Health care

There is a competitive market for Private Health Insurance (PHI) between around 10 insurers. You start with an insurance broker.

Your insurer gives you a plastic card (much like a credit card), and this is the financial key through which your insurer pays for medical services.

Doctors and consultants write dockets for procedures/tests. You submit the dockets to your insurer. They issue approval documents which you take with you with your appointments. For more serious services (e.g. surgery) the admin is done directly between the hospital and the insurer.

If you gain Residency, your PHI will, in time, become your only source of healthcare. So accessibility and quality are important factors (not just cost).

My wife and I have our health insurance with DKV. My wife became seriously ill last year, and DKV have been absolutely fantastic. 

BUT we have had to travel to obtain treatment and tests, mostly to the Quiron Hospital in Murcia. We have also used (I think) 8 other medical facilities in Murcia, Elche and Torrevieja. 

This seems to be quite normal. We have met numerous other people "doing the rounds" - each having different insurers.

Into the detail .... insurers may quote the various clinics and hospitals that they use, but in reality, they pick and choose exactly what services they contract for at which hospital. So if your insurer's brochure says that they use (say) Quiron or IMED hospitals/clinics, the city you have to go to depends on the medical service you need.   

We use a GP in our village (not the health centre) and she acts as the gateway into the DKV system - and she is very good at it. 

Our local GP works with DKV (which may be why our local insurance broker recommended DKV). So it seems that the most important thing is to have an insurer who works with your local GP.

We have a neighbour who uses a different insurer. The nearest GP who works with that insurer is 50 minutes away by car.

Regarding cost ... We are 62/60. Our total cost is 1760 Euros per year. But last year my wife received (estimated) 100,000 Euros of treatment and we had to pay an extra 600 Euros. No complaints.

Hi, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I have had a few quotes, dkv being one of them. I will try to find out who out nearest gp is and also talk to the medical center. I don't want to be travelling miles if we become ill. We are very healthy and in out 50s but you never know what's around the corner... 

You are close to Murcia City ?

Murcia has a comprehensive system of PHI hospitals and clinics. We have used Hospitals Quiron, Mesa Castilla and La Vega, and several smaller clinics in the city.

DKV has a dedicated clinic in the centre of the city. 

Yes not far from murcia city. It was the first port of call ie gp that I was concerned about. We have our ehic card and as soon as I get to spain I will call into local gp and ask which insurance they deal with. Thanks