Public insurance in Spain provides coverage for a broad spectrum of healthcare services, ensuring that residents have access to essential medical care. Basic healthcare coverage includes visits to primary care physicians, specialists, and emergency services. It encompasses preventive care, diagnostics, and treatments for various medical conditions.
Unlike in Czechia, the Spanish public insurance covers the health and also the social insurance and it is not mandatory to pay it. If you are unemployed and not actively looking for a job (being registered at the Labour office) and not paying the insurance, you still have access to the free medical care.
Finding any relevant information about the healthcare, conditions to be able to access it and what it covers was quite challenging because of the heavy marketing of private health care specialists and private insurance companies. Because of them, I thought that where was no free healthcare and I could not e.g. visit a gynaecologist without paying a fortune. All my colleagues were with some private insurance companies that had their own clinics and specialists.
After digging deep into it, making phone calls with various healthcare centres and asking around, I found out that dentists are probably the only specialists that are not covered by the public insurance (except for extractions and all treatments for kind).
Hospitalization and Surgical Procedures:
Public insurance in Spain also covers hospitalization and surgical procedures. This means that if a resident requires inpatient care or undergoes a surgical intervention, the costs are largely covered by the public insurance system. From minor surgeries to major medical interventions, the public insurance system in Spain is designed to alleviate the financial burden on individuals.
Prescription Medications:
Prescription medications are an integral part of healthcare, and in Spain, public insurance covers a significant portion of the costs. Residents can obtain prescribed medications at a reduced price or, in some cases, free of charge, making essential drugs more accessible to the general population. The only thing you need to do is to show your healthcare card to the pharmacist when you are buying the medicine. Especially, when you are a foreigner, the pharmacists tend not to share this benefit and during my first purchases I had to pay the full price as they probably considered me a tourist and didn´t think that I might have the card.
Maternity and Childbirth:
Spain places a strong emphasis on maternal and child health. Public insurance covers maternity care, including prenatal check-ups, childbirth, and postnatal care. This ensures that expectant mothers receive the necessary medical attention throughout their pregnancy journey, contributing to positive health outcomes for both mothers and infants.
Specialized Treatments and Therapies:
For individuals with specific medical conditions that require specialized treatments or therapies, public insurance in Spain often covers the associated costs. This includes treatments such as chemotherapy, physiotherapy, and rehabilitation services. The goal is to ensure that individuals receive comprehensive care tailored to their unique health needs.
How to start?
All you need to do is to get the social security number. It might seem pretty straight-forward but in many cases it is quite a painful process. Start with getting “empadronamiento” – register with the local authorities in the town or city where you live.
Social security numbers in Spain are often associated with employment or specific affiliations (such as self-employment). If you are employed, your employer may handle the registration process and save you from a lot of stress and paperwork. I tried hard to get it after graduating from a Czech university moving to Spain and signing up with the local Labour Office but without success. You really need to work here at least for a day and thus contribute to the system to be able to enjoy the benefits. However, if you are an exchange student, you can easily get it, too.
You can apply for it via the following link and finish all the process online https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Categorias/Altas%2C+bajas+y+modificaciones/Altas+y+afiliacion+de+trabajadores/Solicitar+el+numero+de+la+Seguridad+Social. You need to have you ID with you (you have to submit a photo of you holding it), an email address and fill the form that appears in the link above (modelo TA.1 Solicitud de Afiliación/Número de Seguridad Social).
Disadvantages
While public insurance in Spain covers a broad spectrum of services, it’s essential to acknowledge the bureaucratic hurdles and potential long waiting times for certain medical procedures. It is possible to arrange an appointment via an APP (GVA Salut) or a phone call, but the waiting times might be very long and the whole process overly bureaucratic. For example, when I wanted to get my wisdom tooth extracted, I needed to get an appointment with my GP first. I got the appointment in a few days and the doctor asked me a few questions, check my tooth and arrange me an appointment with a dentist one week later. The dentist just checked my tooth in two seconds and a prepared documentation for two more appointments -one for radiography and the other for extraction. I went with the docs to the receptionist and she offered me the earliest dates available – one in ca three weeks and the other in ca one month.
Arranging an appointment with a gynaecologist is faster. I needed to arrange an phone appointment with her first, which could be the very next day and she asked me about the reason for my intended visit and gave me the in-personal appointment within a week.
Another issue might be the language barrier since most of the personal don´t speak English. On the door of my healthcare centre in the city centre of Valencia, I even saw a note saying that they only attend people speaking either Spanish or Valencian.