# Insurance before Residency



## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Hi. Has anyone needed to get health insurance before they qualified for residency? Please help.
We are EU residents, not EU citizens. We need to purchase new health insurance for our time in Spain--starting in October. We are retired and we don't know yet if we will qualify for residence in Spain.
18 months ago, we checked on buying insurance and were told that we could, but the timing didn't work out. Now we called one insurance company and the agent said we can't have insurance without residency. What would we do until then?
There's always plenty of misinformation out there, so we don't know what to believe. If anyone has gotten insurance for use in Spain before they had residency, please tell me what company. Thank you very much.


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## Phil Squares (Jan 13, 2017)

I don't know what insurance company you called, but I would say they are wrong. In order to obtain residency, you have to have medical insurance in effect when you apply for residency. It is kind of hard to do that given what the insurance company is telling you. 

If you are deadset on getting the insurance with that company, then I would call again and hopefully, they will give you the answer you need. Otherwise, ask them how you can approve you are covered if they will not cover you. 

We went with Sanitas and had o problems at all getting insured before we had residence. Just make sure you can't have any excess or deductible in the insurance and most Spanish insurances have coverage which is specific to expats seeking residency. 

We used an attorney in Madrid she used her office address as our address and there were no issues at all.


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## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Phil Squares said:


> I don't know what insurance company you called, but I would say they are wrong. In order to obtain residency, you have to have medical insurance in effect when you apply for residency. It is kind of hard to do that given what the insurance company is telling you.
> 
> If you are deadset on getting the insurance with that company, then I would call again and hopefully, they will give you the answer you need. Otherwise, ask them how you can approve you are covered if they will not cover you.
> 
> ...


Hi Phil,
Thanks for this info. It sure didn't make sense to me. There must be lots of people in the country at any time who don't have residence, lots who aren't applying for residence. If they aren't from the EU, they will need to have insurance.
I'm not sure what you mean by "excess or deductible". I mean, I know what a deductible is--are you saying Spain doesn't allow any deductibles, or that people who are applying for residency can't have a deductible? And what, please, is an excess in the insurance? We aren't finding that term in our searches and have never heard of it.
Is it necessary/best to use an attorney when applying for residency? Can you give me some idea how much that costs in Spain? (Not trying to pry, just a range will certainly do.) Since you are from Ireland, you were already an EU resident. We are also. Do you happen to know where to find the official rules for transferring residency from one EU country to another? I've only found "opinions" on third-party sites and I don't trust those.
We are not yet in Spain, so looking at insurance on the internet. Most companies (including Sanitas) are quoting their "Porsche" plans--coverage is wonderful, but over 1000 euros/month for each of us! It makes no sense because they don't ask for age or address or anything! We've tried having an agent contact us, but the form they use requires a phone number, which we don't have yet. (A friend called DKV for us, but I'm not sure our friend knew what to ask.) It's frustrating because our insurance runs out less than a week after we get to Spain. We will keep looking, of course.
Thanks very much for your help, Phil. Just hearing from a fellow traveler is a boost.


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## Juan C (Sep 4, 2017)

Dtravels. Just to make it clear are you saying you are a non EU national and not the spouse of an EU national ?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

DTravels said:


> Hi Phil,
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by "excess or deductible". I mean, I know what a deductible is--are you saying Spain doesn't allow any deductibles, or that people who are applying for residency can't have a deductible? And what, please, is an excess in the insurance? We aren't finding that term in our searches and have never heard of it.


Having an excess on any kind of insurance (eg for homes or cars, not just health insurance) is the term used in the UK for what in the US would be called a deductible, ie if the excess is €1k then you pay the first €1k of the cost of any treatment or repairs. 

It's quite common in Spain for health insurance to have no deductible/excess and no co-payments (ie having paid the monthly premium, you pay no additional charges to see a doctor or specialist) either. That kind of policy is the only one the Spanish authorities will accept for the purposes of applying for residency.

