Public health care for everyone who lives in Spain

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. All people with Spanish nationality and foreign people who live in Spain are holders of the right to health protection and health care. This restores the universality that the 2012 rule had limited.
2. The Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare recognizes and controls this right, and access is made effective through the individual health card. Immigration bodies may share data without the person's consent to verify the requirements.
3. Foreign people who are not registered or authorized as residents in Spain have the right to health care under the same conditions as Spanish nationals, as long as there is no other coverage route, they cannot export the right from their home country, and no third party is required to pay. This care does not cover them outside Spain.
4. Foreign people who are not registered or authorized as residents will pay 40% of the retail price for medicines.
5. The rule defines who counts as insured and who counts as a beneficiary under international Social Security rules and for pharmaceutical copayments. Beneficiaries include a spouse or partner and dependent children under 26 or with a disability of 65% or more.
6. Special health care agreements held by people who now qualify for publicly funded care stop being valid at the end of the month when this rule takes effect. Articles 2 through 8 of Royal Decree 1192/2012 are repealed, and the rule takes effect the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Who it affects

• Foreign people without legal residence in Spain: They regain the right to public health care under the same conditions as Spanish nationals, and pay 40% of the price of medicines.
• People with Spanish nationality and foreign residents in Spain: They are recognized as holders of the right to health protection and health care.
• Dependent family members of insured people: A spouse or partner and dependent children under 26 or with a disability of 65% or more can be beneficiaries, under conditions.
• People who had a special health care agreement: Their agreement stops being valid when the rule takes effect, if they already have the right to publicly funded care.

Words worth knowing

Real decreto-ley (royal decree-law)

A rule with the rank of a law that the Government can pass urgently, without going through the full parliamentary process first.

Convenio especial (special agreement)

An agreement by which a person pays a fee to receive public health care when they do not have the right to it any other way.

PVP

Retail price, that is, what the medicine costs at the pharmacy.

Tarjeta sanitaria individual (individual health card)

A card that proves each person's right to receive health care and makes it easier to access services.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries