Over 70-75 years old and not being able to get Private Medical Insurance in Spain is a common problem if you have medical pre-conditions.
Insurers cover themselves when they feel the risks are high. However, there is a solution. A policy by one of the top health insurance providers in Spain offers a policy to individuals over 70 or 75 years of age with health pre-conditions. Whether you are 78, 80, or over, there is a policy that you can contract.
The policy does have its limits but is well worth considering. Especially since many individuals pay over 500 euros for Helicopteros Sanitarios ambulance service, which has absolutely no hospitalisation coverage at all.
2 options for over 70 and over 75 s Health Policy
Option 1 – Full cover with no Excess on policy
- Hospitalisation and surgery with no limits
- Unlimited days in ICU
- Full access to advanced scans and tests
- Full oncology treatment
- Access to full list of specialists
Option 2 – Limited cover with No Excess on policy
- Hospitalisation when there is surgery with no limit to the number of days of recovery.
- Cover while hospitalized, and medication costs included after the first 100 euros.
- Covers three days in intensive care (ICU). This is very important as a bed in intensive care unit is 3 times the cost of a normal bed in a hospital. Three day cover in the intensive care unit will allow you or your family to plan your next step. You may want to be repatriated back to your home country if you have private insurance there.
- All consultations with Specialists are 100% covered with no limit from day 1 of policy.
- CT scan and x-rays are covered.
- Assistance in case of emergency in Spain or abroad (ambulance and call out doctor 100% covered).
- Lower annual increase than full coverage policy
- Having a health insurance policy in place, even with limitations, allows you to plan.
Whichever option you decide, having private health coverage in place will provide great peace of mind.
Over 70 and 75 Health Insurance for Residency or a Visa
Option 1 outlined above is what we recommend as a first choice option. This option is accepted for residency or a visa such as the Non Lucrative Visa or Golden Visa. As the policy has no limits the price will be slightly higher than option 2.
Option 2 is the more economical option as there will be limits on the policy. It will however work as well for any type of residency or visa as it has No Excess which is a requirement for a visa.
Having medical preconditions affects the price of the policy for this age range, therefore quoting will be done on a case by case basis if this applies to you. Feel free to contact us for a no obligation quote and we will advise the best solution for you.
Final tips when asking for a quote
Below are some tips to take advantage of when approaching an insurer or requesting a broker to source the best options.
- The number one piece of advice would be to request a quote for more than one person. Very often we see requests for one insured. It may be a case that the partner or other family members have been accepted by another insurer, but for the best chance of being accepted or being offered more preferable terms of cover, it helps to have other people on the policy.
- Provide as much information upfront to give a clear picture of your health. Of course if you approach an insurer directly this counts against you, but if you use a broker, proving all the information such as dates of an operation and names of medications, upfront will allow them to give the best advice quickly and recommend the right company.
- Showing commitment and being efficient in providing answers to questionnaires or sending over documents will help the broker or company. This does go against the usual way of doing business, whereby the companies are pushing a sale, but in this case the insurers in particular are not overly keen to take on high risk business. Therefore, the onus is on the customer to provide the proof that they are worth taking on.
- Lastly, it is very rare we see clients provide medical reports without them being requested. Insurers will not push to see these reports, but we highly recommend providing medical reports. The reason why this is important, is because if a precondition is described briefly, the insurer will look upon the condition at its worst and quote based on this. However, in some cases a medical report will explain that the condition is very well under control and therefore helps the insurers offer better terms.