cancellable private health insurance for residency application?

[qe2ex]

The gestor company I'm dealing with says the private insurance that I need to show when applying for residency for my children has to be for a full year, and from a company based in Spain.

Since I will register my children under my own autonomo social security once my children have residency, I'm not happy paying for a full year of health insurance for my children if they will in practice only need it for a short time. I.e., from the time they apply for residency til they get residency and I can put them under my own social security. (Till then they should normally be covered by the EU health card that is valid for three months, as they like me are EU citizens.)

I contacted one Spanish insurance company. Sanitasexpat, and they say insurance cannot be cancelled midterm.

Reputable international insurance companies do not have this requirement (at least noe the one I used for a number of years), but the gestor company says the insurance company must be based in Spain, so I cannot use the William Russel insurance company, if my gestor is correct.

Does anyone have any tips for how I can avoid buying a full year of private no co-pay insurance for my children, only in order to be able to submit
their residency application so that I can subsequently put them under my own social security coverage?
The only way I can think of is to find a Spanish insurance company that allows one to cancel the insurance mid-term, and I'll continue looking at other Spanish insurance companies, but worry they all have this rule as it's of course quite an earner for them. Or does anyone have any other ideas, or know of a Spanish-based company that lets one cancel the insurance when no longer needed?

[El Cid]

The insurance companies are wise to this and most insist on a full year's payment. You may have to just consider it as the price you have to pay to become resident.

Keep looking - you might be lucky. In some areas they are not only insisting on you not having a co-payment, but also insisting that all pre-existing illnesses are covered as well, and that can be very difficult.

Sid

[Paddy Pumpkin]

My experience getting residency in Madrid was that they accepted international healthcare insurance. My wife had BUPA and I Had Axa PPP. They are both healthcare policies that allow you to live anywhere in the world (they are not travel insurance) .

As always it depends who you get at the desk. The guy at the desk checked in detail that the policy specifically included Spain as a covered country and included hspitalisation, but never bothered to see that they had 3k excess on the policy

They are however quite expensive but you could get them as they both have a fourteen day cooling off in which you can cancel the policy after you get residency for your children.

[El Cid]

Two points.

You could find it difficult to get a residency appointment within 14 days of taking out the insurance.

A €3k excess would not be acceptable in some areas. They are turning down people with a €1 co-payment.

As I said, the biggest problem in some areas is the cover for pre-existing problems.

PaddyP has summed it up perfectly - it depends on the disfuncionario on the desk on the day.

Sid

[elusive]

Presuming your child are minors? They are entiltled to free healthcare regardless. They dont need private healthcare. I would arrange yours via being self employed first then use that for them if needed for their residencia application.

[qe2ex]

They are minors, but according to gestor, they cannot apply for residency without health coverage at the time of application. And I cannot put them under my social coverage without them first having residency. An unfortunate catch-22 situation that I'm not sure what the reason for is.


It is interesting that someone managed to use an international health insurance, contrary to what my gestor claims. I'm not sure if that's just because the gestor has not tried it, or if their local experience here differs. Will ask more about it when the time is closer. Might be an option for me to buy from an international insurance company that allows cancellation and try, seeing if they can explicitly mention that Spain is covered too.
Worst-case is hopefully that I will have to cancel it, buy from a Spanish company, and apply for residency again with documents from a Spanish company the week after.

[elusive]

Welcome to spain. Im sure there must have been many people in your situation re kids healthcare and there being a way around it. If you are on F.B join citizen advice bureau spain group and ask the question there. i bet there must have been people on there who have been in the same situation and could advise. Personally id get a second opinion or just apply yourself or go to where you will apply and physically ask them.alot of them have a list of what they require.