# Rx vs. OTC



## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

My first post! A quick introduction. My wife and I have begun the process of relocating to Spain. We both love the country and she lived in Barcelona for many years. I´m a US citizen. She has dual UK and US citizenship. Makes for an interesting immigration situation, but that´s another story. We both have permanent residency in Mexico, where we have lived in Cancun for almost 12 years.

We both take the usual geezer medications: blood pressure and statins, plus she´s on thyroid medication and I am a very well controlled Type II diabetic, no injections needed.

Medical care in Cancun is world class and with the exception of certain narcotics and all antibiotics, medicine is over-the-counter, no prescription needed. Of course if or when your physician prescribes a medication you present it at the pharmacy, but they only keep the prescription if it´s for one of the legislated drugs. Since packaging in Mexico is limited to small quantity blister packs, if one needed a new prescription for every refill it would be a major pain.

Can someone fill me in on how this works in Spain? I obviously have many more questions, but I´ll try not to saturate the group. I´m the admin of an expat forum in Cancun, so I´m sensitive to these things. Thanks in advance for any information. 

PS - I´m familiar with the Vademecum site (newbies can´t post links) but it does not seem to address the questions I´m asking.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

meelzel said:


> My first post! A quick introduction. My wife and I have begun the process of relocating to Spain. We both love the country and she lived in Barcelona for many years. I´m a US citizen. She has dual UK and US citizenship. Makes for an interesting immigration situation, but that´s another story. We both have permanent residency in Mexico, where we have lived in Cancun for almost 12 years.
> 
> We both take the usual geezer medications: blood pressure and statins, plus she´s on thyroid medication and I am a very well controlled Type II diabetic, no injections needed.
> 
> ...


:welcome:

Unless your wife has a state pension from the UK & therefore can access state healthcare here, you will need private insurance.

Your doctor will issue prescriptions for however long a duration as s/he feels appropriate. Since it will be a private prescription you will pay full costs for the medication, as if you were buying it OTC.

If it's available without prescription then you can just buy it as you need it.


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## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

Thanks for the quick reply. Cost is not an area of concern. My pension package includes complete medical, vision, dental and pharmaceutical coverage, without international restrictions. I am very fortunate to have been a member of a very strong union with excellent benefits. My singular concern here is the availability of the drugs we need and whether we need to get prescriptions for them on a repeated basis.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I have had private prescriptions issued here in Spain (including for statins), and the pharmacy has always given me back the prescription, so I presume you can use it as often as you like (although maybe not for certain medications like anti-biotics, as you referred to). In the case of the statins, my private prescription was not dated, so I just took it to the pharmacy and got a new month's supply.

I suppose, in theory, there would be nothing to stop you taking the same private prescription to a number of different pharmacies and collecting the same medication from each.

My state healthcare doctor later gave me a prescription for 9 months for the same medication, but I still have to collect if from the pharmacy one month at a time, and just get a new prescription after the 9 month period has expired.


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## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

What you will discover is that there are many types of Meds here OTC, in the States are prescription only. (Just another way for the pharmaceutical companies and medical system to rip us off. Anyway, even at full cost the Meds here are much cheaper than in the US. For example, Nexium costs around 12€ a month here and about 5 or six times that in the US. The good thing about here is that the very same companies supplying the US also supply the EU but can't spend billions lobbying Congress. There are also tighter cost controls. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Develop a relationship with your pharmacist and ask them about what is and what is not prescription. Also the need for private healthcare insurance would be a requirement for the first year of residency. You can then subscribe to the Spanish care system called Convenio Especial for a cost of around 60€ for under 65 and about 150 for over that age with no preexisting clauses.

I always use my scripts repeatedly.


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## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

Thank you!


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## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

Elyles said:


> What you will discover is that there are many types of Meds here OTC, in the States are prescription only. (Just another way for the pharmaceutical companies and medical system to rip us off. Anyway, even at full cost the Meds here are much cheaper than in the US. For example, Nexium costs around 12€ a month here and about 5 or six times that in the US. The good thing about here is that the very same companies supplying the US also supply the EU but can't spend billions lobbying Congress. There are also tighter cost controls. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Develop a relationship with your pharmacist and ask them about what is and what is not prescription. Also the need for private healthcare insurance would be a requirement for the first year of residency. You can then subscribe to the Spanish care system called Convenio Especial for a cost of around 60€ for under 65 and about 150 for over that age with no preexisting clauses.


Thank you. The costs in Mexico are similar, for the same reasons. I had a brief, 6 year career in the medical business and even then (early 1960´s) Big Pharma was busy ripping off the American people. It´s only gotten worse since. Question: What would I need to demonstrate that my wife and I have more than adequate insurance coverage upon our arrival? I would resent having to buy duplicate coverage.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

Diabetes meds, thyroid, blood pressure, statins - in my family we have just bought them OTC once we've been prescribed them (we have private insurance) without showing anything. Most of these meds are cheap. As long as you know what you need, you'll be fine. Having raised a family and nursed a cancer patient, in my experience the only items that they will insist on a prescription for are Valium or stronger opiates and antibiotics. But sometimes you do get a stuffy pharmacist who won't oblige. You then go elsewhere.


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## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

Madliz said:


> Diabetes meds, thyroid, blood pressure, statins - in my family we have just bought them OTC once we've been prescribed them (we have private insurance) without showing anything. Most of these meds are cheap. As long as you know what you need, you'll be fine. Having raised a family and nursed a cancer patient, in my experience the only items that they will insist on a prescription for are Valium or stronger opiates and antibiotics. But sometimes you do get a stuffy pharmacist who won't oblige. You then go elsewhere.


Thank you. Since I do have training, albeit ancient, I generally write down what I need with the correct medical terms (TID, PO, etc.) and never get questioned. I have even had pharmacists call me doctor. I do have the degree, it´s just not in medicine. But they don´t have to know that, right?


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

Madliz said:


> Diabetes meds, thyroid, blood pressure, statins - in my family we have just bought them OTC once we've been prescribed them (we have private insurance) without showing anything. Most of these meds are cheap. As long as you know what you need, you'll be fine. Having raised a family and nursed a cancer patient, in my experience the only items that they will insist on a prescription for are Valium or stronger opiates and antibiotics. But sometimes you do get a stuffy pharmacist who won't oblige. You then go elsewhere.


This isn't the case everywhere. In my area _all_ the pharmacies require a prescription for everything except for normal OTC medications. They also stamp the prescription with the date when it's used (and then hand it back), and the next time you take the prescription in they check the date stamp to make sure you aren't buying your medication too soon. There are also certain types of prescriptions that they actually keep and are not reusable. I'm talking about prescriptions from private doctors, by the way. Prescriptions from state doctors are computerized and are put onto the computer chip on the health card. 

I'm not sure why there are such strict controls in my area, but there are. So people should be aware that they may not be able to stroll into a pharmacy just anywhere and buy medication prescription free.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

meelzel said:


> Thank you. The costs in Mexico are similar, for the same reasons. I had a brief, 6 year career in the medical business and even then (early 1960´s) Big Pharma was busy ripping off the American people. It´s only gotten worse since. Question: What would I need to demonstrate that my wife and I have more than adequate insurance coverage upon our arrival? I would resent having to buy duplicate coverage.


Unfortunately, when you apply for residency the usual requirement is that you have medical coverage from a _Spanish_ insurance company. But you might get away with what you have, depending on how strict they are at the foreigner's office where you apply.


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## meelzel (May 13, 2016)

kalohi said:


> ... I'm not sure why there are such strict controls in my area, but there are. So people should be aware that they may not be able to stroll into a pharmacy just anywhere and buy medication prescription free.


Thank you for the information. Could this be because of a difference in state regulations?


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

meelzel said:


> Thank you for the information. Could this be because of a difference in state regulations?


I live in the same state (not called a 'state' but an 'autonomous region' here in Spain) as other posters who say they buy without a prescription. So no, it's not a matter of different regulations. As I said, I don't know why things are different in my area. Maybe there's a regional supervisor who is more vigilant than in other areas? 

At any rate I don't know how they carry out a control over the sale of prescribed medications, considering that pharmacies usually return prescriptions to the patient.


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## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

kalohi said:


> Unfortunately, when you apply for residency the usual requirement is that you have medical coverage from a Spanish insurance company. But you might get away with what you have, depending on how strict they are at the foreigner's office where you apply.


 You will get away with what you have but must submit an official Spanish translation with an aposhilla (official Spanish government translation) You will need a few of these one from your company pension, one of your marriage certificate and perhaps your bank as well. As long as the policy states specific coverage in foreign countries, you are ok. There is no requirement for insurance from a Spanish insurer. Sanitas is not a Spanish company and we used it to start with. You can get everything done on-line. The translations must be younger than 90 days. You can get it done here since you have 90 days to start the process and don't need the translations till you apply. The certificates you have must be originals (birth certificates, marriage license, etc) Now, if applying for a visa in the US, you will be required to do everything then. I would contact your financial institutions because they might provide official documents for you for free as well. Ours did!


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