisation to pay €250.00 per month NI, they give you some forms to take to your local health centre. The health centre then processes your application and gives you temporary documentation until your plastic card arrives.

Initially I was self-employed too and had a health card issued based on my own tax and NI contributions but when I closed the business,  I became covered for health care and basic pension contributions on my husbands record.

On the back of the card, it says "This card permits access to all the services of the National Health System" I have to produce it for every Dr's appointment, specialist appointment, nurse appointment and to get subsidised prescriptions.

This morning I got 3 items on prescription and 3 non prescription items and the cost was €12.60 for the whole lot.

Hope this helps :)

Hi again

In answer to your original question I am posting 2 links to the UK Embassy website which covers the issue of how easy/difficult it now is to obtain residence and health care in Spain.

Based on my experience and hearing the experience of many other ex-pats here, I would urge you to take care and plan your move carefully,

As many others on this Forum have pointed out  Spanish bureaucracy can be so slow  to get started so at first, though it appears as though things are very easy going,  but when and if officials catch up with you and /or decide to enforce the letter of the law - they are absolutely tenacious and fastidious.

I really hope you can find your way round the system and make the move to Spain - but I would hate to think you are in any way mislead into thinking that these days you can just turn up and it will all somehow work iteslf out - this might have been true years ago but not anymore.

http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-spain/residence-req/

http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-spain/access-healthcare/healthcare/