A neighbour of mine has paid autonomo contributions for 17 years, and has now stopped. He was told he is not entitled to any "paro" (dole) for 12 months, after which, if he is still not working, he may receive some benefits, but not sure how much or for how long.
Furthermore, he found after 3 months his health care entitlement was cancelled. I know of this happening to others as well. There seems to be a big grey area on this particular subject. The "rules" on such things seem to vary from one region of Spain to another. It would be good to know what the real situation is. Personally, I don't believe that a Spaniard who has worked for years, and is made redundant, would lose their health care entitlement, so by the same token, it would surely be unfair, to say the least, if a self employed person had to wind down their business due to circumstances beyond their control, and lose this entitlement. In all the cases I've heard, the person involved has been a non-Spanish, EU citizen permanently resident in Spain. Could it be one rule for them, another for us? I hope not.