More On Expat Healthcare In Spain
December 5th, 2007 - Sandra MarshallFurther to my recent article “Healthcare For Expats In Spain”, another article in the Telegraph compared the healthcare provision for expats in various countries across the globe, and started off by touching on how generous the UK is!
“The curbs on EU citizens in France using its state health system is hardly unprecedented. Healthcare budgets across the western world are increasing disproportionately to other budgets. Thus, governments are seeking any means to stem the cash haemorrhage.
Britain’s NHS has long been regarded as a “soft touch”. Despite strict tightening of access rules in 2004, a Department of Health analysis early this month conservatively estimated the cost of abuse at £62 million a year. The actual figure is thought to be a lot higher.”
I find any article that I read which clarifies things like healthcare provision useful. This one is interesting in that it discusses the need for expats to report to a “Foreigners Office”. The part of the article relating to Spain is below.
“The situation in Spain is that non-working expats below retirement age are not given access to state healthcare in non-emergencies. However, Spanish provinces have a high degree of autonomy in running healthcare and some seem stricter than others in interpreting eligibility.
Spanish authorities have been irked by cases in which Britons have remained in the country beyond the “short term” in which the Ehic is valid then resorted to Spanish medical care.
New expats are now asked to report to a “Foreigner’s Office” or police station within three months of arrival to gain access to the system. But this does not alter the position of non-working retirees under pension age.
The Foreign Office advises some form of private health cover and urges people to think ahead, particularly in terms of care of the elderly. Provision is scant in Spain and care home places will probably be allocated to Spaniards.”
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