It need not necessarily be expensive. My husband and I have been insured with the same company for almost 11 years. He will be 70 in a few months' time and I am 63, our monthly premiums are currently €146 for the two of us, with no deductible and no co-payments. Last year I had heart valve repair surgery and the company paid 100% of the costs, including an 8 day stay in intensive care after the surgery. That is with a small company called Prevision Medica, but they only cover people living in Malaga province (and part of Cordoba province) in Andalucia, so may not be any use to you.

I note, however, that you say you are both retired. If you are already 65 or over when applying to take out a new policy, then the costs will definitely be higher. Our company is one of few which do not hike the premiums for existing policyholders when they turn 65.


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## Mforster (Mar 27, 2019)

DTravels said:


> Hi. Has anyone needed to get health insurance before they qualified for residency? Please help.
> We are EU residents, not EU citizens. We need to purchase new health insurance for our time in Spain--starting in October. We are retired and we don't know yet if we will qualify for residence in Spain.
> 18 months ago, we checked on buying insurance and were told that we could, but the timing didn't work out. Now we called one insurance company and the agent said we can't have insurance without residency. What would we do until then?
> There's always plenty of misinformation out there, so we don't know what to believe. If anyone has gotten insurance for use in Spain before they had residency, please tell me what company. Thank you very much.


My partner and I have health insurance coverage with Santis (mas salud) We were told that we needed private health coverage in order to apply for residency in Spain. I'm paying just under 100 euro per month. My partner is paying just over. It also gives us basic dental care.


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## Phil Squares (Jan 13, 2017)

As you are applying for residency, the Spanish government stipulates you can not have any deductible at all and no copayment. I can't remember the policy limits, but the insurance company can tell you, but it has to be above a certain Euro threshold to qualify. I know Sanitas has several policies which satisfy the government. 

We used an attorney in Madrid, only because of the fact my spouse was from the US and I have dual citizenship with the US and Ireland. So, I had to get my NIE first (Form for residency for EU citizen) and then she had to get her TIE (non-EU citizen). It was great, she took care of all the appointments, all the paperwork we needed and we had no issues at all. Even though the paperwork required is listed, it is not uncommon for the specific location you are using to ask for additional paperwork. 

At the time we were living in the UK and they wanted things such as our marriage license. At that time we had been married for 33 years and had our original paperwork. However, they want a certificate dated within the past 5 years. That proved a very cumbersome process to obtain due to the US process. But, with her help, we had no problems. 

To be honest I couldn't tell you what it cost us. I had to make one trip from the UK to Madrid to get my NIE, but my wife never set foot in Spain and the attorney had had my wife's card sent to her office in Madrid and then she forwarded it to us in the UK. The entire process took about 6 weeks for both of us. The most time-consuming thing was getting all the paperwork she required. We used someone from the list of acceptable translators in Madrid and it was a fairly expensive process give all the documents which had to be translated.


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## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Yes, Juan C. We are not citizens of an EU country. We do have residency (blue card) in an EU country. We are coming to Spain for the warmer winter and are thinking of transferring residency to Spain. We are not sure whether that is possible, we will need to ask in Spain.
In the meantime, we need insurance.
Thanks for your input.


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## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Wow, Phil Squares! That story is encouraging. Luckily we already have our marriage certificate apostilled, along with sooo much else. Apostille-ing (?) is such a crazy process.
Thanks so much for the info about the health insurance. We finally! found something affordable. I will make sure it does not have a deductible or copay!


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## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Thanks for the explanation, Lynn R. We'll make sure we get the correct policy.
Wow, that sounds like a great company, but we won't be in Andalucia. We spent a winter in Cordoba, which is lovely, but we want to go back to the Med and we found more affordable place in Valencia than Malaga.
We are both over 65, so we will pay more, but it's still less than what we've gotten before.


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## DTravels (Aug 30, 2019)

Thanks, MForster. You must be younger than we are.


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