Health Insurance / School question / Child benefit question

[neptuno3]

Hi all --

My husband and son are both EU citizens (Ireland). We are moving to Seville, Spain.

Questions:

1. Do my son and husband have to buy health insurance or are they covered under their EU citizenship?

2. We would like to place our son in Spanish-language state school. He will be 3 years old when we move there. Do the public schools start that young? If so could do you know of a public school (all schools I've found were private).

3. As Irish citizens we are entitled to Ireland's Child Benefit. Does Spain have a child benefit? If not will Ireland still give us the Child Benefit even though we live outside Ireland?

Thank you!

[mrypg9]

I'm no expert but UK Child Benefit is not payable outside the UK. As for health care you will be covered only for emergencies and will not qualify for regional health care until you have worked and paid into the system.

[jojo]

Child allowance is only payable if one parent is working/paying into the UK system AND living there (for more than 183 days), It doesnt matter where the kids are! And the money has to be claimed by the UK parent! Spain doesnt have child benefit, well not in the same way as the UK

Health care is covered by NHIC until you are residents in Spain. Then you can claim in Spain as long as you are paying into the Spanish system

As for schools, most schools in Spain have nursery schools attached, I dont know if you have to pay for them until they start "proper" school at 6 - but at 6, state schools are free - well apart from paying for books, stationary etc

Jo xxx

[mrypg9]

Originally Posted by jojo

Child allowance is only payable if one parent is working/paying into the UK system AND living there (for more than 183 days), It doesnt matter where the kids are! And the money has to be claimed by the UK parent!

Health care is covered by NHIC until you are residence in Spain. Then you can claim in Spain as long as you are paying into the Spanish system

As for schools, most schools in Spain have nursery schools attached, I dont know if you have to pay for them until they start "proper" school at 6 - but at 6, state schools are free - well apart from paying for books, stationary etc

Jo xxx

Do you know how long you have to contribute to get free health care?

[jojo]

Originally Posted by mrypg9

Do you know how long you have to contribute to get free health care?

No In fact I'm a bit hazy on the whole healthcare thing in Spain!! I should know shouldnt I!!!!


Jo xxx

[Seb*]

If you are not entitled for full NHS cover or it ran out (i think it was 30 months in spain), there are basically 3 to 4 ways to get health cover in spain.

1.) Fully employed, you pay into the spanish system
2.) Self employed (autonomo), you pay into the spanish system (expensive)
3.) Take out private healtcare, Sanitas is one of the most famous and cheapest providers in spain (there are different health plans available starting at 16 EUR a month for a 29 yrs old male, from there ramping up depending on cover)
4.) In the Valencia region you can buy into the public health sector, it´s not cheap and not for everyone

[youngagepensioner]

.............Or be a British State Pensioner or on long-term Incapacity Benefit from the UK when you and your dependents will be covered for full Spanish Healthcare by the Department of Work and Pensions.

[timr]

Hi, you qualify for health care from the first day you´re "on the system" - either as employed or self-employed.

In addition to the 3 main ways mentioned above, people qualify for free health in number of other ways. The most relevant one is a system called "sin recursos" (low income)). In theory at least, anyone with an income of less than around 7,000 euros qualfies.

The Government has announced plans change the current very complex system in November and make access to health care universal, so things may look different in a few months time.

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by timr

The Government has announced plans change the current very complex system in November and make access to health care universal, so things may look different in a few months time.

So do we really think that a country in Financial crisis and trying to introduce cutbacks is knowingly going to offer free healthcare to the millions of expats that are living here without a chance of getting it back from their respective governments?

[timr]

Originally Posted by Stravinsky

So do we really think that a country in Financial crisis and trying to introduce cutbacks is knowingly going to offer free healthcare to the millions of expats that are living here without a chance of getting it back from their respective governments?

Possibly. Hopefully, things will become clearer over the next couple of months. Estimates of the number of people currently excluded from the system vary between 90,000 and 276,000. Those figures include foreign residents. The cross-party agreements reached to date apply equally to Spanish nationals and foreign residents. Also bear in mind that the foreign residents are currently excluded from the system on exactly the same basis as the Spanish people. It´s not an issue of nationality. So if the Government includes the remaining Spanish nationals then it should follow that foreign residents also go through the same door.

The Government has committed to making these changes. It has support from all the parties in Congress and it is the only point agreed to date in the "Health care Pact". So this is going happen. At the moment it is a case of waiting for details to emerge before we see how foreign residents are going to be treated.